Squeezing the music from the Squeezebox
A glimpse into the future of Audio.
If you were ever wondering what is the future of hifi - this is it.
Thats how we will listen to the music in the first half of 21st century.
Enter the Squeezebox.
This system is not from Levinson, not from Jadis, not from Cello, not
from Sonic Fronteers. This is from people who make PC mouse. This is
LOGITECH !!!
Apparently Logitech was the best company to identify the real needs of
audiophiles Anno Domini 2008. They did the HOMEWORK. This is
called the Voice of Customer . Squeezebox is a device which bridges the
computer world and audio world. It can be considered a virtual
transport. It has a super cool remote which is one of the most sexy
toys for boys I ever saw. It operates in wifi domain, not infrared, so
it can be taken around the house. It has a display which is able to
show the cover of the album !!! And it blends seamlessly the
internet music stores like iTunes, internet radio, network music
servers and our own computer with music. It also blends seamlessly the
MP3 world and wav slash aiff world.
The squeezebox frees us from the TRANSPORT problem, and allows the full
digitalization of all music we have on CD onto hard drive, without any
compromise in quality. No need to MP-3 our collection - we can use
lossless files and preserve all the beauty of 16-bit 44 kHz audio.
AND we can have a shadow copy of all that we own - on MP3 for portable
use.
No more laser problems, no more skipping discs. No more dropping the
jewel box on the floor which means broken hinges.
Stolen
from Logitech site
A side note: I consider the CD jewel box a serious contender to the
award of WORST ENGINEERING EVER.
Other contenders are:
RCA plug/socket combo which makes MAKE of the signal before the grounds
are equalized. WHO IN THE WORLD invented this crap ??? If it is called
RCA, why does a huge reputable company endorse something, which
deserves 100 whips at the whipping post ? The RCA name stuck to this
stupid plug forever. While all it takes to make it perfect is to
shorten the center pin by 4 mm.
Another contender is PERPENDICULAR PARKING. 90 % of parking lots in
Poland , even these designed from scratch without space constraints -
use 90 degrees parking bays. Moreover, there are street curbside
parking bays which are surrounded by half foot curb AND PERPENDICULAR
at the same time. Entering or exiting such parking spot requires a
maneuver across three lanes of traffic. All it takes to make a perfect
parking bay is to skew it by 45 degrees which costs absolutely the same
.
Three other genius designs on my list are: toilet flushing button
located centrally on the flushing
reservoir, around the middle of human spine area, requiring a
super-unnatural twist of spine when we are the
least in the mood for yoga. As if that location was deliberately
selected to be totally unreachable unless we stand up and turn around
mid you know what.
Another one is a set of schampoo/conditioner, in two identical bottles,
with huge company logo on them (font 36) , much smaller descriptor of
whatever
biological ingrediends were used (almond, jojoba, honey, aloe,
lemongrass, green tea, parsley, garlic and pine resin) - in font
12, but the words: shampoo
and conditioner are
written with font number 6 when we stand in the shower without glasses
and with foam in the eyes, trying in vain to tell which is which.
According to Woody Allen, the winner of all that contest is of course
... aluminium siding.
Back to squeezebox - it means we never have to look for the ONE CD
which we want to listen to and someone just placed it under different
letter
of alphabet on the shelve, or even worse - our kids just lent it to
their buddies to copy at home.
If somenone needs a copy - the squeezebox owners can just press the
BURN button and have
a freshly burned ROM within minutes, or even going next step forward -
we can share with friends the entire collection by a simple diskcopy function. Maybe not
really legal - but technically doable.
Squeezecenter
The squeezebox - squeezecenter is a small box which is a LAN / WIFI
router which pulls
the data from whatever storage (PC, MAC or RAID) - and converts
it to
Audio (analog RCA or digital SP/DIF)
Theoretical modell is then a silent computer (like iMAC for example)
plus large external USB HDD drive (1TB or larger) and the system
becomes a TRANSPORT and music file server. Connect it to the high-end
DAC and then to amps and you have a system replacing the traditional CD
player. by using a Lampizator with the squeezebox own internal DAC we
can get away without the external DAC. The Wolfson should do just fine.
It is gonna take some time before we will put all our CDs on hard drive
- months perhaps. Bu we do it once in a lifetime. I found it to be the
best pocketmoney job for the kids.
I listened once to the basic Squeezebox at audiophile friend's Richard
W and it
was connected to Audionote DAC3,1 and sounded absolutely fantastic so I
konw it is possible. I have no knowledge if his squeezebox was tweaked
or stock. I assume it was stock. There was absolutely not a trace of
sonic compromise compared to CD transport. The dog on Roger waters'
Amused to Death still barked behind my head.
THE big question is - will my S-B play halfway decent music? Can we
sacrifice our precious CD players ?
Can we live with Squeezebox AND be able to look into the mirror in
the morning ????
