I think we are a little unclear about what you want to know. None of the squeezbox products use "normal" player software such as foobar etc.
The software is divided into two parts a server (Squeezebox Server) which runs on a separate computer of some sort. (except for the touch, which can run its own server) This server reads the files and sends the data over the network to the player, which has a fairly simple player which reads the data from the network and sends it to the internal DAC ship and to the the S/PDIF output circuit. Yes there are versions of the server software and of the "firmware" running on the hardware, but they have no relationship to a version of any other software player such as foobar. The software (both server and firmware) can pass data through unchanged (bit perfect). The players do have a digital volume control which can change the bits if you set it to less than 100%. The Touch supports up to 24bit 96KHz so no sample rate conversion is done unless you are reading a file that has a sample rate higher than 96KHz. In such a case the sample rate conversion is performed in the server. As to sound quality of the software its hard to compare to PC based software since the touch is not a PC. Hardware wise its closer to a small low power computer such as a FitPC slim. Since it runs linux a good comparison would be MPD running under linux on a FitPC slim. I have actually done this comparison and they are very close. Since a number of people have done the comparison with MPD on a slim compared to foobar and other players on various PCS with various windows optimizations and almost always find MPD on the slim sounds significantly better than any of the PC configurations, the conclusion is that the touch is probably one of the best platforms out there. Note this does NOT mean its the best sounding device on the planet, the DAC and clock jitter etc are very good but not the best on the planet. The S/PDIF out IS extremely good and probably one of the best out there. Its also possible by playing some games with the linux configuration to hook a USB DAC up to the USB port and this is one of the best USB connections for audio out there. My personal opinion is that the Touch used from its audio outs is very good, definitely much better than you would expect from its price, but from its digital outs its phenomenal. If that doesn't answer your questions let us know. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72246 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
