My Squeezebox Touch sounds distorted through coaxial

[Peter Larsen]

Hi,

I have a SBT from Logitech. I stream from a Synology DS212J NAS. The digital signal goes to my Rega DAC.

But whenever I play my Apple Lossless files the sound is not clean. Sounds slightly distorted in the highs.

I have tried different cables. No difference. The files sound perfect when played directly from the server on my computer.

I have set the SBT volume to fixed.

What could be wrong? I have only seen one similar problem on the net, but without a solution.

Best,

Peter

 

[WinterRacer]

Not sure, it sounds like an input is being overloaded, but should have nothing to do with file format. Can you try a few things and let us know if it still sounds distorted?

1. Turn off 'fixed volume' and turn the volume on the Touch down to about 80%

2. Transcode the Apple lossless file to FLAC

3. Bypass the Rega DAC and use the Touch's analogue outputs

 

[fr0g]

Check in your server settings page, under advanced, file types.

I'm guessing there may be a problem with native playback on the SBT.

I can't check mine as it's a duet, but a quick search found this page

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?84823-ALAC-native-support-on-Touch

It's a year or more old, but a Logitech engineer said "The native ALAC decoder is buggy so it's disabled if you have a server available to do transcoding."

So, rather than transcoding your ALAC to FLAC, simply set the server software to do it, and see if that helps.

 

[Peter Larsen]

By server I guess you mean the Logitech media server.

I can't choose native for alac (dimmed), it is set to transcode to flac.

I will try lowering volume to 80% even though I'm not keen on having the device alter the pure digital signal.

 

[fr0g]

The 80% thing shouldnt be needed, and I doubt it will help. I have mine set to 100% (not fixed as I use it sometimes)

When you say it plays fine from the server on the computer, are we still talking "Logitech server"?

If so, check that the settings on the NAS server instance are the same as the computer?

Then maybe do a transcode yourself, to flac, or mp3 and test if it's the transcoding on the server that's at fault.

 

[Peter Larsen]

What I meant was that when I play the files directly from the server through my Macs Finder, they sound just fine and without the small amount of distortion.

 

[nads]

What I meant was that when I play the files directly from the server through my Macs Finder, they sound just fine and without the small amount of distortion.

so you mean NAS when you say server?

how is it without the DAC?

 

[Peter Larsen]

Yes from the server, but with Quicktime on the Mac. No conversions. Just a simple mount of the music folder on my Mac.

 

[WinterRacer]

By server I guess you mean the Logitech media server.

I can't choose native for alac (dimmed), it is set to transcode to flac.

I will try lowering volume to 80% even though I'm not keen on having the device alter the pure digital signal.

Don't worry, hopefully it won't be permanent, I just wanted to try a few things to help diagnose the problem. I have a Squeeebox Touch and no distortion on Apple Lossless. Is this how Apple Lossless is configured in Logitech Media Server "File Types" page?

 

[Peter Larsen]

Yep, thats how it's configured.

 

[nads]

so how is it without the DAC? (just using the Analogue outs).

 

[Peter Larsen]

Okay, I have tried the following:

Listened through analog (headphone socket). No apparent distortion.

Found the great site of Toolbox 3.0 and followed the software advices. Did not install Toolbox.

Converted my ALAC files to FLAC, so the Squeezebox doesn't have to convert them on the fly. In my Squeezebox server settings by the way, it is ffmpeg that does the conversion.

Result: So far my music sounds cleaner. No distorted highs. The distortion was never like a bad connection, but it was audible with the system I have. It now seems gone. Crossing fingers

Converted the ALAC files with XLD for Mac.

 

[nads]

Strange that it sounded fine through the headphones but not o via the DAC. As if I was a on th fly decoding issue it should have been apparent in both cases I would have thought.

 

[Peter Larsen]

Agree. Maybe it was something else. I don't know, but somehow my small efforts seems to have solved my problem. For now ray:

 

[Peter Larsen]

Okay, here is an update. My problem was not solved |(

However I found out what was wrong.

1. The distortion is not on every album

2. The distortion comes from ripping with iTunes. Even in ALAC.

3. Re-ripped with XLD for Mac, and now the previously distorted sounding albums sound fine.

4. Searched the web - found several (many!) topics about iTunes distorted rips. Apple supposedly fixed it with iTunes 10.5.2. I have no idea if it actually does fix the bug, but since all my CD's were ripped before that version guess I have to go through them all an re-rip with XLD. Dang!

 

[nads]

EAC to FLAC and leave iTunes where it should be. Just for the iThings.