Squeeze Box Love'n'hate

I too have strangeness with the SB3. I run the thing all night into my Pace-Car reclocker and DAC's so they can break-in. Often, in the morning it appears to be playing at the laptop, but there is no activity at the SB3 and no music. I have to stop and hit play again to start it up. May be interference in the Wi-Fi??

I never have problem like this with the Sonos.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I run my SB3 with a Pace-Car reclocker:
http://www.empiricalaudio.com/frPace-Car.html

With this device, it is not necessary to improve the output from the SB3, or the power supply. There is very little room inside to mod the SB3 anyway. No way to fit a Superclock4 inside for sure.

Steve N.

Kana813 - it seems like a lot of money, but when you consider that I plan to do a shootout with the Memory Player and expect to win, maybe not....it's that good.

Steve N.

Dmccombs - I agree with you on the Sonos. Great product. I also have a Sonos playing through a Pace-Car reclocker. Same great sound quality as with the Squeezebox. It's the great equalizer. Works with Olive also.

Steve N.

Kana813 wrote:
"Right now, I wonder if a SB3(16/44.1)running through your Pacecar sounds any better than a SB3 running through an old Genesis Digital Lens(available here on audiogon for less than $500.). I'd be happy to test this for you."

I'll guarantee 100% that it does. The Pace-Car has an I2S output, which has much lower jitter than any S/PDIF output. It also uses Superclock4 or Ultraclock, which are lower jitter clocks.

I wish I had extra Pace-Cars and SB3's to lend them out, but I dont. If I get a request from a reviewer, maybe I'll build another set for demo, but he has to be the right reviewer.

Steve N.

Steve N.

The answer is that the asynchronous sample-rate conversion does make the DAC somewhat immune to incoming jitter, but not completely. You can test this for yourself by using a really cheap S/PDIF cable to it and then a really good one. If your system is resolving you should hear a difference, I do. Whe I drive the DAC-1 from a transport and then from an Off-Ramp USB-to-S/PDIF converter, the difference is obvious to me.

However, in your case, your money is probably better spent on upgrading the upsampling clock in the DAC-1 to something with lower jitter. Even with ultra-low jitter on the incoming S/PDIF signal, the upsampling clock will add its own jitter, and this is the final step in the chain. Improving the input jitter without improving this clock first is not recommended.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

BTW, the Sonos isn't perfect either. I have been running one for days through my Pace-Car directly network-wired with superb results, but this morning I awoke to a screen with stripes through it and the mouse unresponsive. It was still playing music properly though. I had to power down and back up to fix it. It did not corrupt data on the disk, so no harm done.

Steve N.

DPAC966 - The crystal oscillator adds its own jitter. The upsampling chip is also not completely jitter resistant. They both contribute.

Steve N.

Dpac996 - I would not radically alter these devices, I would just remove them. This is what I do in the Benchmark DAC-1. I remove the SRC chip completely and make it a non-upsampler, as well as the SRC clock. No clock in the DAC anymore. The clock comes from the Off-Ramp computer converter or the Pace-Car Reclocker. This way I can make the jitter REALLY REALLY low without coloring the sound with a hardware upsampler.

Absolutely true. Anyone that claims complete elimination of jitter is stretching the truth. I only claim jitter at inaudible levels after processing through my Pace-car reclocker.

Steve N.