CarverFest 09' Music Servers

Just looking for opinions from those that attended CarverFest 09' this year.

What was your opinion on the Squeezebox Music Server "output" ??
Looking for critical opinions on the "sound" not so much the workings of the unit.
I know there were 2 or 3 people seriously thinking about getting a Squeezebox after seeing and hearing our setup.
Don't forget... the toy that made the Squeezebox FUN to play with was the iPeng software that was running on the iPhones, and iPod Touch.
A program WELL WORTH the $10 the designer is asking. iPeng

For those that were not there... about 75% of the time, the majority of all the music played was MP3 or FLAC format audio coming off of a $200 Acer Netbook laptop.
We did run into a couple of server/network problems. Roy's 20,000 song collection crashed the software once, and the WiFi being flakey wasn't helping.
The 2nd or 3rd day, we had the bugs worked out, and could pull audio from any of 3 PC's at any time. Once the system was fully set up, and running correctly, it seemed to work very well.

So post your opinions on what you heard from the unit please.

Three PC's and no Steely Dan! I think you know my opinion of that!

That being said I thought it was great & will be the future of recorded music.

The sound quality was excellent to me but my hearing is not stellar.

The other people seemed to like it too including Bob.

My .02

Frank.

You don't want to know my opinion. You may get pissed off and leave the forum........

I already own a Squeezebox Duet and love it. I can only hear very slight differences between a ripped cd and playing it on my 490t. The 490t being just a tad better IMO but with the Squeezebox remote and having gigs of songs ripped I can sit out on my deck and drink and smoke and change songs without ever getting up is a plus.

I have two Squeezeboxes that implement my "whole house" music server. I have two complaints about the setup. First, Squeezecenter is not the most stable or bulletproof software out there. It locks up, gets confused, just stops, or restarts, especially when trying to keep two Squeezeboxes in sync. Squeezeplay (that runs on the PC to emulate a squeezebox) doesn't sync at all with other players and is therefore useless.

But the big thing is that the DACs in the Squeezebox are only 48kHz. I ripped all of my vinyl at 24 bit 192kHz and had to downconvert it all to 48kHz to play on the Squeezebox. Don't get me wrong, I love mine, but these are the annoyances.

Thanks for the replies so far... But I want feedback from those that HEARD it at CarverFest...
What did everyone think of the sound of MP3's through the tube amps ???

I think my father and I came to the conclusion that, all you need to make an iPod sound great, is $250,000 worth of Carver Tube equipment.
It's as simple as that !!!

Tom Huffman: You WILL hear a big difference between the Squeezebox and a 490t... TUBES is what you will hear.
Run a stock SS CD player, and the SB, and see if you can tell them apart.

Tom Reitz: No one gives a shit what you think, we all know for are a fucking PRIUS wannabe !!!
I just might go running off to the other forum, where I can be appreciated

Yes Bill, the Squeezebox is only 48k... that's why they make the $2,000 96k Transporter... you need to get you 2 of em' so I can get those crappy Squeezeboxes off you cheap
http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/produ ... .html#tab2

Thanks for that linky ToyMaker! That animated chick is HOT! and after I made a few choices, she said; You have great taste! Oh yeah! I think she likes me?

I can't offer a critical opinion or make a comparision because,
A. I never got familiar with the system in general.
B. I never got to compare the same song(s) between the music server and the CDP.
C. There was always a ton of noise in the room with people yacking away and what have you.
D. There wasn't any Steely Dan!

I will say this, I preferred Eddie's Jolida CDP over the iPod/Wadia dock/PS Audio DAC in our cabin.

I will also say that the Carver tube gear was way cool and that your speakers never sounded better.

The main thing I noticed was the lack of detail. It wasn't bad mind you but with the gear you had running, that should have been hands down the best system there. The subtle nuances were really just non-existent and the only other thing I noticed was that the imaging and stereo separation wasn't what I was expecting based upon my travels in audio so far.

Bob's tube amps on Skip's speakers last year had all of the aforementioned. I can only assume that it was the transport along with the EQ and associated additional IC's that altered the signal to produce the end result of what I heard this year.

Not dogging, just TREX being honest.

C is where a lot of the detailed listen went out the door. No, I'm not complaining because I had the rig 24 hrs a day for 10 days and we did have a 490t hooked up.

C is where a lot of the detailed listen went out the door.

Maybe I'm thickheaded today, but I don't understand your comment.

Flew over my head as well Jesse.

Jesse I believe he (Roy) is referring to your earlier post when you listed some reasons alphabetically.

Reason "C" was the level of noise/talking etc in cabin 12 that interfered with quiet listening.

For the record it (the server) sounded good to me when we listend late one night in silence.

C. There was always a ton of noise in the room with people yacking away and what have you.

C. There was always a ton of noise in the room with people yacking away and what have you.

This?

There were moments where one could listen without "C". My comments remain the same as I heard it with and without "C". I will say that it was much better with the high frequency cutoff disengaged.

That story may come later if you all play nice.