>From my listening experience running the internal server playing WAV files offers about the same SQ as external server streaming flac (flac decoding on Touch). Thus external server streaming PCM (from whatever source) sounds better than playing WAVs on internal server. Other people will disagree with this, but thats what I hear. Please don't get the impression that I'm saying using the internal server sounds bad, that is not true. I'm saying the internal server sounds very good, but an external server streaming PCM sounds REALLY good!
Again others will disagree. I know of one person who prefers the sound of the internal server to an external server. But I know a lot of people who prefer an external server streaming PCM to the internal server. The internal server runs close to the edge (memory and CPU wise) all the time. It doesn't take much to push it over the edge. Even the sheevaplug has much more memory and CPU power, this will give a much more robust experience. Things like a file with a large embedded image can cause the internal server to crash, but would work fine with the sheevaplug. Scans will definitely run quite a bit faster on the sheevaplug than on the internal server. There are some circumstances where people have had stuttering of files etc, that go away when using an external server. Then there is added functionality. The sheevaplug SBS will have a webui which the internal server does not. Even if you don't plan on doing regular controlling functions with the webui, having it makes server configuration MUCH easier. With the internal server any configuration changes have to be done by logging into the Touch with SSH and editing configuration files. The sheevaplug server will allow you to add third party plugins to the server. You cannot do this with the internal server. The internal server is limited to a maximum playlist length of 100 songs. Its much larger for the external server. You are going to have to decide whether any of this is important to you. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=80430 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
