SB Touch + Cyrus 8XPD QX?

[gooner26]

Hi everyone,

Hope somebody can advise me on the best way to get my music (which i ripped via dbpoweramp flac, stored on my pc) to the Cyrus 8XPD QX?.

I was advised on another forum that the Squeezebox Touch has relatavely low jitter and will do a great job via it's digital output?

Will this work as a system?

Regards Danny

 

[Anonymous]

Assuming PC and Cyrus are less than 5m away - USB ?

 

[gooner26]

My router will be near the Cyrus yes. Is it a better idea to connect via USB than digital than in terms of sound quality?

regards danny

 

[Anonymous]

It all depends on your needs and the soundcard providing the SPDIF.

Nearly all USB connections on a DAC are limited up to 16bit/48khz, but should allow native 16bit/44.1khz which is essential for proper playback of CD ripped sources where as this is not always the case with a PC SPDIF which are too often locked to the AC97 standard 16/48khz - you will need to check.

As an example:-
Xonar D2s support up to 24bit/192 khz via SPDIF but are not bit perfect.
Realtek AL88x On-Board cards support up to 24bit/192 khz via SPDIF and are bit perfect when all DSP functions are disabled.
Creative X-Fi supports Bit Perfect playback (they call it Bit Matched) and will allow at least 24bit/96khz (maybe more I am not sure).

With more and more 24bit/96khz FLAC material available online, the USB connection may be only a short term solution, as the SPDIF will be the only way to listen to this music properly in its native format, but it all boils down to what you have in your collection.

The important factor given that you have a top notch DAC/AMP, is to ensure your playback software supports ASIO/Kernel Streaming/WASAPI so you can bypass the Windows Mixer and keep your source material untouched.

 

[gooner26]

I'm pretty sure the Squeezebox Touch pull's your music over ethernet therefore reducing jitter, then my plan is to digitally connect the touch and cyrus, the touch's digital output supports 96/24 which is handy because i have around 9 or 10 hi-res albums.

regards danny

 

[Anonymous]

If the SB touch is accessing files via a network, then jitter should not be a problem. This article says SB Touche's SPDIF is bit perfect, which is excellent news.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Logitech-Squeezebox-Touch-Review

 

[gooner26]

Lovely, thank's for the help.

regards danny