Squeezebox Touch

I use it as a digital source for my Naim DAC: great sound quality, near on a par with USB and much better than my previous SB Duet; the possibility to stream 24/88 and 24/96 flac files stored in my NAS is a great plus (and it is the main reason why I bought the Touch).

The only drawback is that my WiFi connection is not fast enough for streaming High Def files and sometimes the Touch stops playing to rebuffer (just like my Naimunity).
Solved the problem with powerline ethernet adapters.

Michele

I blogged about it a few days ago

AudioPlus Blog

It's definitely getting better as it runs in

It isn't in the same league as my HDX but its extremely good value

Given what it does and its ease of use I'm tempted to say its a better solution that a Mac/hiFace

And in response to Michele, I was getting some dropout problems yesterday on 24/96 files from my NAS. My Touch is connected by Ethernet. I will be investigating as my network is pretty fast.

Have to agree with SteveH wrt the run in, mine has been in since Monday lunchtime and is definitely sounding better.

Somewhere else somebody was saying that you could access a hard drive connected to the Touch over the network. That would give the ability to drop new stuff onto over the network, and yet play hi-res stuff without the network having any influence.

At the mo it's connected to my 202 with an Ixos RCA-RCA. Later today it'll get a Chord Crimson RCA-DIN.

I'm delighted with it, they have even kept the funky analogue VU meter display option

HTH

John

I have a Squeezebox Touch connected to the NDAC. Sounds very good to me.

There are a couple of tricks to get the 24/96 files streaming properly. It seems the CPU power of the Touch is pushed to the limit decoding hi-res files and decrypting wireless.

In my case either re-encoding files at FLAC level -0 OR setting SqueezeServer to do the decoding and stream PCM to the Touch solves the stuttering problem.

Sounds good!

Don't forget that by default Squeezecenter will convert WAV to FLAC before streaming, which will then mean the Touch will have to work to convert it back. OTOH if you stream as PCM then there will be more network traffic and more decrypting for the Touch to handle.

Thanks to you all for your in-sights!

Chris

Somebody mentioned on another thread that a hard drive could be connected to the touch via the USB port.

Anybody tried this. Does it work. How does it sound.

quote:

Somebody mentioned on another thread that a hard drive could be connected to the touch via the USB port

Yes you can put a ext. Hd directly via USB to the Touch.This is the reason, why i ordered one.Because you dont have to run a PC or NAS. when you hear your music, its a little bit like a "CD-Player" you turn the Touch on and the music starts.
How it sounds, i can tell, when i got mine from Amazon next week.
But what i have read in other forums, it must sound superb.

I heard that you can ONLY play directly from an external disk when there is an internet-connection...true or is the internet connection only needed once to setup the Touch????

If an internet-connection is needed PERMANENTLY...that would suck...

Hi Thorsten,

First of all: I do not own a Squeezebox, but IMHO you don't need an internet connection to play music from an external disc drive. Just connect the two to your router ...

Regards,
Michel

See, that is what I do NOT want to do...I don´t want any router/ethernet-stuff involved...
just connect the HD and play music...

Thanx, Michel...

I understand it, maybe another forum member with more computer knowledge can elaborate on this.

FWIW: I've connected my HDX the way I described and it works perfectly!

Regards,
Michel

I have a Squeezebox Classic and it connects wirelessly to a router.
I think the same goes for the Touch, but you don't need to connect an external HD to the router also.
(don't know how/why it should)

regards,
Alco

What i read is that you need internet-connection for setup and playing radio and the other online stuff.
After setup you dont need internet for playing music from the ext.HD.
But you cant switch off the wlan in the touch, but you dont need internet connection, so you can switch of your pc and or your router.

quote:

Originally posted by themrock:
What i read is that you need internet-connection for setup and playing radio and the other online stuff.
After setup you dont need internet for playing music from the ext.HD.
But you cant switch off the wlan in the touch, but you dont need internet connection, so you can switch of your pc and or your router.

Please, dear themrock,

if you can listen to music from an ext.HD WITHOUT any ethernet-crap, please let me know.

Setup via Internet is no problem...

Could you write me an e-mail then???

radhakunda-at-gmx.de

Danke!!!!

Yes i can write you an e-mail.
I got an email from amazon, that my touch will be delivered at 20.4.

I've had mine for 6 days now and its starting to come together soundwise. It sounds horrendous straight out of the box with hardly any low end but fortunately this is resolving. Its also easy to use and looks good but as soon as Naim release a pure streamer the Touch will go into the second system as within an all Naim set-up its performance is compromised.

To be fair though for £260 you can't go wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Sandman:
within an all Naim set-up its performance is compromised.

Used as a digital interface between an external HD (connected via USB) and a Naim DAC (connected via Coax S/PDIF), it may not be a compromise. I doubt it will outperform a HDX, but it may outperform a CDX2 used as a transport. Only time will tell.

One concern I have is the ease or not of accessing tracks on the HD. Will touch set up its own directories or will they require setting up when music is copied to the HD.

quote:

Originally posted by Sandman:

To be fair though for £260 you can't go wrong.

Mine's on order now; hope the stock is actually in the UK and not stuck in some warehouse in mainland Europe.

@Sandman

Can you play music-files from an USB-Harddisk without an ethernet connection???

Some guy wrote that without being connected via ethernet, the Touch will not work at all...

I see no reason why the Touch will not work with a direct connection to HDD without an ethernet connection. Although I've not tried this myself yet, however other forums indicate that you can.

Anyone compared the Touch to a Transporter yet?

I read in a german hifi-forum from a guy, who is(was) beta tester for the touch, that the touch comes near/equal in sound quality to the transporter, much better than the Sb3/Duet

Looking for SB experts.... Looking for answers to a few questions if you please.

Must I use the Squeezecenter i.e. Logitech's "media player"?

Has anyone been able to output from Foobar to a SB?

Are there ASIO/WASAPI output options for their player?

Thanks in advance!
-Patrick

quote:

Originally posted by themrock:
I read in a german hifi-forum from a guy, who is(was) beta tester for the touch, that the touch comes near/equal in sound quality to the transporter, much better than the Sb3/Duet

Yes I read that the beta testers were comparing it favourably to a Transporter that's why I was wondering if anyone from here had compared the two together?