Squeezebox Touch-tips, tricks & tweaks

polkatese

gotcha..thanks Tony.

nspindel

coolsax wrote: »

Just ordered mine today! nice price from Electronics Expo store on Amazon.

can't wait!

+1 for that deal, thanks for the tip. At that price, I decided to get a second Touch for my office rig, rather than moving the one I had back and forth from my two-channel setup. Shweet!

Drenis

Well got my SQBT up and running last night. Took almost 45 minutes to get it setup and playing. UNREAL the amount of options and features and junk to choose and select from. Will learn about it all this weekend.

This thing is a gem. Very fast and easy to use as far as playback. However, after trying to search for artists and manuver for 10 minutes with the remote, I said "THE HELL WITH THIS!" and bought an app for my Playbook to control it... WHY DID I NOT BUY THIS SOONER!?!?!? I can't believe how efficient this setup is. This is a slick device. Brings the nerd right out in me.

Now lets talk about initial sound impressions... Currently configured as: FLAC files streamed through ethernet to SQBT -> Coax out to Pop Pulse DAC -> MIT EXp 1's to Pioneer Elite AVR in Pure Direct -> MIT EXp 1 to Carver TFM-42 -> Monoprice wires (EXp 1 Speaker Cables in the mail!) to RTi A9's.

Was there a difference?

Oh HELL yeah. And I really emphasize that because there really was. It's strange in a sense to me just how much the sound has evolved. It has shown me where the weaknesses are in my setup (MP3's, AVR, lack of ext. DAC and speaker cables). I'm thrilled by how much an ext. DAC has shaped the sound. How wide the sound stage got and how much more precise vocals are. It makes me question if it's all in my head but EVERY song has that now. So far I am loving the pure sound I got so far. I still have some configuration to do. Will have to re-read this thread for all the tips and tricks.

One issue I've run into is that one of my albums wont play. it's no different from any of my other rips. The app see's it and will try to play it, but the SQBT just displays a blank library screen or something to that extent. It's odd and also my other halfs' favorite album so it has to be fixed or she will rage and I'll have to return this gem so MUST BE FIXED!

gdpeck

polkatese wrote: »

Gents, who has tried and subscribe to MOG streaming to SQBT? It's $10/month but guaranteed 320 kbps streaming. I've been happy with Pandora and Slacker, so the only consideration is hi-res, not selection. worth it?

I'm currently subscribing to MOG, and I love it. I completed a 1 month trial of Slacker, Spotify, and MOG, and ended up liking MOG the best. I think the 320 kbs stuff sounds really nice through my equipment, and I especially like how easy it is to download music to my iPhone for offline play. Also like the fact that you can use it concurrently from multiple locations. Spotify only allows one. There's a lot of information on the Web about the alleged catalog sizes of both Spotify and MOG, and it seems that while Spotify may have a slightly larger catalog, MOG is very close behind. Also Spotify has been very slow to get their entire catalog up to 320 kbs. Another advantage of MOG is that they allow 320kbs even for free users.

I think that MOG's Squeezebox interface could be a little bit better, but I mostly use iPeng to control my Squeezeboxes (en), and it works pretty well.

One weakness I see in MOG is the radio options. If you just want to listen to albums, MOG is fantastic, but I think Slacker has the best radio interface of all of the services I've tried. Also, I have never tried Rhapsody, but have heard good things about it as well.

MOG only gives a 14 day trial, but if you google the following search string: "mog 30 day trial starbucks", you can find a 30 day promo, so try it out. I liked it so much, I just left it turned on.

steveinaz

Drenis wrote: »

One issue I've run into is that one of my albums wont play. it's no different from any of my other rips. The app see's it and will try to play it, but the SQBT just displays a blank library screen or something to that extent.

Check your hard drive to verify the music is there...I had one strange "rip" occurance where EAC was acting like it ripped an album, but when I went back and checked, there were no songs in the directory. I just re-ripped the CD and it worked fine. Also, do a "Clear and Re-Scan my library" command on Logitech Media Server.

Anytime you have strange glitches like mutliple album listings, missing songs, or if you rip a better version of a CD you already have--make sure to run "Clear and Re-Scan."

polkatese

gdpeck wrote: »

I'm currently subscribing to MOG, and I love it.

Agreed. I tried it for 14 days and decided to let on. SQ is definitely better than Slacker and Pandora, it just take a bit of getting used to. Slacker has a better logical user interface menu.

