Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Squeezebox Boom and F80

Anyone got both?

I am using a Squeezebox 2 connected via TOSLINK to the F80. You will need a TOSLINK to Mini jack fiber cable to connect to the F80 digitally.

I use the Van Den Hul TOSLINK to Mini Optocoupler cable. It is one of the better TOSLINK cables and sounds fine.

Alternatively, I believe Apple's web site sells a TOSLINK cable with a mini-jack adapter.

Sorry, but that wasn't my question. I too feed my F80 with a Squeezebox (via a 518 and CO2 coax-to-optical converter).

I'm looking for opinions on how the SB Boom sounds vs. the F80 from someone who actually has both.

I am not looking to downsize my F80.

Hi there,

Yes I have both I like the F80 DAB radio no drop outs like the Boom Internet radio which is a pain.

To my ears there is not a lot to choose between both units perhaps the F80 is ahead on sound quality and radio but the Boom has it in spades for being able to access and play FLAC files off my music server.

Hope that helps, Tim.

Hi Tim,

Is your Boom using wireless or wired? Internet radio is obviously an important application. I need to find out if my ISP supports multicast (for streaming AAC from the BBC).

That's a very interesting comment coming from an 800-series owner.

BTW, you may have noticed that your old 518 has found a good use!

>> all toslink cables sound IDENTICAL.
>> Van Den Hul is 4+x more $ than the below for a pearl white jacket and marketing hype

Not sure if I could definitively agree or disagree. You obviously know better than me. I just want a reasonable degree of quality.

There are at least 2 schools of thoughts on cabling, some think that anything other than zip cords are waster of money, some buy $10K cable without a wink and swear by them. I am sort of in between. I never thought power cable or interconnect could make a difference until I bought Naim Hi-Line and Powerline for my Naim equipment.

Van Den Hul claims their design minimizes jitter. And I do know that different optical cables could make huge differences in data rate.

Either way I do not think a $100 cable for a >$3000 machine is bonkers is it?

http://www.vandenhul.com/p_B42.aspx
http://www.vandenhul.com/userfiles/docs/OPTOCOUPLER_-_Hifi_Choice_issue_207.pdf

Please can this be kept on topic. Thank you.

Hi there,

We have 3 Booms 2 wired and 1 wireless but we do have a strong N wireless network, but I'm still noticing dropouts, both on wired and wireless connections, thus far I haven't really bothed in sorting the problem out just bought another F80 and put it next to the Boom in the bedroom so if 5 live goes funny just put the F80 on.

I must add that the facility of Internet radio via the Boom is just so brilliant there is so much out there to listen to.

I'm listening to these without feeding them through anything else just as office, kitchen or bedroom, radio, music, CD devices, never really felt the need to do a full compare but from all the listening I`ve done with them and given their respective prices the Boom has to be a bargain.

As for 800 users being older my ears have passed their best but good systems help. Sorry I've moved onto music servers using a transporter most of the time for convenience still got my 808.2 but it is hardly ever used. 518 went a long time ago. Next is to try out M`s music server system, but where is it?


Hope this helps, Tim.

Sorry Joel, I do not own both. But a friend of mine has a SB Boom that I suggested he get.

He had a few initial hiccups and I helped him sort those out. So, I've heard the Boom quite a number of times. Obviously, it has all the convenience benefits of the regular SB and sounds quite ok. If you're familiar with the popular Bose iPod unit (Wave I think???), then the Boom would be quite similar sounding to that

I think the F80 is on a different playing field entirely, sound wise (but price wise as well)

Hi Ronnie. Thanks for your comment. "Quite ok" will almost certainly do given that I'm thinking of getting a couple for the bedroom and kitchen. I just found out that Amazon were doing them for �130 back in March. Grrr!

Joel
Agree on the Bedroom application, but depending on the Kitchen size, the Boom can become a bit well named when stretched

Maybe buy one for the Bedroom (where it will work no questions) and try it for a few days in the kitchen before buying a 2nd one. Or else, just buy and there's always eBay

Makes sense. I need to CAT5e the bedroom (and kitchen) before I get one. I've got all the bits though.