Experiences with SlimDevices Squeezebox.

Redkiwi:

That's the next step....i'll try wired Squeezebox. But I still have the issue of the squeezebox eating up a fair bit of bandwith on our network. I'll give it a try though.

Harry

Anybody listening to Internet radio?

My only issue is the squeezebox can't play live365.com subscriber access which has higher bitrate streams and no commercials but require the live365 player.

Re dropouts it can be a problem but Apple lossless files dramatically reduce/eliminate drop outs in my wifi network compared to wav files and sound identical. Also the ethernet crossover cable that comes with the squeezebox will run directly from a pc to the squeezebox without impacting the network.

Yes...i forgot to mention this. The squeezebox also could not play streaming radio from Sirius because they have their own "player" interface...and the squeezbox server couldn't pick it up.

With the Xitel, I'm able to play the Sirius streams through my stereo. Incidentally, the streaming algorithms are improving and internet radio is becoming very tolerable from a sonic standpoint.

This stuff is going to get better and better!!!

Harry

I'm currently looking for something like that, but I'm really concerned with the quality of the unit: it's role is to receive, to buffer, and then to clock the signal into SPDIF out. But in order to do it with acceptable level of jitter it must have audiophile-grade circuitry: power supply, crystall, etc. - why people modify digital sections of their DACs and CDPs? I just don't get how this $200 device can produce anything good?

Dmitrydr: You really should try a squeezebox. From a sonic perspective, it is truly outstanding. The only modification I have done is that I am running mine from the 5V output of a B&K Linear power supply instead of from the one supplied. I also am running the output through a Genesis Digtial Lens and an Apogee Big Ben.

My problems with the Big Ben have been two fold. First, it eats a fair amount of bandwidth, so my home network gets much slower while it is in use. Second, as with all new products there have been some bugs that can lead to occasional dropouts, channel reversal etc.

For this reason I've also been using a wired solution. So far, I tried a Xitel Pro Hi Fi Link. This also sounds pretty darn good, but the cheap chipset upconverts everything to 48k instead of leaving it in native 44.1k. I have a problem with this because it can add artifact above the noise floor and I think it has.

Soooo....yesterday I ordered a Wavetermina U24 which is, according to many sources, bit-accurate and sonically outstanding. Of course, this is a USB wired solution as opposed to wireless.

I'll report on this here.

harry