Squeezebox Touch As A USB Reader

[esteban]

I recently purchased an Oppo 95 and am thrilled with its performance both as a CD player and as a USB "streamer / reader". It evens plays 24/192 files in all their hi-res glory, either via USB or DVD-R. For $1K, it's a giant-killer, and the fact that it is also a top notch DVD and Blu-Ray player is certainly a terrific bonus.

Only problem: every time I want to navigate the contents of a USB stick I have to turn on my 65" Panasonic plasma. So what, you might ask? This might sound great in theory (huge cover artwork!), but in practice it truly becomes a nightmare. Plasmas buzz, the visuals distract from the musical experience, and there's always the risk of image retention (or, gasp, image burn-in!), specially with static graphics such as Oppo's interface. Not to mention, do I really want to have a 700 watts TV on every time I listen to music? My monthly electricity budget does not think so.

If I could only find a convenient, visually pleasing way (in other words, not a crappy 7" LCD screen connected to the Oppo via its composite video output) to navigate the contents of a USB stick, I would have a hi-res music server that could compete with the big boys but would only require a moderate investment. Which leads me to...

I read all great things about the Squeezebox, and I am tempted to pull the trigger. For $300, you can't really go wrong. But I would NOT use it as a wi-fi streamer, nor would I connect it to my PC. Instead, I would only use various USB sticks connected to the Touch's USB input, and a 2TB drive with lots of FLAC and WAV files and then use the coaxial digital output to feed my Marantaz DAC/receiver. My USB sticks are fairly large: I use a few 32 Gb and 16 Gb, each containing different genres, playlists, etc.

A few questions:
- How is the Touch ONLY as a USB reader?
- Does it lag or crash with large USB sticks? What about 2TB hard drives? I understand it initially takes a while to read the contents of a large drive, but what if you just leave it connected at all times after that?
- How easy is it to navigate the screen via remote control from a 7 feet distance?
- How easy/reliable is the iPeng app for iPhone or iPad? Does it show you the artwork? Can you use it as a true substitute for a remote control? In other words, does it respond fairly quickly or is there a few seconds worth of "lag"? Anybody happen to have pictures of this interface?

Anybody else use this unit merely for its USB input and would like to chime-in with comments?

Finally, is there talk of a successor for the Touch that might incorporate 24/192, a bigger screen, etc?

Thanks in advance!

[Hwirt]

Hello esteban, that's a lot of questions but I will try to answer to the best of my ability based on my experience using the Squeezebox Touch.

- How is the Touch ONLY as a USB reader?
As a USB reader the Touch works well with a 16 Gigabyte thumb drive.

- Does it lag or crash with large USB sticks? What about 2TB hard drives? I understand it initially takes a while to read the contents of a large drive, but what if you just leave it connected at all times after that? -
The largest USB stick I've used is limited to 16 Gigabyte, testing using a 1.5 TB drive holding about 5000 CD's did not work. The file scanner crashed repeatedly. The Touch has built in server software running on a Linux platform but the processor is not up to the task of decoding files, generating display video and decoding flack files and maintaining a very large database. No specific limited is noted in the specifications, my guess is a smallish drive like 100 Gigabyte (300 CD's) would work ok.

- How easy is it to navigate the screen via remote control from a 7 feet distance?
The display on the Touch is adjustable for font size but I find it difficult to use for the advanced functions from the listening position without my glasses on. My near slightness is moderate (-1 dioptors), with corrective lenses the display is ok to use.

- How easy/reliable is the iPeng app for iPhone or iPad? Does it show you the artwork? Can you use it as a true substitute for a remote control? In other words, does it respond fairly quickly or is there a few seconds worth of "lag"? Anybody happen to have pictures of this interface?
Generally I use a small laptop to control the server, there are also apps for Iphone and other hand held devices to control the Touch. Not having used the Iphone or Ipad for this function I cannot comment on the display. The laptop however has a great user interface and responds quickly.

My system consists of a 6 year old PC running Windows XPro running two 2TB hard drives. The server PC is located in a utility room in my basement and is administered remotely using the remote desktop software on my laptop. The setup works very well and is able to serve Two Touch units and two portable Squeezebox Boom Radios simultaneously .



Finally, is there talk of a successor for the Touch that might incorporate 24/192, a bigger screen, etc?
Don't know what the future product plans are for Squeezebox, sorry.

[esteban]

Thank you for the in-depth reply! Glad to hear the Touch works fine with a 16gb USB stick.