New Logitech Squeezebox Touch

Yes its true Logitech is killing the Squeezebox architecture. Not a single original Slim Devices employee remains at Logitech. They've all either been laid off, or left voluntarily.

The "trend" being forced upon us nowadays is this concept of "the cloud". Host all your music on some company's internet servers and stream it to your devices across the internet. The companies prefer this format, as it lets them monitor and track your audio collection and usage patterns. It also reduced tech support calls since they are managing the audio server and not you.

Me, I prefer to retain control of my own data, and to have an audio system that has no external dependencies on internet access, or availability of someone elses servers. I also don't care for the all-in-one digital file systems because they don't use redundant hard drives or have error-correcting memory like my home server does.

Squeezebox is a unique product in the market, nobody else has anything like it. You can have my Transporter and my Red Hat Linux Squeeze Server when you pry them from my cold dead hands! :)

It's a real pitty. While the software is not as easy as the sonos (for full disclosure i own and use both) and it can't be used in a NAS environment, with a few exceptions-, it is capable of playing hi-res files. Not only upto 24/96, but even upto 24/192 with the free digital output app.

Without the touch, any idea on how to get a hi-res file on a NAS to connect and play through a earby 24/192 capable DAC?

And how to do it , if the DAC is further away and requires a WIFI connection in between?

Addition to my last post:

today since my NAS doesn't connect to my Touch, I put the files I want to listen to on a memory card which i insert directly in the touch. And control it via iPeng on my iphone.

Any other ways to connect a memory card to a dac?

I've seen a tascam reader used by
Roger Sanders at shows.

I don't understand killing the whole format. There's not really anything else quite like it. My kids love having every song, artist, playlist, that's on our computer, available to them in their rooms and remote controllable from their iPod touchs. They both have the smaller, single speaker "radios". It's a nice little player, color screen to show artwork, it can stream radio stations from around the world and sounds decent enough for 8 & 12 year olds. I will continue to use the "boom" as our alarm clock/radio in our bedroom, as well as a second one for portable music on the patio, deck or in the garage. Hopefully they stay functional for years to come. Or until someone comes up with a better system.

Actually, Sonos does all of this, only better. Sonos has "Play" devices that do the same thing as the Squeezebox radios and can be used as an alarm clock. The Sonos Play devices sound much better than the Squeezebox radios or boom. The Sonos "Connect" device can be used to connect to an audio system, same as the SBT. I used Squeezebox devices for years (had a radio and still have a classic and a SBT), but have switched to Sonos recently. Sonos is a much better interface that Squeezebox and and a much better "whole house" option. There are only two downsides to Sonos compared to Squeezebox. One, the devices are slightly more expensive and, two, they do not work with high rez files. If you don't need the high rez capability, then Sonos is the Cat's Meow.

I think there are some modders that will mod the Connect device to accept 24/96, but all my music is 16/44, so I haven't looked into it.