Experiences with SlimDevices Squeezebox.

Redkiwi:

Squeezebox is AMAZING!! AIFF is a totally uncompressed format supported by iTunes and Squeezebox similar to a .wav file. You probably won't be able to tell the difference between AIFF and FLAC, although to my ear...I liked AIFF better.

I'm running my squeezebox through a digital lens and apogee big ben....and then to a dCS purcell upsampler...and a dCS delius dac. Overkill you say?? You should hear the sound. It rivals my modified Wadia 270se.

There are still a few minor bugs wth the squeezebox. I occasionally notice that the channels are reversed. They are working on this.

It will be interesting to see how the new Apple Airport Express...with it's digital output and direct wireless link to iTunes compares. We'll see if it is sonically infereior.

Keep in touch.
Harry

I found the hardwired connection to be better than the WiFi - it sounded like less jitter

If you are using a laptop try streaming to the squeezebox on battery power. Also Apple lossless files sound very good and less prone to dropouts in my wireless network.

Haven't tried Apple Lossless files yet...but will. I'm running my squeezebox off of the 5V output of a B&K Linear power supply. I think I hear improvement, but haven't done careful blind testing yet.

Anybody out there modified their squeezebox yet??

harry

"Jitter" as a concept does not apply to digital bitstream read from a hard disk file. It was something that applied to Audio CDs but once you rip the file to a wav or FLAC it's "frozen in time." Every time you play it back in a pure digital passthrough mode from your computer, as it leaves the pc it is an exact duplication of the bitstream read from your CD at the time you read it.
That's not to say that this has no jitter, it just has the exact jitter at the time of the rip, ever time. This is assuming you have a clean digital line to your outboard DAC / Pre-pro / Receiver / whatever.