Squeezebox Gurus, your advice please...

[Aton]

Sorry to dwell on this This is a question for the Squeezebox Gurus like
salnajjar, and andrew1810 but anyone is more than welcome to post...

Guys, do you feel that there's a REAL sonic difference between the Squeezebox and the other Streamers such as the Soundbridge ? I mean, really noticeable ? There's a 60ish quid price difference, is it justifiable ? I'll be using it with a Hi-fi system that's going through major upgrades atm, and may end up with Bi-amped floorstanding Speakers.....

 

[andrew1810]

Sorry for the delay in replying, one of those days.

Over the likes of the cheaper streamers (MP101, Noxon etc.) there is a very noticeable difference between those and the more expensive ones (Squeezebox and Roku)

The difference between the Squeezebox and Roku isn't so night and day, when I owned the Roku, I found that it needed an external DAC to impress more. If you have an external DAC, you may not notice the difference as much, if you don't, the Squeezebox does have a superior inbuilt DAC and there is a difference in quality IMO.

I think the Roku also upsamples 44.1KHz (CD sampling frequency) to 48KHz

You have to look at file formats too, for best quality from the Roku you would want AIFF files (what I use) which is completely lossless, but 20Mb+ per track. The Squeezebox supports more formats natively including the excellent FLAC which has smaller file sizes and is opensource (some don't like being tied to Apple formats).

I'm fairly sure slimdevices still do a 30 day return if you aren't satisfied, so you could always buy one and find out.

Where in the UK are you, there might be someone local with either which you can listen to and decide.

If it was my money, I would get the Squeezebox, but I can understand that £60 is quite a difference.

You could always find someone else interested and use the two for £400 offer here:
http://www.multitask-computing.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3&products_id=396

Hope this all helps

Andrew

 

[g0pkh]

I have my Roku M1001 connected via the Optical out into my Yamaha AV Amp, and am well impressed with the Quality.

Pete

 

[andrew1810]

I have my Roku M1001 connected via the Optical out into my Yamaha AV Amp, and am well impressed with the Quality.

Pete

As I said above, by using the digital out, you are bypassing the DAC and therefore the difference is less noticeable, if you try it through the analogue outs I think you will notice a difference.

Of course, through a hifi amp it would be better still

 

[brookheather]

If you order today you can catch the special offer from the US slimdevices website - $100 off when you buy two - I've just ordered a pair of wireless Squeezebox 3's for $550 including shipping- two wired versions would cost $450 including shipping.

- Simon.