Squeeze Box Touch Optimization

lcrim · « **on:** 20 Jun 2010, 12:33 am »

http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/p/squeezebox-touch-great-base-for-network.html
Thank you Klaus.

highfilter · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 02:55 am »

Great read and information. Thanks for the link!

Gopher · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 04:18 am »

Great information. I will have to give it a whirl when my Touch gets back from Wayne at Bolder.

lcrim · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 12:04 pm »

The instructions for simple software mods you can find on this site, make a significant improvement in sound quality from the Touch.
I'm bumping this thread in hopes that more Touch owners see it and benefit from it.

nature boy · « **Reply #4 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 12:15 pm »

While I have not purchased my squeezebox touch yet, this is incredibly helpful information which will come in very handy in a couple months. THANK YOU!

NB

etcarroll · « **Reply #5 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 12:54 pm »

^^^^What he said.

mfsoa · « **Reply #6 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 01:41 pm »

Reading through the instructions, I can't visualize exactly how to implement them.
When it says something like "Drag the file to the Touch" what does this mean? The original location of the downloaded file will be somewhere on your PC, but where does this get dragged to? - A Touch folder on the same PC?

For sure these mods look promising -

Larry, if I can't get it working and since you live so close maybe I'll have to have you over, ply you with beer and pick your brain which knows so much more about PCs than mine!

Thanks for the link - looks very interesting!

-Mike

kgturner · « **Reply #7 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 02:08 pm »

mike:

i download the rcs file to my desktop. it was originally named rcs.download so i had to rename it to rcs.local. after opening the winscp program and navigating to the specified root directory on the touch, i too couldn't figure out how to drag and drop the file. until i realized i could just resize the program window so that i could see my desktop and the rcs file. then i was able to drag and drop it into the directory. good luck.

kevin t

lcrim · « **Reply #8 on:** 20 Jun 2010, 04:18 pm »

Mike:
The WinSCP program should be opened in the Norton Commander style of interface. Look under preferences. The other choice is Internet Explorer type and it doesn't have a separate pane for each box (local machine and the Touch). Then you can drag and drop from one machine to the other..
As Klaus points out, the WinSCP is required because you are working between MS Windoze and a linux distro. Something needs to translate between the two.
If you still need help, send me your phone # to lcrim@ureach.com

David C · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 05:10 pm »

I don't own a touch but have a Transporter. I tried the suggestion of changing the FLAC from native to disable and the PCM to FLAC. I found the sound was slightly less forward. Should this tweek work with the Transporter as well as the Touch. I prefered the FLAC as native?????

jtsnead · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 06:07 pm »

will this help if you are just using the analog outs (for now)?

lcrim · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 06:16 pm »

Doing the conversion from flac to PCM on the server rather than the Logitech device should be beneficial no matter which device as it is freed from this task. Its interesting that a more "forward" sound actually seems more natural to some.
The suggestions from the link are useful and result in an improvement in sound quality whether you are using the in-built DAC or connected to an outside DAC.(Remember there is different conf file depending on whether you are using the Touch's internal DAC (analog outs) or using an external DAC (digital) or both.)

David C · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 06:28 pm »

Larry
thanks for the quick reply. I will set it up to PCM and give it a few days of listening

mfsoa · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 06:30 pm »

If I have WAV files on my hard drive, do I have an option as far as decoded on the Touch or in the PC, or is there no decoding (if that's the right word) since there is no FLAC-to-WAV processing needed?

Thanks again, Larry, for your efforts with this and with AC in general

-Mike

lcrim · « **Reply #14 on:** 21 Jun 2010, 07:06 pm »

Mike:
The idea is to send whatever file type as PCM so that the resources at the device are not used for this action. flac is lossless compresion so it gets decompressed at the server before making the trip to the playback device. WAV is another way of saying PCM so there is no problem.
Many store music as flac because of the metadata tagging built in and if down the line I want to convert to a format required by itunes for example, the metadata is still available to identify the file while WAV files can get awfully confusing to keep track of with no native metadata.

jtsnead · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 Jun 2010, 03:01 pm »

will this work to stream PCM?

on the SB forums this how they say to do it

I find the above way to daunting for myself a basic
computer user

File Format Stream Format Decoder

AAC AAC Disabled Native
FLAC Disabled faad/flac
MP3 Disabled
PCM Disabled faad

AIFF AIFF Disabled Native
FLAC Disabled flac/sox
MP3 Disabled

Apple Lossless FLAC Disabled faad/sox
MP3 Disabled
PCM Disabled faad

Monkey's Audio FLAC Disabled mac/flac
MP3 Disabled
PCM Disabled mac

FLAC FLAC Disabled Native
MP3 Disabled
PCM Disabled flac

QuickTime Movie AIFF Disabled mov123
FLAC Disabled mov123/flac
MP3 Disabled

MP3 MP3 Disabled Native

You are supposed to disable MP3 and Flac in file types?

lcrim · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 Jun 2010, 04:11 pm »

jtsnead:
In what file format have you saved your music?

lcrim · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 Jun 2010, 05:01 pm »

Over time this issue has been reported on to death. PCM is better sounding and it makes sense to send all your streamed music to the player in PCM. It also unloads the format change from the player and leaves it at the server which, in general, has greater resouces. The two formats which concern me are FLAC and WAV. By default, FLAC is sent to the player, the user should change this for the above stated reasons. Remember to click APPLY in the lower left corner when done.
Below are the correct settings

file format stream format decoder
FLAC FLAC disabled
MP3 greyed out
PCM flac

WAV FLAC disabled
MP3 greyed out
PCM native

bigbwb · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 Jun 2010, 07:33 pm »

Hey guys,

As a touch owner, I am very curious about utilizing some of the ideas listed above. However I am a new user to Mac's and have no idea how to implement the scripts portion of the mods. I know how to change the settings in Squeezecenter to decode to PCM but beyond that, I could use a hand:)

Thanks!
Brandon

JEaton · « **Reply #19 on:** 23 Jun 2010, 09:41 pm »

Quote from: lcrim on 23 Jun 2010, 05:01 pm

Over time this issue has been reported on to death.

Yes it has.

Quote

PCM is better sounding and it makes sense to send all your streamed music to the player in PCM.

In your opinion. Many people with very high end systems and extraordinary ears have reported that they've never been able to tell a difference.

Quote

It also unloads the format change from the player and leaves it at the server which, in general, has greater resouces.

The decoding. Decoding of 16/44.1 FLAC is very resource unintensive and easily handled by even the slowest processors with very little load. It's only when you get into high bitrate streams that it begins to affect processor load.

Quote

The two formats which concern me are FLAC and WAV. By default, FLAC is sent to the player, the user should change this for the above stated reasons. Remember to click APPLY in the lower left corner when done.
Below are the correct settings

"should" ... "correct" ... Again, in your opinion.