nads
Well-known member
matengawhat
Well-known member
Mine arrived Friday - didn't get to look at it until Saturday.
Bearing in mind I already have a robust homenetwork network running Squeezeserver plus two Squeezeboxes (SB3 and Duet/Receiver) I had the Touch out of box and running within 10 minutes. I plumbed it into the network via 200 Devolo Homeplug and it rapidly both found and ethernet connected to home server, library and Squeezebox.com. I doubt if wi fi would a have posed any problem for connnectivity.
Does it work? Album art display is good, touch screen browsing and commands are quicker and more responsive than with Duet controller or iPhone with iPeng app - but I'd expect that since Touch is hard wired. Screen flicks etc all good as expected. Using Touch display as digital photo frame is nice bonus. Build quality and design superb, display screen could be bigger and have OLED, but then it would cost more...and besides it is more than good enough.
I have not yet had chance to run SB Touch as a standalone unit with external HDD/SD for source, but would expect this to be slower in operation than if using network and homeserver with an ndexed filesystem.
Sound quality? I have not had chance to mess around with DACmagic vs SB Touch internal DAC for direct comparison, but can say sound is instantly better than the on board DAC chip in the SB reciever/Duet combo, which is in turn inferior to the SB3 Classic on board DAC.
First listening impressions are of instant 'hi fi' quality (think upper mid range CD player) with FLACs and 24bit files I have notably Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" 24 bit recording which sounded just lovely. My constant companion, Tom Petty's "Crawling Back To You" from 'Wildflowers' sounded as good as I can remember hearing on anything. I intend to hook up CA DACmagic this week and do some more listening, but wonder at this point if it will offer any real improvement over internal Wolfson 24bit chip, which is pretty much state of the art in DAC terms.
First impressions is that Logictech have done a really good job with the Squeezebox Touch. For £250 it does an awful lot for your money if you are considering the computer audio route. The ability to control unit with multiple interfaces (direct Touch on the unit, ir remote, Duet Controller and iPeng) is impressive and it all appears well-engineered and integrated into Squeezebox family.
With the 30 days return offer on product, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have long since got over thrill of being able to quickly access 2500 LPs, but still really appreciate benefits. If you havn't yet taken this step the Squeezebox Touch is an excellent, straightforward and highly cost-effective starting point.
Recommended.
Bearing in mind I already have a robust homenetwork network running Squeezeserver plus two Squeezeboxes (SB3 and Duet/Receiver) I had the Touch out of box and running within 10 minutes. I plumbed it into the network via 200 Devolo Homeplug and it rapidly both found and ethernet connected to home server, library and Squeezebox.com. I doubt if wi fi would a have posed any problem for connnectivity.
Does it work? Album art display is good, touch screen browsing and commands are quicker and more responsive than with Duet controller or iPhone with iPeng app - but I'd expect that since Touch is hard wired. Screen flicks etc all good as expected. Using Touch display as digital photo frame is nice bonus. Build quality and design superb, display screen could be bigger and have OLED, but then it would cost more...and besides it is more than good enough.
I have not yet had chance to run SB Touch as a standalone unit with external HDD/SD for source, but would expect this to be slower in operation than if using network and homeserver with an ndexed filesystem.
Sound quality? I have not had chance to mess around with DACmagic vs SB Touch internal DAC for direct comparison, but can say sound is instantly better than the on board DAC chip in the SB reciever/Duet combo, which is in turn inferior to the SB3 Classic on board DAC.
First listening impressions are of instant 'hi fi' quality (think upper mid range CD player) with FLACs and 24bit files I have notably Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" 24 bit recording which sounded just lovely. My constant companion, Tom Petty's "Crawling Back To You" from 'Wildflowers' sounded as good as I can remember hearing on anything. I intend to hook up CA DACmagic this week and do some more listening, but wonder at this point if it will offer any real improvement over internal Wolfson 24bit chip, which is pretty much state of the art in DAC terms.
First impressions is that Logictech have done a really good job with the Squeezebox Touch. For £250 it does an awful lot for your money if you are considering the computer audio route. The ability to control unit with multiple interfaces (direct Touch on the unit, ir remote, Duet Controller and iPeng) is impressive and it all appears well-engineered and integrated into Squeezebox family.
