I had immediately noticed a lack of warmth in the song playback (yes, even with my ears). I’ve decided that the problem is the bitrate at which I had ripped my collection. Using iTunes, which is great for the purpose, I had ripped my collection at 224 kbps, with select albums done at 320. When doing this sort of testing, my three reference songs are always R.E.M.’s “Find the River”, Pink Martini’s “Amado Mio”, and Tori Amos’s “China”. Not an exhaustive test, because the songs are fairly similar. But they’re complex and warm enough for my purposes, as well as favorites.
Anyway, listening to “River” at 320 over the Squeezebox, I could tell it was an MP3. I didn’t dare compare it to a CD playing on my stereo, because I knew it wasn’t a fair test and could sour me on the SB forever. So what I did do was re-rip R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People” using Apple Lossless format. It sounded wonderful.
So, where do I go? I’m keeping the Squeezebox. It’s a very nice piece of equipment. I’m pleased with the interface, the display, and the customization. I still cannot recommend the wireless version, as it is inexplicably locked into using the 802.11b standard, which in 2005 will be archaic. I assume they will update to 802.11g or perhaps SuperG (isn’t that what it’s called? can’t remember) down the road. In the meantime, the wired solution was just what I was looking for.
[Sigh] So now all I have to do it re-rip my collection using a higher format than MP3(320). The Squeezebox supports a ton of formats, so I’ll do some research. It also means that the basement music server (coming sooner than you’d think) will have to sport an 80+GB hard drive, but they’re not that expensive anymore. If anyone has any suggestions, please share. I’m looking for a program that can rip at archival-quality, preferably free or very cheap. iTunes does the job fine with Apple Lossless (.mp4a), but a less proprietary format might be better. It must be high quality, though, even at the expense of compression.
Stay tuned…
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