[Gopher]

Wayne,

You have worked with all of them, so I'm curious:  money no object, which of the Squeezeboxes is the best platform for mods?  I believe you said somewhere that the touch was and I know my modded touch is nothing short of exceptional, but iit came to my attention another heavy hitter (lampizator) touts the duet as the best platform to rework due to the lack of a screen and a few other things.

What are your thoughts?  Price no object and reasonable cost wise?

[Wayne1]

The Touch is without a doubt the best sounding.

The DUET is easier to work on. There is quite a bit more room, but it simply does not come close. There are more than a few switching supplies inside the DUET. The wi-fi card used is really noisy. The processor is rather dated and it cannot do 24/96. Logitech has also stopped production of the DUET.

The Touch uses far more current parts and software in it's build. The screen can be turned off with software. The software mods by Soundcheck can make quite a difference.

The Touch can be transplanted to  a larger case so more room to mod can be made. Separate power supplies can be run to the clock and digital output sections.

The DUET was designed to be more of a 'lifestyle" product than a serious music transport. The marketing folks wanted something to go against Sonus.

[Gopher]

Thanks for the detailed info, Wayne.

A buddy of mine is picking up a Lampizator transport which looks very interesting and well built, but it struck me as odd it was based on the DUET instead of the newer touch.  Especially as it was a re-box effort anyway and things like the screen could be removed.

I'll stick to my Bolder'ed Touch/Music Railed PSU

[wisnon]

Gopher,
The duet can only play up to 24/88 but is far easier to modify hardware wise. The Touch is a linux computer and so has to be software modified. Recall that the Lampizator is concentrating on only the SPDIF (digital) out mods, as he does not care about analog out.

The Duet can have its VERY dirty (wallwart) power supply changed, SPDIF caps upgraded, new master clock inserted  with separate power supply, then the digital signal is buffered thru a digi-lampizator section before being output. There is a detailed article about this in the DIY section of his site.

Please note, I am not making any claims about superiority vs Wayne's reportedly excellent offerings, just clarifying the original question based on my understanding from Soundcheck and the Lampizator. I have a stock Touch and a slightly modded Duet with linear PS and upgraded caps. I have never personally heard the Lamp nor a Bolder modded unit.

[Gopher]

I just wanted to drop an update to this thread.  I settled my curiosity by borrowing a Lampziator transport to compare to Waynes stack for a week.  I won't say the Bolder was better, but I will say its really damn good and my preference shifted with the musice.  It held its own far better then it had a right to considering the disparity:  roughly $1200 (Bolder SB Touch & Bolder PSU w/Music Rails) vs. $4000+ The Bolder Squeezebox had it going on!

In a nutshell the squeezebox had more apparent resolution when used as a transport to my Lampizator 3 DAC while the the Lamp offered more body and dimensionality.  Both had very similar staging qualities and were similarly dynamic--perhaps the Bolder even took the edge in dynamics--it seemed a little faster too, but that may have been a result of the tonal balance--the lampizator transport had a more relaxed quality. 

Bottom line, for those like me who can't spend thousands on a transport, the Bolder modded touch with PSU is killer!  With proper cabling and component matching you can build outstanding digital front ends around it. 

Food for thought:  I use a Bolder modified Elpac with Music Rails--I can only imagine how good things could be with one of Waynes high end PSUs