DAC for Squeezebox Touch

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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby chapitalist » Tue May 31, 2011 1:16 am

When I'm not lurking at WS I'm enjoying my squeezebox :D

Fantastically versatile player, you can hook it up to anything that will run sqeezecenter, that could be pc, mac, Linux, or many NAS drives running Linux slim os. Many NAS makers firmware now comes with the squeezecenter preloaded so you can get up and running quickly. I have a Buffalo linkstation which has just this. There are widely publicised hacks for others manufacturers NAS in the squeezebox forums online. One thing you can't do (at least on earlier models) is have it read tracks from a USB stick or drive.

You can then navigate your collection through a web interface on pc, or as i do ipad and enjoy the full screen artwork along with the tracks.

Whatever you do, get an external dac, and rip your collection as flac or apple lossless.

My SB3 is hooked up to a Perpetual P1A upsampler and P3a dac, sounds so good I sold my £2,000 Micromega transport as it never got used and I can enjoy my cd collection here in Manila while it is safely in storage 6500 miles away in London. Sounds right at home alongside my ARC / Levinson / Sonus system.

Even better upgrade the PSU from the wall wart, fit damping feet, and there's a long list of more technical mods outs there.

About the only only thing you can't do is tube roll the thing (checkout Dan Wrights transporter truth mod for that!)

Happy streaming :rock:
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby timber715 » Tue May 31, 2011 4:11 am

I guess it can't run on external hard drives alone then. Don't really want my over-clocked cpu running when I want some peace and music, its too noisy due to its 10 fans running 8)
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby carbondated » Tue May 31, 2011 7:34 am

What can a Squeezebox do that a computer with a large external drive and digital out can't do? I ask only because I'm trying to decide which option to take. :)
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby dimfer » Tue May 31, 2011 9:37 am

if somebody is considering to go this route and has not purchased a SB and a DAC yet, I will highly recommend to step up to the Transporter right away. The Transporter has a very competent DAC and has a variety of inputs. I have a Modwright Platinum Transporter and thoroughly enjoys it. Now that my second system does not have a pre-amp, I have it hooked directly to my Trodt 6c33c-b amps.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby rtsyrtsy » Tue May 31, 2011 11:32 am

timber715 wrote:I guess it can't run on external hard drives alone then. Don't really want my over-clocked cpu running when I want some peace and music, its too noisy due to its 10 fans running 8)


Your external drives and computer with 10 fans do not need to be near the Squeezebox for it to run. Your computer and drives can be wherever they need to be then you can just connect everything via Wi-Fi.

carbondated wrote:What can a Squeezebox do that a computer with a large external drive and digital out can't do? I ask only because I'm trying to decide which option to take. :)


If you want to have a display so you can read track title, artist, etc., a computer-based solution (laptop or a small form-factor PC and an external monitor) would tend to be much larger than a Squeezebox so squeezing into audiophile's already cramped racks would be tough for a computer with a large hard drive to do.

Tweaking, in my opinion, is better served by a computer vs. a Squeezebox though this said, many people have tweaked the Squeezebox--Red Wine Audio, Boulder Cable (am I remembering this right?), etc. So if you don't want to bother with tweaks, Squeezebox is the way to go.

An interesting "tweaker" to me is Mach2Music makes MacMini's optimized for music playback. They take out the hard drive and replace it with a solid state drive (better performance daw). They take out software and drivers that are irrelevant to high quality music playback and put in software that are reputedly good for music. On top of this, you can add linear power supply and feet (as previously mentioned).

