I'm not going to talk about the Squeezecentre any more.....other than to refer to the many threads on the same subject.

Summary: SB Users have found deteriorated sound when PCM Decoding happens at the Server end as opposed to the Client end.......Leading some to speculate that buffer under-runs (or something else) is increasing Jitter levels from the CLient.....including the Hifi News article mentioned above

I don't use it, so I'm going to bow out

As regards the ID40 (and the MS600 for that matter), they are essentially Network Players in that they receive the FLAC file and decode it internally. They take the FLAC file over Ethernet in the same way as the SB / Touch / Sonos clients do and then decode from Lossless to PCM internally. It is NOT "some sort of PCM uncompressed format".

I cannot say for sure if the ID40 Card itself or the 861/808 is doing the FLAC Decode as I never got an answer to that question. The Decode happens internally to the MS600

That information is from Meridian in June / July of this year. Make of it what you may, but Meridian state that this is the inherent advantage of these two products.

It's also the reason why they say that EVEN IN THE SAME ROOM, a C15 to 808/ID40 will sound superior to C15 to 808 via Speakerlink / PCM.

Let me emphazize, I have not done the comparison. Others (like Dollar2 & JSCC above) have and expressed a preference for using the ID40

Last edited by Ronnie; 2010-12-03 06:45.
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