Yes. The sound quality was so promising I have played around with a few different permutations. Cheap DACs do not improve it. But the cheapest fix that really improved the sound was to put a Jensen Transformer between the audio outputs and my amplifier. The improvement was pretty startling. I have now decided I will upgrade my PC, and put my old one in the basement. The basement PC will have large disk storage holding all my CDs at full resolution, running the Slimserver 24/7, so that I can use the Squeezebox anytime I want.
I rip the CDs at full resolution and then use FLAC to compress the files without any loss of resolution. I started out using wifi but have switched over to a wired lan for greater reliability and much reduced jitter.
The convenience of selecting any of my music with a remote from my seating position is amazing. A much bigger jump in convenience than moving from vinyl to CDs - it is totally compelling.
I am so impressed, my mission is to get the reliability and sound quality up to a level where I no longer need my CD player. What I find stunning is that a USD199 box sounds so good without tweaking. One of the reasons is probably the lower jitter of reading off a magnetic disk rather than an optical one, but it is still better than say a Rega Planet CD player (though that is not saying much). With the Jensen Transformer it is much better again. Ideally it would be paired with a good DAC, but have not had the chance to try any good DACs with it yet.
I rip the CDs at full resolution and then use FLAC to compress the files without any loss of resolution. I started out using wifi but have switched over to a wired lan for greater reliability and much reduced jitter.
The convenience of selecting any of my music with a remote from my seating position is amazing. A much bigger jump in convenience than moving from vinyl to CDs - it is totally compelling.
I am so impressed, my mission is to get the reliability and sound quality up to a level where I no longer need my CD player. What I find stunning is that a USD199 box sounds so good without tweaking. One of the reasons is probably the lower jitter of reading off a magnetic disk rather than an optical one, but it is still better than say a Rega Planet CD player (though that is not saying much). With the Jensen Transformer it is much better again. Ideally it would be paired with a good DAC, but have not had the chance to try any good DACs with it yet.