With the 30 days return offer on product, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have long since got over thrill of being able to quickly access 2500 LPs, but still really appreciate benefits. If you havn't yet taken this step the Squeezebox Touch is an excellent, straightforward and highly cost-effective starting point.
Recommended.
The_Lhc
Well-known member
Give the name, I presume the screen on the Touch is, well, a touchscreen? That means you have to use it to select your tracks etc? How does that work if it's sat on the rack with the rest of your equipment? I've got Sonos and the main ZP is on the bottom shelf of my rack, about 3 inches off the floor, I can't imagine putting a Touch in the same place, I'll be on my hands and knees trying to select my music surely? To be honest I can't even imagine getting out of my chair to change the selection anymore, so is there a remote option for the Touch?
It is supplied with a remote, when it detects you are using the remote the font size can automatically increase in size for easier viewing from a distance.
the_lhc:Give the name, I presume the screen on the Touch is, well, a touchscreen? That means you have to use it to select your tracks etc? How does that work if it's sat on the rack with the rest of your equipment? I've got Sonos and the main ZP is on the bottom shelf of my rack, about 3 inches off the floor, I can't imagine putting a Touch in the same place, I'll be on my hands and knees trying to select my music surely? To be honest I can't even imagine getting out of my chair to change the selection anymore, so is there a remote option for the Touch?
Correct assumptions on the Touch having a touchscreen for all commands (as well as an ir RC that defaults to largest font on Touch display when used). One can also use an Apple touch screen product with iPeng app or an additional Logictech Duet if one wishes to stay in chair and not use ir RC supplied.
I no longer have racks of equipment, but if I did I would still not place touch on bottom of rack near floor, there are many better locations.
My Touch will reside on a chest level shelf and will feed active Dynaudio Focus 110a's, so I now have no need for either racks of other kit or to have to grub around on the floor to select my music. I may or may not incorporate the DACmagic, but will have no other hi fi kit to speak of in lounge and all wires hidden. A rack free zone. The old Quadraspire rack is in garage along with all the legacy boxes and spaghetti, awaiting disposal.
Presumably seeing as you have already gone the Sonos route, the Squeezebox Touch would not a logical choice for you anyway.
Correct assumptions on the Touch having a touchscreen for all commands (as well as an ir RC that defaults to largest font on Touch display when used). One can also use an Apple touch screen product with iPeng app or an additional Logictech Duet if one wishes to stay in chair and not use ir RC supplied.
I no longer have racks of equipment, but if I did I would still not place touch on bottom of rack near floor, there are many better locations.
My Touch will reside on a chest level shelf and will feed active Dynaudio Focus 110a's, so I now have no need for either racks of other kit or to have to grub around on the floor to select my music. I may or may not incorporate the DACmagic, but will have no other hi fi kit to speak of in lounge and all wires hidden. A rack free zone. The old Quadraspire rack is in garage along with all the legacy boxes and spaghetti, awaiting disposal.
Presumably seeing as you have already gone the Sonos route, the Squeezebox Touch would not a logical choice for you anyway.
The_Lhc
Well-known member
simonclayt:the_lhc:Give the name, I presume the screen on the Touch is, well, a touchscreen? That means you have to use it to select your tracks etc? How does that work if it's sat on the rack with the rest of your equipment? I've got Sonos and the main ZP is on the bottom shelf of my rack, about 3 inches off the floor, I can't imagine putting a Touch in the same place, I'll be on my hands and knees trying to select my music surely? To be honest I can't even imagine getting out of my chair to change the selection anymore, so is there a remote option for the Touch?
Correct assumptions on the Touch having a touchscreen for all commands (as well as an ir RC that defaults to largest font on Touch display when used). One can also use an Apple touch screen product with iPeng app or an additional Logictech Duet if one wishes to stay in chair and not use ir RC supplied.
I no longer have racks of equipment, but if I did I would still not place touch on bottom of rack near floor, there are many better locations.
At the moment, the bottom shelf is the only one with the room for it, unless I wanted to put it on the amp, which I wouldn't really and I'd still have to get out of my chair anyway.
