squeezebox set up for audiophiles

Hickup wrote:

I did some reading on the DAC you use - this seems to be a far better point when discussing potential for improvement. The Audio Research DAC8 is specialized in acting as a high res sound card for a computer connected via asynchronous HD USB coming with its own master oscillator. Basically this means you don't have to care about jitter in the signal you feed to this DAC any more if you use the USB connection. And regarding the rest of your equipment, I would say there is an even larger candidate. The NHT 3.3 speakers you use are not even in the same league as the rest of your equipment, especially when compared to the Mark Levinsons. To me, speakers are the most critical part of any HiFi system, next in line is the amplifier. If you intend to spend around double or triple the amount of money in a streaming client when compared to your speakers, I would advise you switch budgets. Get yourself a fanless computer, equip it with enough SSD hard disk space for a completely quiet system, connect this to the Audio Research and you have your source. Then take the money you saved and buy a new set of speakers (assuming you talk about a budget beyond 10k). Actually today my latest order arrived, feel free to google for "12 ZTAS 25" and "12 ZTAS 1"... I am off listening to all those immensely enjoyable non digital noises :D Have fun, Frank

Somebody loves Frankie :D Good ol 80's. Fond memories :D

Using my Mac book pro with the USB output via the modified hiface: http://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/

Sound is good but can not have a big library

DAC 8 comes with some drivers that are installed on the mac as well. The reason I prefer the touch is the convenience of having a 2TB library available via the controller. Love xraid2 and all the other features of the NAS that will be difficult to duplicate on a PC for someone like me. Additionally, 2 TB of SSDs will cost quite a bit :D Thats why I am on a quest to get better sound from the touch. But if it seems like I am putting square pegs into round holes, will have to rethink the strategy.

NHT 3.3: These speakers are very good. Have had them for 15 years. In 1996, Corey Greenberg a reviewer for Stereophile said these were the best speakers. Tweeter technology has evolved over the years but these are no slouches. Was running them with a MC Cormack Dna 1 and it could not drive them, switched to the Levinsons and VOILA!

Don't let the age and the price fool you. There are other candidates: Kharma, Revel, etc but I love the sound of these speakers. Everything has changed over the years but not the speakers. Latest change: changed the ref3 to the ref5 preamp from audio research. These days speakers like these will cost you 10k and above if you factor in the current prices. In 1996, the aerial 10t (speaker of the year in that year for stereophile) and the NHT 3.3 costed around USD 4.5k. These days speakers in this league will set up back quite a bit. :D

Audiophile gear prices are going up everyday, unfortunately. As they said: death and inflation are the only two certainities :D