0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 54467 times.
Bryan - I understand modding the analog outputs as they are probably not very good. But what is gained modding the digital outs? Does the mod involve replacing the internal digital clock? Further, when using digital outs and feeding an outboard DAC, I do not understand how a power supply change could possibly improve the sound. Two years ago at RMAF, a guy selling "high-end" power supplies for the Squeezebox gave me one to try out. I was using the digital out to feed an AVA DAC. I couldn't hear any difference at all - nothing. Then again, admittedly, that is the result I was expecting.On that topic at least, a blind test is in order.- Jim
When I added $30 linear power supply to my SB Duet, I heard an incredible sonic improvement, was one of the best tweaks ever for my setup-FWIW
Thanks, this has been an informative thread!I'm still a bit unclear on the reason for quality differences in preamp/amp assuming the goal is accuracy? Do the better amps just have a slightly flatter frequency response? Or is there something else going on?
Another factor is headroom. There was a test done at RMAF a few years ago by Peter Smith that showed an "average" speaker being driven by an average of 8 watts of power (which is quite normal). At the same time, a peak-reading meter showed that transient peaks (drum strikes and the like) in the program material were drawing as much as 250 watts or more.
Jim,Was the test done at RMAF in a large room at higher volumes? I ask as I will be using a Boston Acoustics A7200 amp (Sherwood Newcastle A-965 clone) to drive my SongTowers. My room is fairly small at 14' deep and 17' wide with an opening to another room on one side. The A7200 is rated at 100x7 @ 8 ohms which from what I have read is a conservative rating. I do like to listen to music at fairly high volumes (nothing crazy though ) and I am wondering if that is enough power for driving the STs?http://www.sherwoodusa.com/prod_a965.htmlThanks for the very informative post on amp power. It was very helpful and was well explained for the non technical (that would be me ).Bill
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=120-536%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&FTR=120-536&CFID=24256478&CFTOKEN=42329450 This little baby^
I think its safe to say werd is just trolling. Lets just ignore him, as we're just feeding his silly agenda.
There is enough error correction built into any CD transport to almost eliminate data errors. If this were not the case, computers would not be able to run properly as software is often distributed on CD's and bit-for-bit accuracy is mandatory (computer transports are not normally high-end either).
I think its safe to say werd is just trolling.
Not really. A CD sector is 2,352 bytes. For data CDs, this is split in 12 bytes sync, 4 bytes sector id, 2,048 bytes real data, 4 bytes error detection, 8 bytes zero and 276 bytes of error correcting code. For audio CDs, all the 2,352 bytes are used for real (audio) data with no ECC. If there are errors there's no level 3 ECC to help correct them.Nap.
OK. Some posters seem to feel that a high quality power supply on a squeezebox can improve the resulting sound quality of the digital output when fed to an outboard DAC.I have been thinking about conducting a blind test to determine if this is the case. (I would imagine that it could have a postive impact on the analog outputs and we can test that too.)Here is a possible setup for the test:Frank's AVA Vision DAC has a pair of coax digital inputs and you can switch between them. If we set up two identical SB units, one with the supplied power supply and one with an "improved" power supply (or even a battery power supply), we can sync the SB's and run each to a separate input on the Vision DAC.Someone who would not be involved in the listening test could flip a coin to determine which of the SB's would be connected to which input. Then a cloth of some sort could be placed over the wiring so no one would be able to see which SB was connected to which input. That way, no one participating in the listening test would know which was which.Switching back and forth between the inputs while listening to various musical selections would allow listeners to judge whether they were able to hear any difference between the two and which, if either, was superior.Does this sound like a reasonable approach? If so, what upgraded power supply should be used to maximize any potential difference?We could do a similar test with the analog outputs by simply running the SB outputs to two inputs on the preamp.- Jim