Many people use something like a MacMini to do this and if a large screen is required, they connect the MacMini to their TV. If you don't need a large screen, you can control a monitor-less (the so-called "headless") MacMini via an iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad. The MacMini solution makes a lot of sense for people who already have most of the ingredients lying around (an old iPod Touch, iPhone, etc.).
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby timber715 » Tue May 31, 2011 11:46 am

rtsyrtsy wrote:
timber715 wrote:I guess it can't run on external hard drives alone then. Don't really want my over-clocked cpu running when I want some peace and music, its too noisy due to its 10 fans running 8)


Your external drives and computer with 10 fans do not need to be near the Squeezebox for it to run. Your computer and drives can be wherever they need to be then you can just connect everything via Wi-Fi.

true, unfortunately they are in the same room and I don't have another room I can dedicate for either. can you recommend a music player that can use a hdd as a source without turning a computer? something that cost around 30K or less is best. else I'm bound for a small laptop.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby muypogi » Tue May 31, 2011 12:08 pm

timber715 wrote:
rtsyrtsy wrote:
timber715 wrote:I guess it can't run on external hard drives alone then. Don't really want my over-clocked cpu running when I want some peace and music, its too noisy due to its 10 fans running 8)


Your external drives and computer with 10 fans do not need to be near the Squeezebox for it to run. Your computer and drives can be wherever they need to be then you can just connect everything via Wi-Fi.

true, unfortunately they are in the same room and I don't have another room I can dedicate for either. can you recommend a music player that can use a hdd as a source without turning a computer? something that cost around 30K or less is best. else I'm bound for a small laptop.


Yung mga popcorn hour or western digital media player.

If you want more control, cheapest setup for you :

netbook (15k) + iTunes (free) + HDD (5k for 500GB)+ feeding wirelessly to an Airport express (P5k) connected to a DAC (depende, Superpro 707 + 7.5k) that's connected to audio system (na may harbeth $$$$$$ hehe).

Tapush.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby Mamimili » Tue May 31, 2011 4:39 pm

My experience with Western Digital (TV Live) is not good :(
It wiped out 2 hard drives, they said it was an internal chip that overheated :@
My fault for going the cheap route?
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby rtsyrtsy » Tue May 31, 2011 5:32 pm

Mamimili wrote:My experience with Western Digital (TV Live) is not good :(
It wiped out 2 hard drives, they said it was an internal chip that overheated :@
My fault for going the cheap route?


Mamimili,

I have the WD TV Live. It is connected via Ethernet to an Airport Express which in turn is connected via Wi-Fi to a Network-Attached Storage. So far, after about a year of heavy use, I've not had problems.

The WD TV Live has no hard drives. I'm curious as to which internal chip overheated that destroyed 2 of your hard drives. Was it an internal chip on your WD TV Live or was it some chips on your external drives?

Timber715,

Would you conider an iPod on a dock--no need for hard drive or PC to run while your digital source is running?

Muypogi,

In your recommendation, the Airport Express isn't necessary if Timber715 is willing to connect a netbook directly to a DAC or to a USB to S/PDIF interface like the Halide Design Bridge, M2Tech, Musical Fidelty V-Link, etc.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby Mamimili » Tue May 31, 2011 6:16 pm

rtsyrtsy wrote:
Mamimili wrote:My experience with Western Digital (TV Live) is not good :(
It wiped out 2 hard drives, they said it was an internal chip that overheated :@
My fault for going the cheap route?


Mamimili,

I have the WD TV Live. It is connected via Ethernet to an Airport Express which in turn is connected via Wi-Fi to a Network-Attached Storage. So far, after about a year of heavy use, I've not had problems.

The WD TV Live has no hard drives. I'm curious as to which internal chip overheated that destroyed 2 of your hard drives. Was it an internal chip on your WD TV Live or was it some chips on your external drives?

Timber715,

Would you conider an iPod on a dock--no need for hard drive or PC to run while your digital source is running?

Muypogi,

In your recommendation, the Airport Express isn't necessary if Timber715 is willing to connect a netbook directly to a DAC or to a USB to S/PDIF interface like the Halide Design Bridge, M2Tech, Musical Fidelty V-Link, etc.


