2. pc-audio
  3. 1290641957

Got the Touch, Now What?

I just purchased a Squeezebox Touch. This is my first attempt at anything other than cd. I want to get this running properly wthout too many mistakes. I know there's probably no one perfect way to do this, but clearly some ways are better than others.

I have J River and Itunes on my desktop. I thought I'd rip all my cd's to J River (apparently this plays 24/96 files and itunes doesn't?)and then stream wirelessly from my desktop to the squeezbox, through my dac and out through my stereo.
I have a Cambridge Audio 840c and I thought I would utilize the DAC from it. Does it sound like I'm headed in the right direction?

I currently have itunes and a few hundred discs loaded using apple lossless, however I've read that ideally I create FLAC files for use with the touch instead? I'd like to have the files be some type of lossless to preserve the sound. I'm not concerned about file size because hard drives are cheap these days. I've got about a thousand cd's to work with so I really want to get this mostly right the first time.

I'm guessing at most of this so I would really appreciate any suggestions. Sorry if my explanation above sounds convoluted please bare with me.
Thanks,
Mike
ndfan

Showing 1 response by eugene81

eugene81
263 posts
 
Tpy, it might just be your wireless signal strength/available bandwidth. Try running wired and see if you have the same problem. Is your wireless router 802.11g or 802.11n? The best way to deliver wireless would be to get a wireless router that does 802.11n ON THE 5GHZ BAND (aka a "dual band" 802.11n router), and get a 5GHZ 802.11n wireless bridge that will pick up the signal deliver it to your SB through the wire. The 2GHZ band is very noisy so going to 5GHZ can greatly improve signal strength. HOWEVER, the range is not as long as 2GHZ, so YMMV depending on how far your router is from your SB.

If it's a long distance, you can get 2 more wireless bridges and connect them with a crossover cable at the point in between your router and SB. One bridge picks up the signal from your router and the other broadcasts it again (when set to access point mode), effectively acting as a signal booster.

You can pick up refurbished a WNHDE111 wireless bridge for a little over $40. For a router, I recommend the Linksys WRT-400n, about $60 refurb.
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