I have a Squeezebox 3 and I was ok with the sound quality using the internal dacs. I upgraded the power supply with a Elpac and I'm not sure if I could hear a discernable difference. I have an older California Audio Labs Aria CD player. I think the CAL sounds much better then the SB3 even though it is over 15 years old. Given my preference for the CAL tube sound I decided to buy an CAL Alpha DAC for my SB3.. This is a tubed dac and sell for about $400 used. It has two 12AX7 tubes. Two days ago I plugged it in and wow what a difference. I read reviews here that some couldnt tell the difference between the SB3 dac vs. external ones. Well in my case I can say it is night and day. The sound is much fuller. In comparison the stock SB3 sounds thin compared to the Alpha. Just for the fun of it I asked my 16 year old daughter for her opinion, and yes I adjusted for the difference in levels. She likes music but doesnt really care about fidelity so getting her to listen to the nuances of the sound quality is not going to happen. In a blind test with her she picked the Alpha overwhelmingly 3 times. Finally she said stop asking, the difference is too obvious.
I just thought I would share my experience with you. For me the addition of a DAC has made a dramatic improvement in almost everyway. -- Kenr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kenr's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1134 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20615 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