Per WD repair shop, the chip that regulates the internal power supply.
They could of course tell me anything as they gave a replacement!
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby rtsyrtsy » Tue May 31, 2011 7:29 pm

Mamimili wrote:Per WD repair shop, the chip that regulates the internal power supply.
They could of course tell me anything as they gave a replacement!


The external hard drives that you connected to the WD TV Live, were they powered via USB or were they powered with their own switching power supply? If the external hard drive draws power from the WD TV Live (if the external HD is the portable one), then likely, it drew too much power that the power supply regulator blew.

If this is the case, perhaps try a hard drive with its own power supply, e.g. external hard drives for desktops.

Then of course, maybe they gave you replcement hard drives because they liked to keep the fabulous contents on your "broken" hard drive. ;-)

Just to get back on topic, my WD Live is connected to a DAC via Toslink. The sound when watching movies ain't bad at all!
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby muypogi » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:54 am

rtsyrtsy wrote:
Mamimili wrote:My experience with Western Digital (TV Live) is not good :(
It wiped out 2 hard drives, they said it was an internal chip that overheated :@
My fault for going the cheap route?


Mamimili,

I have the WD TV Live. It is connected via Ethernet to an Airport Express which in turn is connected via Wi-Fi to a Network-Attached Storage. So far, after about a year of heavy use, I've not had problems.

The WD TV Live has no hard drives. I'm curious as to which internal chip overheated that destroyed 2 of your hard drives. Was it an internal chip on your WD TV Live or was it some chips on your external drives?

Timber715,

Would you conider an iPod on a dock--no need for hard drive or PC to run while your digital source is running?

Muypogi,

In your recommendation, the Airport Express isn't necessary if Timber715 is willing to connect a netbook directly to a DAC or to a USB to S/PDIF interface like the Halide Design Bridge, M2Tech, Musical Fidelty V-Link, etc.


Correct, but only if he is willing to have wires running all over the place. The Airport Express is there to remove the wire from the laptop to the DAC, so you can have the freedom to move around as you are wirelessly streaming to the Airport Express. The same is true if you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. You can send the music wirelessly to the Airport Express.

Kaya lang, for the hi-res club, Airport Express only does 16/44. Pero it converts even compressed files to lossless before it sends it to the DAC. Also, the Airport Express is bit perfect (daw, sabi ni John Atkinson ng Stereophile when he tested the toslink out of the Airport Express to his hyperexpensive setup), so one need not worry about bits being lost here and there. . .
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby rtsyrtsy » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:02 pm

muypogi wrote:Correct, but only if he is willing to have wires running all over the place. The Airport Express is there to remove the wire from the laptop to the DAC, so you can have the freedom to move around as you are wirelessly streaming to the Airport Express. The same is true if you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. You can send the music wirelessly to the Airport Express.

Kaya lang, for the hi-res club, Airport Express only does 16/44. Pero it converts even compressed files to lossless before it sends it to the DAC. Also, the Airport Express is bit perfect (daw, sabi ni John Atkinson ng Stereophile when he tested the toslink out of the Airport Express to his hyperexpensive setup), so one need not worry about bits being lost here and there. . .


Agreed.

Don't get me wrong. I use an Airport Express to stream from an iMac to my DAC (controlled via Remote App on iPad / iPod Touch) and am happy.

99% of my music files are ripped from CD so the AE's limitations don't bother me. I started downloading hi-res files (many free ones abound) but have not really had the time to understand what the benefits are.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby desmo » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:14 pm

Question lang sa mga experts. Will it matter sound quality-wise if my wireless streamer does not support hi-res music files when all I will ask it to do is pull in said files wirelessly from remote computers? Pass thru lang yung digital files sa streamer (via SPIDF out) into a proper DAC.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby Mamimili » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:19 pm

rtsyrtsy wrote:
Mamimili wrote:Per WD repair shop, the chip that regulates the internal power supply.
They could of course tell me anything as they gave a replacement!