Presumably seeing as you have already gone the Sonos route, the Squeezebox Touch would not a logical choice for you anyway.
Ah, 24-bit support you see, that's why I was considering it.
Correct assumptions on the Touch having a touchscreen for all commands (as well as an ir RC that defaults to largest font on Touch display when used). One can also use an Apple touch screen product with iPeng app or an additional Logictech Duet if one wishes to stay in chair and not use ir RC supplied.
I no longer have racks of equipment, but if I did I would still not place touch on bottom of rack near floor, there are many better locations.
At the moment, the bottom shelf is the only one with the room for it, unless I wanted to put it on the amp, which I wouldn't really and I'd still have to get out of my chair anyway.
Presumably seeing as you have already gone the Sonos route, the Squeezebox Touch would not a logical choice for you anyway.
Ah, 24-bit support you see, that's why I was considering it.
nads
Well-known member
matengawhat:
come on nads thoughts?
mines in transit somewhere!
Mmmm
not really listened to it yet.
had it up and running is minutes, then re sited the SB3 to the kitchen with some active speakers.
but first thoughts are that the Dac magic may no longer be needed. BUT i have not compared yet.
Need to swap some cables over.
come on nads thoughts?
mines in transit somewhere!
Mmmm
not really listened to it yet.
had it up and running is minutes, then re sited the SB3 to the kitchen with some active speakers.
but first thoughts are that the Dac magic may no longer be needed. BUT i have not compared yet.
Need to swap some cables over.
simonclayt:
Mine arrived Friday - didn't get to look at it until Saturday.
Bearing in mind I already have a robust homenetwork network running Squeezeserver plus two Squeezeboxes (SB3 and Duet/Receiver) I had the Touch out of box and running within 10 minutes. I plumbed it into the network via 200 Devolo Homeplug and it rapidly both found and ethernet connected to home server, library and Squeezebox.com. I doubt if wi fi would a have posed any problem for connnectivity.
Does it work? Album art display is good, touch screen browsing and commands are quicker and more responsive than with Duet controller or iPhone with iPeng app - but I'd expect that since Touch is hard wired. Screen flicks etc all good as expected. Using Touch display as digital photo frame is nice bonus. Build quality and design superb, display screen could be bigger and have OLED, but then it would cost more...and besides it is more than good enough.
I have not yet had chance to run SB Touch as a standalone unit with external HDD/SD for source, but would expect this to be slower in operation than if using network and homeserver with an ndexed filesystem.
Sound quality? I have not had chance to mess around with DACmagic vs SB Touch internal DAC for direct comparison, but can say sound is instantly better than the on board DAC chip in the SB reciever/Duet combo, which is in turn inferior to the SB3 Classic on board DAC.
First listening impressions are of instant 'hi fi' quality (think upper mid range CD player) with FLACs and 24bit files I have notably Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" 24 bit recording which sounded just lovely. My constant companion, Tom Petty's "Crawling Back To You" from 'Wildflowers' sounded as good as I can remember hearing on anything. I intend to hook up CA DACmagic this week and do some more listening, but wonder at this point if it will offer any real improvement over internal Wolfson 24bit chip, which is pretty much state of the art in DAC terms.
First impressions is that Logictech have done a really good job with the Squeezebox Touch. For £250 it does an awful lot for your money if you are considering the computer audio route. The ability to control unit with multiple interfaces (direct Touch on the unit, ir remote, Duet Controller and iPeng) is impressive and it all appears well-engineered and integrated into Squeezebox family.
With the 30 days return offer on product, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have long since got over thrill of being able to quickly access 2500 LPs, but still really appreciate benefits. If you havn't yet taken this step the Squeezebox Touch is an excellent, straightforward and highly cost-effective starting point.
Recommended.
Thanks simonlayt for your initial write up. Like you say there's nothing to lose with the 30 day trial period. I'm very interested to see what WHF think, reviewed in their next magazine. I've bought all my hi-fi gear against their recommendations and have never been dissapointed. Better start ripping my cd's to my external hard disk then
.
Mine arrived Friday - didn't get to look at it until Saturday.