The Squeezebox is small cheap and simple, but it uses premium parts.
Chips
are first rate, PCB is neatly soldered, everything looks OK except the
wall-wart power supply which is a low budget one. I suggest to use a 20
VA transformer with 12 VAC secondary, put a bridge, and add a
regulator like LM3XX or 7809 with two good electrolytes and start
from there:
The remote belongs to a different world. It looks better than any CD
remote I ever saw, definitely not in LOGITECH class. As if the main box
- squeezecentre and the remote were separated by worlds in the quality
class. I guess the remote represents 80 % of the product cost. And
rightly so because that is the human interface which we touch, and the
box - well - disappears inder our DAC and amps.
On the picture you see the whole inside of squeezebox, with two
antennas for wifi. Very nice.
Good Chips inside Squeezebox
Realtek RTL8201cp
This chip is responsible for translating the LAN data into our audio
digital data. It is first class chip from Taiwanese specialist.
(from their website)
The RTL8201CP is a
single-chip/single-port PHYceiver with an MII (Media
Independent Interface)/SNI
(Serial Network Interface). It
implements all 10/100M Ethernet
Physical-layer functions including the
Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS),
Physical Medium Attachment (PMA),
Twisted Pair Physical Medium
Dependent Sublayer (TP-PMD), with an
auto crossover detection function,
10Base-Tx Encoder/Decoder,
and Twisted Pair Media Access Unit
(TPMAU).
A PECL (Pseudo Emitter Coupled Logic)
interface is supported to connect
with an external 100Base-FX
fiber optical transceiver. The chip
utilizes an advanced CMOS process
to meet low voltage and low
power requirements. With on-chip DSP
(Digital Signal Processing)
technology, the chip provides
excellent performance under all
operating conditions.
There is not much to upgrade in LAN chip but a good supply cap will
never hurt:
Below you see the pins of power to the Realtek.
take two good caps like Tantalum or Oscon (minimum 10 uFtill
100uF by 6,3 VDC and connect like this:
between pins 35 (GND) and 36 (positive supply 3,3 VDC)
The same between pins 11 or 17 or 45 (GND) and 14 or
48 (positive supply 3,3 VDC)
Of course do not attempt to solder the chip pins directly - they are
too small - solder the next available parts on the trace.
Digital Ground should be connected to a larger GND plane.
I did not perform this job due to too small pins and lack of skills in
such microsurgery.
S/P DIF generator
74HCU04D
This is a standard Philips chip (from NXP - remember - the same lab
which brought us the TDA1541 !) performing data output formation
for
SP/DIF. If we add better power capacitor we can marginally improve the
output response perhaps.
SP/DIF signal is present on leg 2 (and 4)
Power 3,3 V DC or 5 V DC is on pin 14th.
To improve this simple signal generating buffer take a good cap like
Tantalum or Oscon (minimum 10 uF till 100uF by 6,3 VDC and
connect like this:
between pins 14 (Positive supply 3,3 or 5 VDC ) and 7
(GND). On our PCB this is easily doable - To add capacitor to
SP/DIF chip - please bypass with an oscon or
tantalum or blackgate the C107 / C45 pair - (they are both
parallell - solder to either one.)
Blue line: my proposed Os-Con 33uF / 6,3V
The actual SP/DIF can be stolen at the source - leg 2nd and wired to
output RCA directly (first- float the RCA-HOT pin please)
To steal clean SP-DIF signal, lift or remove R38 and solder to the cap
end C42 on the side closer to pin2 of the chip.
(buzz it first)
When soldering - always put a fresh drop of solder on the PCB where you
perform soldering because as it is ROHS compliant PCB it has lead free
solder and does not hold to additional parts. The old-school, leaded
solder
must blend with the RoHS solder to hold well.
Wolfson Microelectronics WM8501
Well well well, look who is here. A wolfson - the younger and poorer
brother of one of the best DACS in the mankind history - the WM8740
which I was drooling about so many times before. Maybe a company as
reputable as Scottish Wolfson did preserve most of the beauty of their
highend chip in this one ? It is still 24/192 chip with all the
features except balanced outputs.
The chipo has built-in output stage with some digital and analog
filtering, so the direct signal is already perfect without need of
filtration or amplification. Therefore I recommend to use it STRAIGHT
into RCAs. (via a good MKP capacitor).
http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/uploads/documents/en/WM8501.pdf
R=6, L=9,
power +5VDC Analog supply leg 8
3,3VDC digital supply leg 11
To improve caps in this DAC I did not do as on picture above but I
found tha main cap which supplies both analog and digital input - the
capacitors C10 (3,3V) and C30 (5V) . I put across it a bypass oscon
33uf/16 V which is a
perfect size phisically.
