Hi Steve, and others...
I'm in somewhat of an impasse. I'm sending out my cd's to get archived onto a nice 500GB hard drive so I'm looking for the best way to play my audio.
Why do people choose the Squeezebox SB3 + Pace Car over the Off ramp Turbo 2? Is there a huge amount of convenience with wireless if the laptop is going to be in the same room as your audio system? I mean a 5M USB cable is about 15 feet which is pretty long.
An Off-Ramp Turbo 2 is about $990 plus shipping, while a Pace Car + SB3 is at least $1500. I realize a Pace Car reduces jitter to vanishingly low levels but the Off-Ramp Turbo 2 sounds like no slouch in that department either. 
Just curious,
Anand.
Like all things (usually), you get what you pay for. The only disadvantage of the SB3 is that it will not do 24/96 and the Off-Ramp will and you need a USB cable - 16 feet is no problem, the new Off-Ramps come with this. There are also lots of plug-ins for Foobar, such as crossfield headphone DSP's and equalization etc...
The Pace-Car/SB3 will outperform the Off-Ramp because the Pace-Car has lower jitter, plus you get a wireless interface with some nice features that Foobar does not have.
If you put a Pace-Car on the Off-Ramp or a Freeway, or even on a S/PDIF from a laptop, it will be equivalent to the Pace-Car/SB3 combo. Everything coming out of the Pace-Car is equally high quality. The USB and computer direct type 2 Pace-Car requires that you send your laptop to Empirical in order to tune the Pace-Car to it.
See the updated Pace-Car webpage for details - do a "refresh".
Steve N.