The external hard drives that you connected to the WD TV Live, were they powered via USB or were they powered with their own switching power supply? If the external hard drive draws power from the WD TV Live (if the external HD is the portable one), then likely, it drew too much power that the power supply regulator blew.

If this is the case, perhaps try a hard drive with its own power supply, e.g. external hard drives for desktops.

Then of course, maybe they gave you replcement hard drives because they liked to keep the fabulous contents on your "broken" hard drive. ;-)

Just to get back on topic, my WD Live is connected to a DAC via Toslink. The sound when watching movies ain't bad at all!


USB powered.
A hard lesson to learn :( WD replaced the WDTV Live, not the hard drives.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby Noel_14 » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:20 pm

Here is a simple solution to all your problem :) :) :)

Cayin MT-iP40 Multi-Function Media Player/Dock

Image

The Cayin MT-iP40 is a full multi-function HYBRID media center.
Function:

Build-in USB compliant Burr Brown DAC Chip
i-Pod docking and charging
CD Player
FM tuner
Hybrid Integrated Amplifier
50 watts per Channel power amp
12AU7 Tube pre-amplifier
Two Line inputs
Stereo Sub-woofer connection
Headphone Jack
Front USB connection
Support MP3/WMA via USB
Support CDDA/MP3/WMA via CD
Play Hi-Fidelity music via rear PC-DAC function, computer media centre control via the MT-IP40 remote control.
Dual LED & LCD display system.
Weight: 10Kg.
Dimensions: 345mmx315mmx90mm (WxDxH)

Russ kamusta?

Cheers
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby botching » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:05 pm

rtsyrtsy wrote:
Just to get back on topic, my WD Live is connected to a DAC via Toslink. The sound when watching movies ain't bad at all!


Russ,
How about the sound of WD live optically connected to NAim DAC playing files ripped from cd's? Can it compete with a cd player hooked as a transport to the Naim DAC?
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby rtsyrtsy » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:59 pm

Botching!

Kumusta ka na? Wala ka na sa init ng GCC? 8)

I don't actually listen to music from the WD TV Live--I use this for video only.

I also have a Toslink between the Airport Express and the DAC through which I stream my (mostly) CDs.

Compared to a DVD player used as a CD transport and connected to the DAC via Audio Note UK digital RCA cable (which means I am comparing not just the Oppo vs. the WD TV Live but also different digital cables), the Airport Express streaming ALAC from a NAS is my preferred solution.

This is an interim set-up as I am waiting for Apple's rumored coming new Mac Minis. When that comes out, the Mac Mini will replace the DVD player, the WD TV Live, and the Airport Express.
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby botching » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:38 pm

Russ,
I don't have a DAC now to experiment kaya hanggang tanong tanong lang muna ako :$ .
I will have some time to visit Manila by the end of June and surely I must pay a visit to Archi Boys!
I hope to bring back a piece of green colored DAC like yours ;) .
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Re: DAC for Squeezebox Touch

Postby timber715 » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:29 pm

Noel_14 wrote:Here is a simple solution to all your problem :) :) :)

Cayin MT-iP40 Multi-Function Media Player/Dock

Image

The Cayin MT-iP40 is a full multi-function HYBRID media center.
Function:

Build-in USB compliant Burr Brown DAC Chip
i-Pod docking and charging
CD Player
FM tuner
Hybrid Integrated Amplifier
50 watts per Channel power amp
12AU7 Tube pre-amplifier
Two Line inputs
Stereo Sub-woofer connection
Headphone Jack
Front USB connection
Support MP3/WMA via USB
Support CDDA/MP3/WMA via CD
Play Hi-Fidelity music via rear PC-DAC function, computer media centre control via the MT-IP40 remote control.
Dual LED & LCD display system.
Weight: 10Kg.
Dimensions: 345mmx315mmx90mm (WxDxH)

Russ kamusta?

Cheers

Noel, will this run using an external hdd or will it have room for an internal hdd? internet radio would be nice but not nec...
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