AirTunes Vs. Squeezebox Duet sound quality

There shouldn't be much in it between the two, although I can only vouch for a SB3, not the Duet. I use both AE/iTouch and SB3 into a Lavry DA10 and find them both more than adequate.

I use a Maplins regulated linear PS for the sb3, though to be honest, I don't think it makes that much difference when using the SB3's digital coax output.

You will lose the ability to fast forward or rewind when using the Duet while streaming Apple Lossless. This function is supported with wav, aiff and other "native" file formats, not Apple Lossless.

ATB Keith

Looking at the tranquil site is the device designed to sit on the audio rack or in a cupboard. Its hard to establish if it has audio outputs?

If its not designed to be in the audio rack then yes I would have gone for a mini, ATV and Ipod Toach. That way the ipod could control the mini to fire music out of the ATV.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Looking at the tranquil site is the device designed to sit on the audio rack or in a cupboard. Its hard to establish if it has audio outputs?

If its not designed to be in the audio rack then yes I would have gone for a mini, ATV and Ipod Toach. That way the ipod could control the mini to fire music out of the ATV.

Either really. It has no audio outputs it's just a server with internal ripper that will fit on a rack to say use with a Linn DS. There are no fans to be noisy, so really depends how noisy the drives are.

It has been purchased to allow ease of use for SWMBO, as she can buy a CD bung it in then get it to play with whatever control device I teach her how to use. Hence the SB so not having to put a computer on was the theory??

Well, the device certainly implies that what it does. However I am willing to bet it uses as many resources as a small computer.

Itunes for instance cen be set to auto import music when a CD is inserted then automatically eject it after its imported. So reasonably you don't even need a screen attached to it.

But the tranquil would appear to do the same and you have it now.

I don't know what to say about the squeezebox as I have never owned one. I should imagine the gubbins in a squeezebox is no more or less good or bad than an express.

I would say however that an appleTV is significantly better than an express as its basically a small version of OSX. You might want to consider one. It does not actually need a tv to operate it, if you have an ipod touch. I would imagine it works with the itunes server on the tranquil.

Its all money as usual though

I've had the AE, SB3 and Duet and the Mac Mini (no Apple TV).

In order of preference (using the n-Vi as a DAC) it was AE, SB, Duet, Mac Mini. Through the Lavry it may have been different but the duet / controller is not quite as slick as the iTunes / Remote

James

Hmm decisions decisions, I'd really like a Linn Akurate DS but think it's a bit expensive at present, oh & clunky to control.

Didn't like the way HDX and Majik DS sounded so think I'll just have to keep saving

quote:

It just seems poor compared to the AE & iTunes. Frown Is this par for the course or are there any 'issues' or 'tweaks' that I am missing.

I think something in your settings is wrong.
I for myself are absolutely pleased with the sound of my SD, but i didnt have compared it with the apple solution.
But in the "normal" Naim-Forum" there was a comparsion with the both and the Squeezebox was much ahead of the apple solution.
I think there is someting wrong in your audio settings, i think best would be to ask the forum, because Squeezebox didnt play the original apple files and transcode them to another type as wav, flac or maybe mp3.
http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?s=a52944...a7bd98fcb4776fa&f=20

I found this for you:

 
Quote:
Originally Posted by talbain View Post
original sb. what are the best file type settings for listening losslessly to apple lossless files? i'm getting confused by the various transcoding options and i'm afraid i may be losing something in the translation...
I have mine set to WAV => alac, but you can use FLAC => alac/flac as well. They sound identical to my ears.

Just avoid MP3 => alac/lame as streaming a file that's Apple Lossless in a lossy format (MP3) kind of defeats the purpose of using Apple Lossless. ;-)