Munroe;681776 Wrote: > Regarding DACs for the Squeezebox Touch, I am a new owner of one and > trying to decide on whether a DAC is the way to go, as I am primarily > running the analog out to my CA 650A to Focal 716V speakers. Do most > people use the SBT stock and then send that signal to the DAC or is it > tweaked via HW and SW first? > > Does it make any difference one way or the other? I love the unit > personally, found it a little muddy "out of the box" compared to that > of my Cambridge 640C V2 when playing a CD of the same lossless music, > but I applied the suggested toolkit 3.0 tweaks and find it comes far > more in line with what I am accustomed to, perhaps more so, which is a > plus. Unfortunately, after the tweaks, I lose some of the features > that is nice to have, like the display screen. > > My thinking is that using a quality DAC, like the Moon 100D, will clean > up the signal before it gets to the speakers regardless if any tweaks > are applied, if it's bit perfect digital out. > > I am no expert on DACs, or Squeezeboxes for that matter, but a nudge in > the right direction or clarifying where I am mistaken is appreciated, as > I have 0 experience with external DACs, and the Touch, so I am trying to > make an informed decision as to not potentially waste my money on > redundancy.
No way of knowing the answer, but I'd say MOST users of the TOUCH use it without modification and without an external DAC. I use both my TOUCH players connected to external DAC (a Benchmark DAC I in one case and the one in my Home Theater setup in the other). I've made no mods to my touch units and find they sound better than CD players I've heard that cost many thousands of dollars. Out of curiosity I've tried the TT3.0 tweaks talked about on this forum. Somewhat different sound, yes, definitely *better* sound, no. In your case, regarding preference for the CD player over the stock touch, do keep in mind that many CD players are a bit "hotter" in terms of volume as compared with the TOUCH. To really do a valid comparison you need to use a sound meter to make sure you are comparing the two with exactly the same volume (even tiny volume differences can make the louder one preferable). Also, in any comparison, make sure that you've set the TOUCH (via Settings > Players > audio) to NOT use replaygain tags and make sure the TOUCH digital volume is set to 100% (the digital volume is handled very well in the TOUCH in 24 bits, but if it is below 80% you might get some audible degradation). And of course I assume you are using FLAC files to compare to CD, not mp3/aac files. Keep in mind that most people here, and other audio forums, don't have a clue about what jitter really is and whether their tweak actually does anything to improve jitter. "Jitter" is thrown around as the boogyman in lots of audio arguments with no engineering or scientific basis. Unless something is seriously wrong with your audio chain or it is a really old (or badly designed) DAC, the odds of you having audible issues because of jitter are about zero. But if you decide to "drink the koolaid" you can tweak your Touch from now on after reading the daily report of the "staggering improvement" to audio from the latest tweak. In my personal opinion, it does the TOUCH a disservice for new users to come here, read the "audiophile" posts, and then come away thinking that they can only get high quality sound from a TOUCH if they do lots of software mods, take apart the TOUCH and remove caps and do some soldering, add linear power supplies, and run "optimizer" network programs on their computers running LMS. None of this is necessary. Think of it this way. One can purchase a high performance Porche that is a beautiful driving machine. Are there things that can be done to it to make it better. Of course. But these are mods that take it from 97% to 98%. Doesn't mean that the stock Porche wasn't very, very good as is. -- garym *Location 1:* VB Appliance 6TB (1.10) > LMS 7.7.1 > Transporter, Touch, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) *Location 2:* VB Appliance 3TB (2.0) > LMS 7.7.1 > Touch > Benchmark DAC I, Boom, Radio w/Battery (all ethernet except Radio) *Office:* Win7(64) > LMS 7.7.1 > SqueezePlay Retired: SB3, Duet Receiver Controllers: iPhone (iPeng), iPad (iPengHD & SqueezePad), CONTROLLER, or SqueezePlay 7.7 on Win7(64) laptop Ripping (FLAC) - dbpoweramp, Additional Tagging - mp3tag ------------------------------------------------------------------------ garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=92801 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