Bearing in mind I already have a robust homenetwork network running Squeezeserver plus two Squeezeboxes (SB3 and Duet/Receiver) I had the Touch out of box and running within 10 minutes. I plumbed it into the network via 200 Devolo Homeplug and it rapidly both found and ethernet connected to home server, library and Squeezebox.com. I doubt if wi fi would a have posed any problem for connnectivity.
Does it work? Album art display is good, touch screen browsing and commands are quicker and more responsive than with Duet controller or iPhone with iPeng app - but I'd expect that since Touch is hard wired. Screen flicks etc all good as expected. Using Touch display as digital photo frame is nice bonus. Build quality and design superb, display screen could be bigger and have OLED, but then it would cost more...and besides it is more than good enough.
I have not yet had chance to run SB Touch as a standalone unit with external HDD/SD for source, but would expect this to be slower in operation than if using network and homeserver with an ndexed filesystem.
Sound quality? I have not had chance to mess around with DACmagic vs SB Touch internal DAC for direct comparison, but can say sound is instantly better than the on board DAC chip in the SB reciever/Duet combo, which is in turn inferior to the SB3 Classic on board DAC.
First listening impressions are of instant 'hi fi' quality (think upper mid range CD player) with FLACs and 24bit files I have notably Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" 24 bit recording which sounded just lovely. My constant companion, Tom Petty's "Crawling Back To You" from 'Wildflowers' sounded as good as I can remember hearing on anything. I intend to hook up CA DACmagic this week and do some more listening, but wonder at this point if it will offer any real improvement over internal Wolfson 24bit chip, which is pretty much state of the art in DAC terms.
First impressions is that Logictech have done a really good job with the Squeezebox Touch. For £250 it does an awful lot for your money if you are considering the computer audio route. The ability to control unit with multiple interfaces (direct Touch on the unit, ir remote, Duet Controller and iPeng) is impressive and it all appears well-engineered and integrated into Squeezebox family.
With the 30 days return offer on product, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I have long since got over thrill of being able to quickly access 2500 LPs, but still really appreciate benefits. If you havn't yet taken this step the Squeezebox Touch is an excellent, straightforward and highly cost-effective starting point.
Recommended.
Thanks simonlayt for your initial write up. Like you say there's nothing to lose with the 30 day trial period. I'm very interested to see what WHF think, reviewed in their next magazine. I've bought all my hi-fi gear against their recommendations and have never been dissapointed. Better start ripping my cd's to my external hard disk then
OK had a chance to listen to the Touch connected to the Cyrus DAC via optical SPDIF.
I first listened to music pulled via wireless from my Mac iTunes library - in both lossless and 320Kps. They sounded very good - perfect for a casual listen but not a patch on the Hi Res files on the Mac directly connected to the DAC. I then loaded a HiRes album and an Apple lossless album on to a USB stick and connected this directly to the Touch.
This was fantastic - the lossless album was within a whisker of the same album on CD - say 85-90% as good and the HiRes was stunning - way better space and dynamics than a CD but still a little behind the Mac directly playing through the DAC. But way more convenient.
I noted that lossless albums were slightly down sampled when streamed wirelessly - also noticed that the B&W music is 24bit 48Khz - I had thought they were 128Khz but apparently that is a rare breed!
A fantastic way to listen to your ripped CD's and your HiRes downloads for very little money. Listening to 320kps albums is fine for background or party music. The only issue I've had is artwork - for some reason only about 10% of my albums display artwork!
Would I listen to the touch using it's own DAC - No! But using a decent external DAC - definitely!
Big thumbs up!
I first listened to music pulled via wireless from my Mac iTunes library - in both lossless and 320Kps. They sounded very good - perfect for a casual listen but not a patch on the Hi Res files on the Mac directly connected to the DAC. I then loaded a HiRes album and an Apple lossless album on to a USB stick and connected this directly to the Touch.
This was fantastic - the lossless album was within a whisker of the same album on CD - say 85-90% as good and the HiRes was stunning - way better space and dynamics than a CD but still a little behind the Mac directly playing through the DAC. But way more convenient.
I noted that lossless albums were slightly down sampled when streamed wirelessly - also noticed that the B&W music is 24bit 48Khz - I had thought they were 128Khz but apparently that is a rare breed!
