I haven't posted here before (just passing through because squeezenetwork is on the blink), but I thought I would add my experience to the thread. Friends (not audiophiles, and highly skeptical) and I blind tested (not double blind)a squeezebox vs. a Bolder modified (digital only) squeezebox. The rest of the digital processing system is a Behringer Deq 2496, into a Lavry da10. The power supply was a Bolder modified Elpac. All of us could hear a significant difference: the Bolder modified squeezebox was better. One non-audiophile friend called the Bolder modified squeezebox "brighter". I would say it was clearer and the background was blacker--the grunge was removed. We also briefly tested the Bolder modified squeezebox as a source vs. a Marantz 8260's digital out (i.e. using the Marantz as a transport). Again a difference: the Bolder modified squeezebox was better--it had better control of the bass--a cleaner sound. So, yes, the transport matters. Frankly, I was surprised by the degree of difference. By the way, we also tested the coax (Blue Jean Cable) out of the Bolder modified squeezebox vs. the optical out using a cheap BestBuy quality Toslink. I was surprised to find the Toslink was better--again it cleaned up some grunge (I presume RFI/EMI is the culprit)--instruments and voices had more "body". FWIW
-- ragrossman ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ragrossman's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3843 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39113 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