Drenis

steveinaz wrote: »

Check your hard drive to verify the music is there...I had one strange "rip" occurance where EAC was acting like it ripped an album, but when I went back and checked, there were no songs in the directory. I just re-ripped the CD and it worked fine. Also, do a "Clear and Re-Scan my library" command on Logitech Media Server.

Anytime you have strange glitches like mutliple album listings, missing songs, or if you rip a better version of a CD you already have--make sure to run "Clear and Re-Scan."

I think that might be the issue. I was making changes and re-scanning the library. Seems to scan EVERYTHING outside of the media folders you delegate or at first. I'll try clearing and re-scanning when I get home.

Also, the files are good as they play fine on my desktop setup which was USB out to DAC... so I know the files are there and work/play okay. Certainly need to do some tweaking. Wish it showed the bitrate of files being played. At first it had MP3's and FLAC mixed and you could never tell which was which. Now I just have my flac files listed under "Media Folders" and it's grabbing from there.

tonyb

Is it just the album art your missing ?

Drenis

No. that will probably be the last thing I set up. I saw some options to have dedicated art folders and what not. Some art shows up already. The issue is all the songs from one album show up (art and tracks) but wont play. Haven;t tried all material to see if it's isolated to just the one.

heiney9

Drenis,

Make sure when you are ripping you files and the program is tagging that you include the art work now. Don't skip it to add later, what a nightmare what will be.

H9

gdpeck

polkatese wrote: »

Agreed. I tried it for 14 days and decided to let on. SQ is definitely better than Slacker and Pandora, it just take a bit of getting used to. Slacker has a better logical user interface menu.

I guess I should have checked the date of your post, before I replied.

Drenis

heiney9 wrote: »

Drenis,

Make sure when you are ripping you files and the program is tagging that you include the art work now. Don't skip it to add later, what a nightmare what will be.

H9

My trial of dbpoweramp expired so I have to purchase a copy so I can continue ripping my other discs. Wondering if I have to purchase a copy of MM as I use that now for management. I have a lot of work to do as far as sorting is concerned. Each artist has their own folder, albums in sub-folders. I have to read up on how LMS stores the metadata for the files. I saw something in the options...

steveinaz

I use Exact Audio Copy for ripping, and MediaMonkey for cleaning up tags. Both are free.

heiney9

What's LMS? You shouldn't have to look anything up as far as metadata, it's automatic unless you really mess with the standard settings. Sorting? What sorting? Each artist should have their own folder and the sub-folders are the albums.

Don't overthink this, it's so simple.

heiney9

I prefer dBPoweramp over EAC these days.

Drenis

heiney9 wrote: »

What's LMS? You shouldn't have to look anything up as far as metadata, it's automatic unless you really mess with the standard settings. Sorting? What sorting? Each artist should have their own folder and the sub-folders are the albums.

Don't overthink this, it's so simple.

LMS = Logitech Media Server

It's not simple when things are not so neatly organized. I have the knowledge to figure it all out. I literally played with it for an hour yesterday so I still have much to learn. Just wanted to get a quick listen in.

I'm sure it is real simple, just need to get it set up the way I want. Some people like the formats or how information is stored and displayed differently. Hell I don't even know how the default is set up. You can grill me on simplicity AFTER the weekend. :razz:

Drenis

steveinaz wrote: »

I use Exact Audio Copy for ripping, and MediaMonkey for cleaning up tags. Both are free.

Don't you have to buy a copy of MM to reap the benefits of getting the tags properly updated? perhaps I need to read the differences between the two cause I'm always being prompted to buy it with some of the options I try to use.

heiney9

Drenis wrote: »

Don't you have to buy a copy of MM to reap the benefits of getting the tags properly updated? perhaps I need to read the differences between the two cause I'm always being prompted to buy it with some of the options I try to use.

No, if you go the website there is a matrix of the free vs the gold version. I bought it simply to support the developers since I don't use the few extra features that come with the pay version.

H9

steveinaz

SQB/LMS is kind of strange in that some data is taken from how directories are named, and some data is pulled from the tagging info. My EAC was originally setup to include the year, ie: 1978 - Journey - Evoluton on the directories. Well, consequently this same info was displayed on the Touch. It was too much info, so I went back and changed the default setting on EAC, and took the year info off the directory names so the Touch would simply display "Journey - Evolution."

heiney9

Yes, too much info is a bad thing. I want the basics not an encyclopedia of information.

