RHurely, I think your a bit all over the map. No you are all over the map and dead wrong (using your words). I really think your post above is really confusing the underlying topic. Which is a Music Server (done right) is as good (or not as good) as a high CD Transport.

Please STOP saying we never discuss Sound Cards. Fact, your wrong here.

Please STOP saying we never discuss enabling error checking, or other iTunes suggestions we have. Fact, your wrong here.

And for that matter so what if we didn't there are plenty of resources out there that do.

You are completely mixing apples and oranges with your statement around the EAC "method" and Apple Lossless and FLAC "method". EAC isn't a FORMAT !! It's and extract tool that only extracts WAV natively then calles any encoder you want. This really makes me question your qualifications on the whole topic. Very confusing and very incorrect statement. You are very confused here (or you simply mistyped your statement because as written it's very wrong or at least very confusing what your trying to say).

There really isn't much about "timing" in a FLAC file. There is the sample rate and word size in the header that simply tells that hardware how to interpret the data (how it should be clocked out). How they are losslessly compressed has nothing to do with anything here and timing is does the same with all formats (it's just a number in the header).

It really doesn't matter if we are talking iTunes or EAC or Sonos. As long as it's done right.

The decoding is trivial to get 100% correct and plays no role in quality differences (for any lossless format). If it's decoding wrong even a little wrong it would be a pretty lame implementation.

The only part that is correct above is the Digital Output Stage does play a role. Which I (and some others) think is good enough for human ears over SPDIF and given Meridian processors minimize jitter for all sources including SqueezeBoxes, 800's, 808's, G91's and G98's, 598 etc.

If you bothered to read my post on the suggestion for a Music Server Client more carefully. There are plenty of advantages. You seem to be just fishing for debate now.

1) It's better integrated. A lot of us pay big bucks for full Meridian systems just because they play nice together.

2) It could look a lot nice together (i.e. getting rid of the squeezenbox). A lot of us want to minmize boxes and brands for a a clean simple look. The SqueezeBox 3 does look a little dorky.

3) Meta data tags in your Music Files could instruct the Meridian processors to set your preferred settings per song or CD (Originally suggested by VirusKiller I think).

4) ALL transports 808, 800, G98, 598, etc. have a theoretical weak link. That is, SPDIF (independently running clocks with oneway transmission no feedback). Commercial/Pro systems have a global word clock. Usually orginated by the DAC clock. This is fed back to the digital source to exactly clock the data between components exactly at the rate the DAC can consume. This is not 100% Jitter free but it is 100% drift free which can allow Dejitter circuits to work 100% perfectly. If the SqueezeBox interface was integrated it could use a common clock and dejittering would work even better than a 808/861 pair could over SPDIF. How much this would audibly help I don't know. But in theory no one could argue it wasn't the most superior setup. I'll bet the 861V5 or V6 comes up with better interfaces between 800 components. MHR helps but I believe it's still one way SPDIF and independently clocked.

This is why "Integrated" systems in high end audio are so popular because they can control things much tighter within the box and don't have to drop down to consumer interfaces. Since the 800,G,5xx transports all use the same weak link as the SqueezeBox it puts them in similar ballpark especially with the SPDIF dejitter present in Meridian processors.

There is actually a lengthy discussion on the SlimDevices forum of someone who has tapped the I2S interface within the SqueezeBox and coupled this to a highend DAC that accepts I2S. Eliminating the weak SPDIF interface.

Even though SPDIF is the weak link it may be good enough even though it is the weakest link.

Last edited by George Mills; 2007-09-14 06:50.
- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
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