A fantastic way to listen to your ripped CD's and your HiRes downloads for very little money. Listening to 320kps albums is fine for background or party music. The only issue I've had is artwork - for some reason only about 10% of my albums display artwork!
Would I listen to the touch using it's own DAC - No! But using a decent external DAC - definitely!
Big thumbs up!
Nothing to lose at all. WHF reviews are useful to compile shortlists for auditions.
I use dbpoweramp for my rips and find it a doddle. Using multi encoder I can rip to server HDD in FLAC and simutaneously make an MP4 copy in another folder for itunes etc. Takes about 4 mins per CD.
I did wear out my CD/DVD drive in process, but these are cheap to replace these days.
Do back up your ripped collection on to a secondary drive whilst you are at it. Just in case..
I use dbpoweramp for my rips and find it a doddle. Using multi encoder I can rip to server HDD in FLAC and simutaneously make an MP4 copy in another folder for itunes etc. Takes about 4 mins per CD.
I did wear out my CD/DVD drive in process, but these are cheap to replace these days.
Do back up your ripped collection on to a secondary drive whilst you are at it. Just in case..
OK, so, I'm a novice and currently have all my music on cd's. What is the best way to convert them all to external hard disk (via my laptop) and have the album artwork and track titles etc? For example, will I need to use iTunes to gather my album artwork?
I understand that for decent quality I would need to convert them lossless format?
I understand that for decent quality I would need to convert them lossless format?
nads
Well-known member
nads:I ripped mine to FLAC with EAC and then got the art work using Media Monkey.
Cool, I've never heard of any of those
I'll look at getting them downloaded and giving them a try, bearing in mind I've got a nice clean start! Glad I don't have to use iTunes!
Thanks!
Cool, I've never heard of any of those
Thanks!
nads
Well-known member
well have had some time to listen, so I thought i would start of leaving the cables as they were. and the Touch through the DacMagic sounded better, More "open". Well i then switched out the Chord Chameleon SilverPlus and put back the Tara Labs cables that I use for most connections. So now there is the same make and model of cables from the Touch Dac and the Dac Magic to the Amp.
And I cant tell the difference on my system.
And I cant tell the difference on my system.
Update listening last night through DACmagic compared to internal DAC on Touch.:
320 kps files sound 'different' through extrenal DAC. However I suspect that this is as much about the phase settings on the CA box as anything else. Whether it is better is debateable. I use ordinary cablesand interconnects BTW.
FLAC files - take out any filtering on the DACmagic and we (Mrs and I) were hard pushed to tell "Crawling Back to You" Tom Petty apart with or without external DAC. Once filtering and pahse is applied it is possible to tailor the sound from the CA box. That does not make it 'better' in my view.
Both these boxes use the smae family Wolfson 24bit chipsets for 1 to 0 conversions, and the Squeezebox obviously is newer compared to the DACmagic which is relatively old design.
I am going to wait to decide on this without going all Emperors New Clothes. The DAC magic should improve sound more than it seems to given it' cost compared to Touch. Both sound more than good enough and more listening is needed. Suffice to say I am happy with the new box given that it cost me the same as the DACmagic (paid £220) yet does so much more.
But it's very close and I say it inappropriate to make the comparisons based on listening to compressed MP3s rather than FLAC or 24 bit files. If you are listening to computer based music, the biggest single inmprovement you can make is to ditch the MPx files and go FLAC (or wav). Cost effective too.
320 kps files sound 'different' through extrenal DAC. However I suspect that this is as much about the phase settings on the CA box as anything else. Whether it is better is debateable. I use ordinary cablesand interconnects BTW.
FLAC files - take out any filtering on the DACmagic and we (Mrs and I) were hard pushed to tell "Crawling Back to You" Tom Petty apart with or without external DAC. Once filtering and pahse is applied it is possible to tailor the sound from the CA box. That does not make it 'better' in my view.
Both these boxes use the smae family Wolfson 24bit chipsets for 1 to 0 conversions, and the Squeezebox obviously is newer compared to the DACmagic which is relatively old design.
I am going to wait to decide on this without going all Emperors New Clothes. The DAC magic should improve sound more than it seems to given it' cost compared to Touch. Both sound more than good enough and more listening is needed. Suffice to say I am happy with the new box given that it cost me the same as the DACmagic (paid £220) yet does so much more.
