Phil Leigh;662872 Wrote: > I wasn't being "cynical", merely pointing out a fact. The whole reason > the SB line of products exist is to absolutely avoid having to use any > kind of PC as a "player" or audio source. > > The Touch as a player sonically exceeds what is generally possible with > a computer connected to a DAC via USB or s/pdif. The server software > essentially transmits TCP packets to the player and thus the server > computer only has to behave as a computer (which it is very good at) > and not as an audio source (which it is usually rather poor at). This > means that the considerations of things like Amarra are irrelevant to > the SB experience. The server operating system and hardware simply > isn't any part of what you hear. > > SBS integrates with iTunes (sort of) and the two can co-exist. SBS can > play AIFF files (although most "Mac people" would use ALAC). > > To summarise; using Squeezeplay gives you a vague idea of what the > system is capable of in terms of functionality (although really you > need to use iPeng or Squeezepad on an iPad/Phone for the fully > immersive UI experience). However, audio quality is not usually > comparable; Touch with internal DAC or external DAC will exceed what > most people can achieve with Squeezeplay and a computer. > > > Squeezeplay will never be released as a finished commercial product > AFAIK. It will continue to have very limited capabilities compared to a > hardware player.
Ehh sorry then. That is actually the kind of information I was looking for. Went ahead and ordered one from Amazon yesterday, it should be delivered today. :) I probably fall in that mid-level camp, where I can hear differences between DACs - even relatively expensive DACs. (I use a Wavelength Proton here, which is considered inexpensive in some circles. :) I also own Amarra, Pure Music, and a few other players. They all sound pretty good, but they all seem to have issues with stability. Especially so when my wife and daughter want to listen to music. My daughter is a "special child" who gets frustrated very easily. She also picks her music visually, but the cover art. Usually on an iPhone or iPad with the remote.app. What attracts me the most to the Touch is that it can handle hi-res music files (24/96 at least) and will stream the music Bit Perfect, which makes me happy. And it supports a nice interface on the iPhone/iPad which makes Mom and Daughter happy. The "big boy" players, like the Bryston, are out because of their very clunky interface. Some go the higher end players, like Sonore, support SBS natively, which is a big plus. But when using the built in SBS Player (eh - "vortexbox player" and the Squeezebox interface, the won't play gapless music without inserting a gap. I listen to a ton of classical and progressive rock, much of which just isn't right without gapless playback. The Squeezeplay does gapless when served from a Vortexbox, so I assume the Touch will as well. I did consider iTunes by itself, but no high res streaming, which is a definite minus. If the Touch works out as well as I hope, it means converting the music library to FLAC I suppose. I could use some advice on that line! I normally just rip to AIFF and embed the artwork. Decompression software from ALAC may or may not make a difference in the way a track sounds, but with disk space being so cheap, why bother? What do you guys use for a SB server, and what file format works the best for you? Thanks for the replies by the way, I appreciate them all very much. -Paul -- paul.raulerson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ paul.raulerson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=50346 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=90821 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
