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Small subjective data point: used to have an Astell&Kern portable headphone amp that had both ESS and AKM chips, you could choose either pathway. The ESS chip was definitely smoother sounding than the AKM -- I actually preferred the AKM's more forward presentation. I have heard this 'smoothing' in other ESS DACs as well. Reminds me a little of comparing DSD with hirez PCM tracks, the DSD leaning smoother on the top end. I don't necessarily think one is better than the other, my taste simply runs more toward a little more upfront.

According to the instructions, the SYNC setting is for when your clock is hooked to more than one device on in your system. BTW, if anyone is going to Axpona, stop by the Scaena room (Epiphany) and say hi. Ask for Bob :)

I think companies that have lasted for 40+ years in a tough industry have generally done so by having a solid engineering base among other things.

I’m a dealer so take this as you will, but I got a demo unit to test on the possibility of picking up the Teac line. The first thing you notice is the build quality, which for the money is off the charts. But build quality isn’t sound quality — I hooked it in our reference system and A/Bd it vs a couple of DACs, cheaper and more expensive. Longer story short, it’s a terrific DAC at its price point and above. Add in the flawless operation of the streaming (via Roon or its own app), ability to work as a 100% analog preamp for vinyl and many other features, and I think it’s a killer value and an excellent component on an absolute level. And in a surprise to me anyway, adding the external clock clearly improved audio performance. Based on this experience, we picked up the line. I’ll be A/Bing it vs its Esoteric counterpart soon. I think they’ve gotten their distribution act together here in the States. From the house designed DAC to the build quality/internals at the price point; the UD 701N reflects what a larger company with the engineering prowess and buying power can do for the money if they put their mind to it.

I doubt it's very different either. What the Nucleus gives you is a compact, quiet, turnkey solution that ensures speedy operation of Roon -- this is appealing to both me and many of my clients. . I did add an LPS; whether this makes it sound better or not I haven't tested, but a couple of respected friends, and John Atkinson of Stereophile all rec'd it, so I did it. One day I'll get around to testing it, but there's no great way to A/B.

As a former reviewer and now dealer, I’ve spent some time A/Bing servers from a Mac laptop to a Roon Nucleus+ to a middle of the line Innuos and other expensive servers using Roon over the network, and often direct USB as well. From a dealer perspective I would love to sell a higher end/more expensive server than the Roon, but every time I A/B on my very revolving and high performance system, I’m just not hearing any difference. I know people who rave about their Taikos, etc — the improvement isn’t there for me, or whatever benefit there may be is so subtle as to not make any sense from a value perspective.

I understand now that SBS is simply using iTunes as a library, and that in this scenario, I'm (simply) using iTunes for library management. And therefore, that it's SBS that determines the output format and specs, not iTunes. What was a bit nebulous later on in the process of understanding was the merging of playlists, those I create in iTunes vs. those I create in SBS. The single merged playlist is ideal for the way I listen, and now, understanding the way SBS uses iTunes, I see how I have no problems. Other than the Touch is not avail yet... Will have to explore the benefits of Amarra down the road.

Not sure how you direct SBS to do this. Here's what I did -- seems to be working (though some other SB issues cropped up of course), don't think I'm forcing QT conversion of any kind, but let me know: -- moved my HiRez FLAC folder into user/music.. My iTunes folder already resides here, as does a playlist folder. So the HiRez folder is alongside, not in the iTunes folder. SB is pointed to the music folder, sees both the HiRez and iTunes folders -- I can choose in SBS/iPeng/Controller, under Music Folder, either iTunes or HiRes. Since I generally do/view everything through 'playlists' (all made in iTunes btw), I attempted to make a playlist of some hirez tracks in SBS. This way I just choose 'playlists', and everything's there, no folder swapping to get to places. This should have no format conversion impact, correct? -- because this is a created by SB playlist file grabbed from iTunes and whatever else, no? Anyway, created playlist doesn't show up. WTF!! Then, ahhhhhh.... All my iTunes playlists are prefixed w/ iTunes: My hires playlist started w/a 'K' -- it was put at the end of the list, not the middle. Where the heck is the setting for prefix, etc.? Found it in SBS, of course, switch the 'iTunes:' to a suffix, now everything seems cool and in one place, 'playlists', and in the alphabetical order I expect. Again though, this should have no impact on playback rate/format, correct? In SBS, I see my 24/96 file that has a VBR of 3055 kbps is being converted to 705.6 kbps -- I'm assuming this is because it is being downsampled for playback in my non 24/96 compatible SBs, correct? Thanks much.

moved my hires folder into my main music folder that includes iTunes -- thanks.

Thanks for all the advice, will try it out. Wish it was simpler for me at this point (hundreds of albums in iTunes already) to get everything under one roof -- not that she try much but my wife will never find the hires stuff now if it means switching libraries.

that I can look up (and will), but I'll ask anyway, and thanks for the help thusfar. As I've done everything thru iTunes to this point, I don't even know how to import into SB Server -- where would I put the FLAC files? And then via iPeng, the Controller, etc., I'd have to switch music sources, correct? Didn't realize conceptually that SB Server can function as its own library a la iTunes, etc. You're suggestion of doing hirez stuff in it makes sense.

I do have the SB Server (v7.4) hooked into my iTunes library via the checkbox in the iTunes server settings menu. So, if I convert the FLAC file to ALC w/dbpoweramp and put it into my iTunes, the SB server will take care of things from that point on? It will transcode back to FLAC and put out 24/96 to the SBs around the house? Anything else I need to do? Am I understanding you correctly, or are you suggesting I somehow bypass iTunes altogether? (don't think you are) Aleready use iPeng btw. Thanks!

Looking for advice/experiences. Have had several SBs for years, all iTunes Mac ALC driven. In anticipation of the 24/96 output capability of the Touch (wasn't interested in Transporter), am plotting my hi rez strategy. Plan to use a couple into 24/96 capable DACs I have, but.. How are Mac/iTunes people handling 24/96 files via Squeezebox? Want to download some HDtracks stuff that's in FLAC. - Do you convert from FLAC to ALC using something like dbpoweramp, then put this into iTunes? Will SC then stream this as 24/96 as it converts back to FLAC? Does iTunes even allow 24/96 out? - FLAC aside, how are you working w/hirez files in this equip. scenario? - Should I use a different media manager than iTunes? How much of a hassle is this to setup given a big iTunes/ALC library? - Does anyone use Amarra? - What are people doing out there for hirez on a Mac, using SBs? Thanks.