H9

gdpeck

steveinaz wrote: »

SQB/LMS is kind of strange in that some data is taken from how directories are named, and some data is pulled from the tagging info. My EAC was originally setup to include the year, ie: 1978 - Journey - Evoluton on the directories. Well, consequently this same info was displayed on the Touch. It was too much info, so I went back and changed the default setting on EAC, and took the year info off the directory names so the Touch would simply display "Journey - Evolution."

Player display is super easy to control for older players like the Squeezebox Classic from the LMS web interface. I never noticed this before, but now that you've pointed it out, I don't know how to control the Touch display, or whether it get's the display info from tags, or folder structure. I don't think folder structure should be a factor at all, unless tag info is missing. Maybe logitech doesn't agree with me.

heiney9

It gets it's display from the same exact place as any SQB product, thru the SQB software. When I switched from the SQB III to the Touch, nothing changed because I was using the same version of the SQB software.

Yes, that's where you will edit what info you want to display. I had forgotten that since I set mine up so long ago.

H9

Drenis

Hey h9,

http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/

Have you done this mod? First thing I noticed was my bass wasn't as it was, lacking a bit and some of the descriptions people talk about match some of my thoughts. While there were improvements I wonder if some adjustments can help with that especially with streaming the material.

gdpeck

heiney9 wrote: »

It gets it's display from the same exact place as any SQB product, thru the SQB software. When I switched from the SQB III to the Touch, nothing changed because I was using the same version of the SQB software.

Yes, that's where you will edit what info you want to display. I had forgotten that since I set mine up so long ago.

H9

That's where the problem is. The interface settings are not recognized by the Touch, like they are on the old players. I have the settings set to display DISCNUMBER - TRACKNUMBER, TITLE from ALBUM by ARTIST (I like too much information). My SB3 displays exactly like I have the settings configured. My Touch displays TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM. I can get the settings to influence the Touch display, but the Touch display doesn't completely obey the settings. If I set the Interface setting to TITLE only, I get TITLE only on the Touch display. If I set it to anything else I get TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM.

heiney9

No, a friend did and it messed up his library and he had to fix it, so I stayed away. I am very happy with the standard performance so I didn't bother.

If it ain't broke...............

H9

heiney9

gdpeck wrote: »

That's where the problem is. The interface settings are not recognized by the Touch, like they are on the old players. I have the settings set to display DISCNUMBER - TRACKNUMBER, TITLE from ALBUM by ARTIST (I like too much information). My SB3 displays exactly like I have the settings configured. My Touch displays TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM. I can get the settings to influence the Touch display, but the Touch display doesn't completely obey the settings. If I set the Interface setting to TITLE only, I get TITLE only on the Touch display. If I set it to anything else I get TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM.

I was fine for me, but then at the time I switched from the SQB III to the Touch, over a year ago (almost 2 now) I had no problems. Since in 2 years the software version has been updated maybe it's different today.

H9

Drenis

heiney9 wrote: »

No, a friend did and it messed up his library and he had to fix it, so I stayed away. I am very happy with the standard performance so I didn't bother.

If it ain't broke...............

H9

Still have the original PSU or done the upgrade? I was expecting a brick style external PSU but it was just a tiny adapter. I've done some reading today on the Well Wart and it's not very liked...

Sorry. maybe this has ALL been covered in this thread. I need to re-read it all. Going to be a fun weekend. hell the damn thing isn;t even burnt in.

heiney9

It has been covered a LOT, but I'll throw ya a bone.

The walwart stinks I use a Welborne Labs linear power supply, but they aren't real fast in shipping or communication. Nice product. CI Audio and a couple others sell PS for teh Touch, highly recommend it. I won't run with out it.

H9

steveinaz

Drenis
I would take Brocks advice on Mods--at least for now (it ain't broke, so don't try to fix it)*. I did get the Channel Island power supply ($259); can't say that it made a big impact, but I think the Touch is at a level that it is a worthy upgrade. My SQB sounds fantastic. I run mine via coaxial to my DAC, the signal sent wireless. I'll give $1000 to anyone who can distinguish it from my CD transport 7 out of 10 attempts. (I'll give ya 3 "misses"). The key is the same with any system, a good DAC and good speakers. Enjoy!

*You should see the nearly endless thread of people on the SQB forum who end up with issues after doing those mods.

nspindel

Another worthy source of power supply upgrades is Bolder Cable.