andrei_c Wrote: > > The first thing that bothered me immediately is that even at 100% > volume SB analog output is still significantly weaker than one of NAD > 541. I still listen a lot of CDs, and I had to adjust volume every time > switching between the CD player and SqueezeBox. > This surprises me too. I have a pair of Arcam Delta 290/290P amps that are too old to have digital inputs (indeed, to have dedicated inputs for anything more modern than a CD player); so my SB3's analogue output is connected to the tuner input. I'm old-fashioned enough not to ramp the SB3's volume all the way up (partly to give me some leeway - the 290's own volume control doesn't respond well to the remote), and as a result I have to set the amp volume *much* higher for the SB3 than for any of the other inputs. More importantly, I have to remember to turn it down before using anything else! (The end result is that I just use the SB3 most of the time...)
So why are the SB3 outputs so low? I suppose I could try turning it up to full (or near-full) to see if it ends up in the same range as my other devices; but other posts here suggest that the audio quality might not be so good up there. As it is, I'm pretty happy with the SB3's sound; purely subjectively, at times I'm really wowed by the depth-but-clarity of the lower frequencies, in ways I can't say I noticed with my CD player (Arcam Alpha 6). However, there are lots of reasons that make the comparison difficult: the huge difference in output levels (hard to set the "same" level, and perhaps my amps perform better when turned up for the SB3); probable differences in the circuitry of the CD and tuner inputs; and the CD interconnects cost about 10x those I'm using for the SB3 (normally I wouldn't be so extravagant, but it was part of a new-for-old insurance deal following a burglary). (Yes, there's an obvious partial solution to the cable diffs; but it's far too fiddly to swap them betwixt CD and SB3.) Brian -- Brian Ritchie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brian Ritchie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2319 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22273 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
