Testing SB Touch!!

What have I been saying all the time?

Shouldn't be a problem if I understand what you want to do is:

(A) Logitech Media Server on PC -> SB (analogue output) -> Analogue input (1) of amp

(B) PC Media Player -> USB -> rDAC -> Analogue input (2) of amp

I think the difficult will be getting the two pieces of music synchronised. What you might want to do is stagger the music by say 10-15 seconds. So that when you switch from (A) to (B) you will hear the same piece of music again. 

PS Make sure you choose the right amplifier line inputs (volume controlled) e.g. CD and Aux, and don't use the SB volume control.

Yes you understood correctly! Very good suggestion, in this way it's more easy to differentiate the SQ by listening to the same piece of music...

I activated the option fixed volume control 100% on SB...

Indeed!

But still I want to run some proper testing! 

Ah, the SB needs some time to run in also?

I have a SB Touch which I bought in February. It has since been replaced under warrenty a few weeks ago. This new one sounds a lot better than my old one. Have no clue why, maybe they have improved the internals over time. 

Anyway there are various programmes you can run on the SB Touch that help improve things slightly by switching off the bits you don't need. Check this out: http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/

Whoo!!

Seems too good to be true doesn't it 

I have been and still are experimenting with my SBT setup.

So far tried most of Soundcheck mods and a Tacima Mains filter.

Next, to try LAN rather than WLAN currently using to see what difference this makes.

Also found some more mods on another forum which may look into which change the priorites of Alsa buffer etc.

I have to say that so far from the stock SBT there has been a very significant improvement in SQ.

Decoding FLAC on PC server made a small but noticable improvement.

The Mains Filter defo improved soundstage and resolution, but not sure yet if at expense of listenability. Maybe too in your face now.

The Rest of Soundcheck Mods (excl turning off WLAN) made a massive difference to how music was being presented. The Timing and dynamics are back in spades and sounds much more musical. Maybe a little warmer?? Not too sure yet. Will be making a donation in due course

I am stuggling when listening at volume or longer periods as really fatiguing. Sound is too harsh/hard and treble needs toning down quite a bit. Maybe dropping Mains filter will help and I feel that the DAC (original DAC magic I) isn't helping in this regard.

Speakers also known to be a little excitable in treble as well.

I really hope that with a better DAC and some further tweaking I will have my best system to date.

Will post some more specifics once been through more testing.

So Acalex, will have to let us know how the touch sounds with the RDAC as I believe this is quite a smooth sounding DAC, at least from my brief experience with it and plenty of bang at the bottom!!

Cheers and enjoy!

Ambrose

I think I will test more the SB touch itself against pc + rDAC cz I dont think I will get much improvement connecting the SB to the ampli through an external DAC...

Hi Acalex,

Fair enough although I have noticed some more openess in sound using DAC magic vs SBT DAC. Nothing too significant however, although it might be that the RDAC or other DACs will impact the presentation of the music. EG Warmer, fuller, faster, leaner, even if the detail levels / soundstage are similar.

Ambrose

I need to get a good digital cable first to connect the SB touch to the rDAC...but I guess is not a major expense! Now you got me curios I will try this as well! Please keep me posted on some of the testing you are doing as well!
I started implementing some of the stuff you can read on that website, mainly the software and touch configuration for now, didn't change anything in the firware yet!

Just a question on NAS...any NAS will allow to install the SB Server application? I want to be able to listen to the music stored on a NAS with my pc switched off as well. 
Thanks a lot

er..no. Been there, tried it, played around a fair bit. The SB server is quite hungry in terms of CPU and memory, and the low end NAS units are not really up to the job. Add to that, that you'll either have to get down and dirty with the operating system or use a "hacked" BIOS in order to load the SBS software. I have a Bufallo LinkStation live 2TB NAS, and whilst there is a hacked firmware available that has the SBS software added, it just didnt work at anything like the performance I was wanting when it came to indexing the library and feeding the music library info to the Touch. I gave up and installed the SBS software on my Dell Studio laptop running Windows 7, using FLAC files converted from lossless WMA which was indexed and album art added using Windows Media Player .

Thanks Dr Lodge, some good info.

Got my SBT yesterday, initially impressed but struggling to get it to discover my music files on an attached 1TB USB drive without crashing, though there is only about 40GB of data. The local SBS crashes after discovering all the files when its trying to build it's database.

There is a lot of information on the SB forums which I'm trawling through, but I'm actually wondering whether the local SBS is a bit too lightweight and struggling to deal with large hard drives. Will try and install SBS on my laptop, but I didn't really want to have to have a PC involved.

Anyone successfully using a large NAS device?

Thanks for sharing this! I do not want to keep any pc involved...so for me this might be a big obstacle...I know some people managed to make it work with a NAS, hopefully they will advise...otherwise I am afraid I need to sell it on ebay and think about an alternative (maybe Sonos)

I've not had any real issues installing SBS on my Buffalo Link Station (LX-WXL) 2TB which is running in Raid 1 config. It serves happily both my SBT upstairs (wirelessly) and M-CR603 downstairs. Also streaming to two PS3s with no problem at all.

Not issues of performance at all? Good to know...