Stereophile Rated the Sqeezebox Touch Class D

Peter_s, I think the digital out is superior to the analog outs.

Tvad, Thanks for your comment, but its hard to ignore when it seems so wrong.

I suspect the Squeezebox Touch is simply too inexpensive to rate much higher regardless of performance.

A couple of years back the Transporter was rated Class A. I've been a Squeezebox user for about 9 years now and have used everything from the SliMP3 to the Transporter in my home system. I couldn't justify the cost of the Transporter in my system compared to a SB3 with an external DAC (Lavry) so used the latter combo for several years.

When the Touch came out I compared the Touch (with analog outs) back-to-back with my SB3/Lavry combo. The two options were synced and level matched and I more often than not couldn't tell which was playing unless I looked at the input selector switch on the amp. I ended up moving the Touch by itself in my main system, sold the Lavry and moved the SB3 to my second system. I haven't looked back since.

Of course, some audiophiles chase shadows in an ethereal zone that doesn't interest me much. I enjoy a wide variety of music on my system and I've never found myself wishing for a different source. I agree with Tvad - if you enjoy your system, don't waste your time worrying what the elites are thinking.

Here we go again with a bad case of audiophile anxiety.

Stereophile releases their ratings and some poor audiophool gets all wound up because they didn't bless what he bought and likes. I too used to be that way. My component dropped into class B or off the list and I would stew about it until I had to upgrade. That was until I figured out if sounded good to me I couldn't care less what Stereophile thinks. There's nothing in my system that I know of on any of their lists and I couldn't be happier.

If it upsets you when your stuff isn't highly ranked then quit reading the lists.

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Their rankings aren't A-F like a report card. D doesn't mean it's a "bad" rating. ANYTHING on their recommended list is going to be a good piece of equipment.