USB Ext Sound Card Vs. Squeebox

I guess most of you don't understand my question.

Anyhow, this is what I found. Using the same DAC and setup, the Squeezebox does not sound as good as the External USB sound card. The overall detail seems to be lacking a bit. I am guessing this is because the Squeezebox is through a wireless network where as the External sound card is using USB 2.0. I'm not sure if this make any sense to anyone but that is what I found.

The difference you hear has little to do with the different technologies. It's the implementation of the technology that makes the difference. By itself the Squeezbox is good to very good, but it has clearly defined (and well documented) shortcomings. There are various mods and upgrades that people claim significantly better the basic product. If you did a comparison of various USB devices you would also find that some sound better than others.

Of course in the interests of science you could run an Ethernet cable to the SB and see if any of what you are hearing is related to the wireless transmission...

As Onhwy61 points out, this is all about implementation. And at a certain point price...

One other thing to try is a different SPDIF cable to the DAC. SPDIF implementation is second only to transport jitter....

In my system...

MacBook Pro -> USB out -> Hagerman USB adapter -> SPDIF cable -> DAC

sounds far to superior to

MacBook Pro -> wireless -> SB3 -> SPDIF digital out -> DAC.

I don't know why, but it's not close. Would love to try a USB DAC sometime -- could be even better.

Drubin,

I have the same experience. USB is better than Wireless. I assume the wirless or even Ethernet will loose some sound quality. I'll try the Ethernet when I get a chance. Maybe USB has a bigger bandwidth. THanks for sharing.