squeezebox duet

[Craig M.]

hi, i know this has probably been asked and answered, can a squeezebox duet do wav files wirelessly?

with a suitable dac would it be possible to better my kandy mk.lll cdp with a squeezebox?

 

[matengawhat]

I used to have the Kandy CDP - recently replaced with an MF X-Ray/Dac V8 which is vastly superior - I have also recently added the Squeezebox v3 which I use through the same Dac - i find the music slightly softer than the CDP but still very very good. I use Apple lossless files. I think with a good Dac you will be very impressed with the out come.

 

[fr0g]

Craig M.:
hi, i know this has probably been asked and answered, can a squeezebox duet do wav files wirelessly?

with a suitable dac would it be possible to better my kandy mk.lll cdp with a squeezebox?

Wireless wav works fine. But it depends how strong your signal is.
Better to use FLAC, which is lossless, and of equal quality to WAV. Less chance of dropouts...and fully supported by Squeezebox.

As for quality. With the right DAC it will murder a kandy mkIII.

I have just had one on trial for a couple of weeks, and ordered a Harmony DA9, and the quality is astounding...It has been ranked locally as better than the Benchmark in a straight test, but obviously that is mainly word of mouth.

However,
I would say the quality from what is a £100 player, with my £450 DAC is well into the £1000 and well beyond CD player ranks. It beats anything I have heard, outside a stupidly expensive system.

 

[matengawhat]

im still playing at present and reloading my whole cd collection back on to my comp as apple lossless so taking a while but everything i ve played so far have been very impressed with - the mf combo which i picked up new 4 720 was a bargain and has added real weight to the squeezbox sound - give it a go you won't look back - although i still like my little silver discs and they are so much more girlfriend friendly!!!!

 

[fr0g]

I also have to add.
My CD player is an old Arcam Alpha 7SE...
which to be fair is still a damn good player and working like a dream.
It has been running through a Lyngdorf SDAI 2715 amp, and Dali Ikon 6 speakers.
I have been demoing a couple of CD players, and DACs as obviously it lags somewhat behind (without ever sounding bad I might add)

I also have a cheap (beresford) DAC
The CD into the beresford is on a par, or slightly better than the Arcam depending on material.

The harmony + squeezebox destroys it. I mean it's in another league entirely.

I did another test... CD vs MP3

The Squeezebox, playing a 190 Kbps EAC/LAME VBR MP3 of Air - premier Symtomes was also far better then the CD player playing the same album.

So not only does the right DAC give you sublime performance, it will bring out the best in 'lesser' formats.

Food for thought.

 

[Craig M.]

cheers for the info. i already have a lot of my albums ripped to wav so i can make mix cd's, i plan on giving EAC a bash instead of nero so i might rip them all again to flac which should ease streaming requirements.

i think i will have to get one to run alongside my cdp and then wait and see if i end up using it as much as i think i will before seeing if i can maybe find an exotic dac from ebay.

it looks like a great bit of kit, especially the remote. can it read existing play lists from your pc's media player or can you set them up on the squeezebox?

also, does it buffer the data before passing it to the dac and if not are there any issues with dropped packets when using wifi? it will only be about 15 feet from my router but with a chimney breast inbetween them.

i'm getting excited just thinking about getting one, and when my dyn. focus 110's get here i think .....mwuh ha ha ha! i think i might take over the world!! and all from the comfort of my sofa.

 

[fr0g]

Craig M.:
cheers for the info. i already have a lot of my albums ripped to wav so i can make mix cd's, i plan on giving EAC a bash instead of nero so i might rip them all again to flac which should ease streaming requirements.

i think i will have to get one to run alongside my cdp and then wait and see if i end up using it as much as i think i will before seeing if i can maybe find an exotic dac from ebay.

it looks like a great bit of kit, especially the remote. can it read existing play lists from your pc's media player or can you set them up on the squeezebox?

also, does it buffer the data before passing it to the dac and if not are there any issues with dropped packets when using wifi? it will only be about 15 feet from my router but with a chimney breast inbetween them.

i'm getting excited just thinking about getting one, and when my dyn. focus 110's get here i think .....mwuh ha ha ha! i think i might take over the world!! and all from the comfort of my sofa.

You sort your playlists on the PC(so yes, it uses standard playlists), although I havent a clue otherwise, as I have never thought about it.

If you are only 15 feet away, I would recommend getting a run of cat5 in you can peg it neatly wherever you need to. Zero packet loss. And dont spend more than you can get the cheapest for, as so long as its cat5 or above, it really doesnt make any difference(It isn't being used as an audio cable). get a 10/15m run, and pin it along the skirting either floor, or ceiling. Its thin enough to blend in anyway.

Also. You can transcode into FLAC, rather than re-rip, and set the tags from filenames (assuming you have them), using mp3tag.

 

[PJPro]

fr0g: [snip].... And dont spend more than you can get the cheapest for, as so long as its cat5 or above, it really doesnt make any difference ....[snip]
You sure I can't improve the performance by getting quality ethernet? ;-)

 

[fr0g]

PJPro:fr0g: [snip].... And dont spend more than you can get the cheapest for, as so long as its cat5 or above, it really doesnt make any difference ....[snip]
You sure I can't improve the performance by getting quality ethernet? ;-)

Well Denon do some nice looking stuff...

 

[Craig M.]

cheers frog, thats just the info i was after. i'll try wireless first and if i have any problems, as you say, it will be easy to hide some cat5.

 

[Anonymous]

Is the Duet as unreliable and frustrating as a number of reports/customer reviews suggest? Is the Classic a better option?

 

[Anonymous]

stringo:Is the Duet as unreliable and frustrating as a number of reports/customer reviews suggest? Is the Classic a better option?

I bought a duet last Wednesday and have been using it (almost continuously!) since then.

The signal has not disconnected once - and the sound is crystal clear.

I was concerned about reliability but this seems to be down to how good your wireless router is. I have BT Homehub which has a good signal.

Every home should have one.

 

[nads]

or a classic SB with an iPhone or iTouch with iPeng installed.

 

[Anonymous]

I too have a BT router, so perhaps it'd be a fairly safe bet. Mind you, I'd be happy to select the song I want from the laptop rather than a controller, so, if I were just to get the Squeezebox Classic, does the software (Squeezecentre, I believe) pretty much look and 'feel' like Windows Media Player, for example?

 

[Anonymous]

stringo:I too have a BT router, so perhaps it'd be a fairly safe bet. Mind you, I'd be happy to select the song I want from the laptop rather than a controller, so, if I were just to get the Squeezebox Classic, does the software (Squeezecentre, I believe) pretty much look and 'feel' like Windows Media Player, for example?

To control your music without the controller I think you have to install Softsqueeze application as well as Squeezecentre.

It doesnt look anything like WMP - try Google images.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I'll have a look.