Sound quality from a squeezebox.

[bikerhifinut]

I've had a Squeezebox touch for about 3 months now and nearly got to grips with its geeky interface.
However my question to forum members is this:
Mostly the sound quality is pretty good but now after a while getting used to it, I think theres a certain "Phasiness" to the sound. I can't think of a better way to describe it. I was considering getting a DAC of some sort anyway but is this effect down to the squeezebox DAC, or is it a side effect from the CD rips to a USB hard disc drive that forms the major source when its not used for internet Radio, which is an interesting curiosity............

I have had a lot of issues with CD rips not working and I did wonder if there are a lot of copy protected discs out there.

Andy.

[pre65]

What software are you using to rip CDs to the hard drive ?

[bikerhifinut]

Either windows media player or iTunes ripping as 16bit .wav files. I have found that some Cd's don't rip cleanly, I get a mess of distortion.
I think theres issues with the latest versions of media Player as I now can't seem to rip any commercial CDs.
I dont care for iTunes much either as I find the way it indexes my music to be counter intuitive.
Tried Foobar 2000, and It's just too geeky.

I am seriously thinking about flogging a few bits and saving up for a NAIM or Olive media player. Ease of use at a rather large price.

I readily concede that computers and me do not mix well.

A.

[bikerhifinut]

Anyway the main point of my original post was about the sound quality of squeezebox touch. I am not sure if what I'm hearing is a result of poor CD rips, or a failing of the Squeezebox internal DAC. I have a suspicion this "phasiness" could be down to the internal clock not being quite right. Maybe. Perhaps.

[pre65]

I've not used my Touch with the inbuilt DAC, although friends who have (and whose ears I trust) say it's only just behind the AK4393 that I use.

You could try EAC to rip your CD's to FLAC, never heard reports of dodgy sound on replay and it's free to download.

Or, you could use Vortexbox software which I've heard very good reports on, also DB poweramp which does cost but is very versatile.