But it's very close and I say it inappropriate to make the comparisons based on listening to compressed MP3s rather than FLAC or 24 bit files. If you are listening to computer based music, the biggest single inmprovement you can make is to ditch the MPx files and go FLAC (or wav). Cost effective too.
matengawhat
Well-known member
matengawhat:mines on a ups truck as we speak for delivery today
I'm very tempted but I'm scared I'll like it and that would mean parting with my Arcam which I still love dearly
(I would need to sell it to raise the revenue!).
I'm very tempted but I'm scared I'll like it and that would mean parting with my Arcam which I still love dearly
matengawhat
Well-known member
does this output enough power to run all usb hard drives or are you better off buying a mains operated drive? Can anyone recommend a 500gb one for the purpose of running music to the Touch?
matengawhat:does this output enough power to run all usb hard drives or are you better off buying a mains operated drive? Can anyone recommend a 500gb one for the purpose of running music to the Touch?
Drive information here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=76983
I'm considering a Samsung S2
Kevin
Drive information here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=76983
I'm considering a Samsung S2
Kevin
matengawhat
Well-known member
thanks for that - currently looking for a compatible 500gb drive
well got the touch up and running really quickly - easily foound my wireless network and got the radio on straight away - my music took a little longer as had to update squeezecenter and re-search for all my music which took about an hour but now playing sweetly
artwork seems to be a bit of an issue as not seemed to have found the artwork that itunes finds automatically but found the ones i had to manually add
will post real thoughts shortly on sound but will say that the touch screen works im my opinion incred well - sweet little box
well got the touch up and running really quickly - easily foound my wireless network and got the radio on straight away - my music took a little longer as had to update squeezecenter and re-search for all my music which took about an hour but now playing sweetly
artwork seems to be a bit of an issue as not seemed to have found the artwork that itunes finds automatically but found the ones i had to manually add
will post real thoughts shortly on sound but will say that the touch screen works im my opinion incred well - sweet little box
matengawhat:
thanks for that - currently looking for a compatible 500gb drive
well got the touch up and running really quickly - easily foound my wireless network and got the radio on straight away - my music took a little longer as had to update squeezecenter and re-search for all my music which took about an hour but now playing sweetly
artwork seems to be a bit of an issue as not seemed to have found the artwork that itunes finds automatically but found the ones i had to manually add
will post real thoughts shortly on sound but will say that the touch screen works im my opinion incred well - sweet little box
That's Apple's proprietory approach to id3 tagging as it puts cover jpg into one Artwork folder which is then linked to itunes library, whereas manually added art is embedded with each id3tag within each LP folder.
As posted elsewhere try Media Monkey or DBpoweramp and build new artwork library in Squeezeserver. Media Monkey can retag whole itunes library artwork and output to new folder, which can then be read by Touch.
Really enjoying mine now. Touch screen is incredibly good.
thanks for that - currently looking for a compatible 500gb drive
well got the touch up and running really quickly - easily foound my wireless network and got the radio on straight away - my music took a little longer as had to update squeezecenter and re-search for all my music which took about an hour but now playing sweetly
artwork seems to be a bit of an issue as not seemed to have found the artwork that itunes finds automatically but found the ones i had to manually add
will post real thoughts shortly on sound but will say that the touch screen works im my opinion incred well - sweet little box
That's Apple's proprietory approach to id3 tagging as it puts cover jpg into one Artwork folder which is then linked to itunes library, whereas manually added art is embedded with each id3tag within each LP folder.
As posted elsewhere try Media Monkey or DBpoweramp and build new artwork library in Squeezeserver. Media Monkey can retag whole itunes library artwork and output to new folder, which can then be read by Touch.
Really enjoying mine now. Touch screen is incredibly good.
matengawhat
Well-known member
all my music is ripped in lossless - and the squeezbox and my cdp play throught the same dac - but can't help but think that the music has lost some of its rhythm and sounds perhaps a little muddled - not done any back to back testing yet though so could be my imagination!
there is a massive volume difference between my cdp and the squeezebox
there is a massive volume difference between my cdp and the squeezebox
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