Squeezebox

I would say that while the standard digital outs on the SqueezeBox are OK, to get the best out of it you really need a decent PSU, and an external DAC. Once these are sorted there really is very little to beat it as a source... then all you have to worry about is the amplification and speakers!

 

All of this stuff is covered with the SONOS controller. I have all of my uncompressed music on a RAID 1 (mirrored) 1Tb NAS drive. My iMAC is switched off when I listed to my Ripped music. I have a SONOS ZP80 connected via Wireworld Toslink into a Reimyo DAP-777 and it sounds fantastic. In my lounge I have a ZP100 going into B&W XT2 / MJ Pro 50 Sub ... I am about to add further zones in the kitchen and master bedroom.

 

i use a PC based server with twin hard disks in a mirrored configuration, this connects wirelessly to my router and hence squeezebox which is connected via a digital cable to a cyrus dacX and the result is very very good indeed. Every bit as good as the cyrus CDXT when i tried it.

Im about to experiment with an upgrade power supply as my mate bought one, so will loan it to me to try.

 

similarly I use an sb3 with a huge psu [150va tranny 20000uf of small caps schottkied ] difference is not subtle over the nasty wall wart, this feeds dax decade ......against the quad99cdp2 its better, but with the quad into to the dax the qaud marginly has it but however I try to squeeze two cd's into it, it will still only play one at a time rather than the 18000 tracks the sb3 can. The down side is its occasional refusal to talk to the computer.

 

good news is my friend is bringing my sb tomorrow.
bad news the manufacturer did not pack the european power supply , despite the note asking for it in the internet order...so I wont be able to play with the gadget until I get some replacement thing...I looked at some universal ones...
hope it is going to work.

 

build a linear .....5vdc 2amp farnel and rs have a number of options ...there streets ahead of the supplied sm thats also going to pollute the rest of your system with rfi .

I've built a number of these for sb3 owners with great results....you just need a decent case....if you need any help pm me

 

got squeezebox

Thanks for all your advice
I was really delighted with the performance of the SB, when played via Lavry dA10 dac.

I did not like the direct analogue output much...My Hegel power amp and monitors with ribbon tweeters are quite revealing and the direct route did not fit too well with the system.
The sound was bad particularly on bass, any pedal on the piano playing a deeper tone seemed to burst into a splush of mud.

With a dac, it was hard to distinguish it from very pricey transports...even my beloved lyngdorf cdp 1.

My music folders are messy, any advice on what kind of structure makes it easiest for the SB to index the music? thanks.

 

Whilst It's easy to see why people would want to use devices such as SB etc I have to say they're not for me-1 because my music collection is so large and transfer would be a pain in the a***, 2 because I have experienced the true finite and fundamentally unreliable nature of Hard Drives, 3 sound quality-yeah it's 'good' but not good enough to my ears-yet.4. I like Albums, I like Cd's, I like books,real photographic prints-real tangible 'things'.
@Dev
"52 % of young people bought CD's last year" sounds like a lot of people buying cd's to me.

 

...and this is it, in a nutshell IMO.

the move to ipods, computer audio in general is as inevitable as the decline of vinyl. you either make the most of it, or not - up to one and all.

 

How do I know if my sb is second or third generation? thanks

 

Hi coolguy, do you mean a SB1, SB2 or SB3?

They looked very different.

a 3
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue29/images/squeezebox3.jpg

a 2
http://www.abxzone.com/abx_reviews/fraoch2/images/2.jpg

can't find any pics of a 1.

 

V1 looks the same as V2, the quality of display gives it away.

 

thanks, I obviously have the SB3, I saw nothing on the web to tell me which SB I have. It does not seem to be a part of the official name.
Mine has Logitech on it..a bit of a shame maybe, I like the idea of Slimdevices more, but its a proof of date of purchase...