Upgrading Analog output of Squeezebox
The analog output is beautifully simple. No opamps, no transistors, no
muting, no relays, just decoupling electrolytes (quite bad ones -
visible above silver cans C28 and C22 which must be replaced). At the
end of the analog path there is a LC filter which I decided to bypass.
Above - this is the DAC with surrounding electronics. We must try to
improve
it - Input power supply and output caps.
The DAC is designed to work into RCA outputs directly - it has internal
output op-amp stage and analog filter of noise. It should play well
straight into RCA outputs - just via new decoupling caps from MKP foil
type to remove DC component of 1,5 V DC.
The soldering iron is pointing to the DAC output signal decoupling
caps. They have to be removed. Use less than 250 degrees temperature in
order not to damage fragile PCB traces. These two cans are no good for
output signal. Even if my 0,56 uF MKP caps are 20 times smaller than
original electrolytes in the silver can - they will play better.
This cap C10 is the main supply capacitor to the DAC input digital and
analog. It must be bypassed with a larger one like oscon or tantalum or
blackgate.
Nearby you see a regulator that feeds the DAC - the black thing with
three legs.
I already put the blobs of solder to connect easier to the RoHS solder
mix.
The oscon is already in place for the DAC supply
On the above photo the right channel's signal cap seems to be connected
to the negative (ground) side of the removed cap C22 but it is only
visual perspective illusion. In reality it is soldered to positive SMD
spot - meaning - the pin 6 of the Wolfson.
Upgrading SP/DIF output of Squeezebox and listening with Lampized
Rockna DAC
This is the Philips chip which forms the final SP/DIF signal. It can be
improved by better supply of power and by direct RCA connection from
output.
The power can be improved by installing a small oscon across the
capacitor C42.
This above is the stock form SP/DIF trace. Nice but with slight
overshoot.
This is the trace after all mods. Still good but overshoot is much
smaller. It will disappear after the digital cable is connected - its
capacitance will remove the overshoot
Snipping the RCA hot pin to be used direct.
Suggested mods - remove the R387 resistor and solder RCA to the cap
(leg2 of the chip)
Mod installed.
Upgrading power to the Squeezebox
To improve the general input power add an oscon across C133 observing
polarity. Minimum rating of the oscon is 10 V. I used a 270 uF/16V.
I left the original C6 cap in place (silver can)
This is the in-adequate power supply wall wart. Observe that when
making your own one - the positive supply PLUS9VDC goes on center pin
of the plug.
I suggest a 10 to 20 Watt (VA) transformer with at least 1A output.
(Naim Flatcap anybody ?)
Lampizator working with Wolfson DAC of the Squeezebox
The test is not yet performed. I must setup my iMAC first.
This thread will continue for long long time with testing, modifying,
testing etc. I am gonna spend entire february trying to optimize
Squeezebox and digitize my record collection. This is a preliminary
shot on the possibilities to upgrade the squeezebox to high-end status.
To be continued.............
HERE COMES THE GOOD NEWS:
I tested the Squeezebox as an SP/DIF transport source driving the
AD1865 DAC with lampizator and I compared it to the same dac driven by
a Sony transport and also the same dac but BUILT IN the beautifully
lampized Denon
2560 player. The Squeezebox solution sounds better than any of the
above traditional solutions. How come that it sounds better - I dont
know. It sounds wider, deeper, with more air, more information, more
musical, more enjoyable.
YES FOLKS - to have the convenience of the Squeezebox system we don't
need to compromise on sound. We can still look in the mirror in the
morning.
The Squeezebox transport s/pdif signal SOUNDS BETTER THAN CD
TRANSPORT. And that is the news of the year for me.
THe final checklist and pricelist:
1. HDD Raid server D-Link 323 = 200 Eu
2. Two HDD Western Digital Green Line 1TB = 240 Eu
3. Linksys or D-Link wifi router - 50 Eu (plus external longer
antenna)
4. Squeezebox Duet with wireless color screen remote = 300 Eu (SQB
remote (I mention it because it costs 250 Eu) is optional if if
you
have the iPod (new generation of the Touch) or iPhone (any generation).
The iPod / iPhone must be able to connect to the computer and access
the iTunes library files to browse the HDD Server. Then it can become
the ultimate remote controller with finger touch CD cover browsing etc.
5. A computer, preferrably iMac because it is silent and can be
permanently on in the listening room. Another cool option is HP Touchsmart with
screen that does the finger browsing.
6. The high end DAC with Laampizator or simply - a good DAC full stop.
The rest of the system is as usual.
7. As a cool option I would add the Behringer upsammpler, maybe even
the one with Ultracurve - the digital equalizer function. It would go
between the Squeezebox SPDIF output and the DAC input.
That ladies and gentlemen will be a real 21st century system which will
satisfy the most critical audiophiles and finally will allow our
significant others and the kids too to participate. Everybody can play
whatever s they love - and enjoy great sound - no more daddy shouting
DONT TOUCH THE STYLUS !!!