Squeezebox Touch, how to make it sound better!

Portable Music Appliances No Responses »
Nov 092011

As the public at large move away from physical media (CD’s, DVD, Blu-Ray) and towards network storage and ripped and downloaded music on i-pods and PC’s a new knight in shining armour has emerged. The Squeezebox Touch is made by Logitech and has almost certainly helped to revolutionize how we listen to music in the 21st century. It is an interface to play music stored on a computer or storage device and works brilliantly.

It may well be responsible for the death of the CD in time. With millions sold and many used by audiophiles who demand the best, Mains Cables R Us have developed ways to take the standard touch and make it sound much better when it is connected to a top flight hi-fi system. As standard the touch is powered from the mains by a wall wart type power supply, so called because it looks like a giant wart, black and bulbous. This power supply does not help the performance of the touch as it injects interference into the mains which is detrimental to good sound quality. Widely known as a SMPS (switch mode power supply) replacing it is the best way to take your touch to the next level sound quality wise.

The Mains Cables R Us Squeezebox Touch PSU is plug and play, it is supplied with a power lead and a cable to fit straight into the back of your touch, the power supply itself is totally unique and is manufactured in the UK by professionals who specialize in electronics so they understand what is required from this type of power supply from an audiophile’s perspective. There are other ways to improve the performance of your touch and those involve modifying the internal software which is a job for professionals and we are able to improve the sound by dis-abling the analogue circuitry which is not normally used and other internal modifications which are all totally reversible and do not effect the warranty, contact us if you want your squeezebox to sound better than it did when purchased from new.

Finally do not forget the cables used to connect the signal which is normally ethernet (wireless is an option but in our opinion wired connections sound better), we use Meicord Opal Ethernet Cables made in Germany, audiophile quality and excellent performance. Available up to 20 metres in length, well reviewed and postively recommend by everyone who has heard them.

Posted by David at 5:20 pm

Music on the go with the “Furutech Cruise” Headphone Amplifier.

Portable Music Appliances No Responses »
Oct 312011

Ever since the invention of the Sony Walkman and before, people have listened to music whilst walking or travelling. The concept has been around since the 1970′s and has developed over many years from a bulky and heavy compact cassette player to today’s ultra modern i-phone or android device with either wired or wireless headphones playing 1000′s of songs stored digitally on a glorified memory stick.

Whilst the method to store the music files has changed from a cassette to a cd to mp3 one thing has remained the same, the sound quality leaves something to be desired. An mp3 file is a compressed version of a full song, the mp3 is a compression format to make the songs smaller in size to fit more onto the storage device. During the compression process sound quality suffers drastically, if you want to hear your songs as they sounded on the CD use Flac instead, or at worst apple lossless (not as good as flac though).

First thing to up-grade when your new i-phone 4 arrives is the headphones. You simply cannot get good sound quality from the supplied white in-ear slugs! 100′s of quality portable headphones exist, audiophiles use these brands to release the sound from compressed music, Senheiser, Grado, Beyer and Stax.

Fast forward to all those mediocre sounding files on your i-phone, i-pod, HTC desire or other music player and help is at hand. A good set of headphones will help make the sound more realistic, the bass will be fuller and treble clearer, however for portable audio there is only one real solution, a portable headphone amplifier. Enter the Furutech Cruise to save the day. The Furutech Cruise takes what is there and makes it better.

The cruise is the size of a portable phone and connects to your music player using the 3.5mm jack socket, it has a volume control and built in long life battery, it looks so cool all your friend will be jealous, and boy does it sound good too. Listen with it connected and then listen without. You cannot fail to be impressed. On the train, on the bus, walking or travelling anywhere, the cruise is small enough to fit in your pocket or laptop bag and can be re-charged with the supplied mains charger or usb via a pc or laptop, it even works connected directly to a pc using the usb input to amplify computer audio with great results.

 

Posted by David at 5:57 pm
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