SB Touch and Levinson 390S | Stereophile.com

Forums

7 replies [Last post]

Submitted By: cshelton4

member

Joined: Dec 20 2010

Posts:

SB Touch and Levinson 390S

Posted: December 20, 2010 - 9:14pm

I have a new Squeezebox Touch that I am feeding into a Levinson 390S, using the coaxial input to access the DAC. The Touch sounds good playing internet radio, streaming with iTunes and WAV files off a USB drive.
However, I have not been able to play any 24/96 files from a USB drive [the front panel on the 390S shows no input]. I have tried 24/96 WAV and FLAC files.

I burned a 24/96 file WAV file onto a CD and played it on the 390S- it sounded terible- very thin and small soundstage.

The specs for the Levinson DAC claim 24/352 processing. I can't find any info about what file formats it can handle. Could this problem be related to the issue that Atkinson uncovered in the Jan 2004 review- the dac downsampled to 16 bit?

Submitted By: tomjtx

member

Location: Local coffee house

Joined: Nov 12 2006

Posts:

Have you tried the Touch's

Posted: December 21, 2010 - 3:23am

Have you tried the Touch's DAC by itself ? You might be surprised.

Submitted By: RGibran

member

Location: Dallas, TX

Joined: Oct 11 2005

Posts:

The review

Posted: December 21, 2010 - 12:44pm

seemed to indicate the digital input may support word lengths up to 24 bit but sample rates no greater than 48kHz.

The CD medium will only support 16/44.1, so the hi-res you burned is being decimated.

As others have indicated, for hi-res you may need to go analog out on the Touch.

Submitted By: John Atkinson

Moderator

Joined: Nov 7 2010

Posts:

The Touch is 96k-capable

Posted: December 21, 2010 - 2:15pm

RGibran wrote:

seemed to indicate the digital input may support word lengths up to 24 bit but sample rates no greater than 48kHz.

The Squeezebox Touch correctly handles sample rates up to 96kHz via its digital output.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Submitted By: cshelton4

member

Joined: Dec 20 2010

Posts:

Thanks

Posted: December 21, 2010 - 7:46pm

I appreciate your comments.

I heard form Levinson today concerning the 390S: "Unfortunately the No. 390S can only lock onto 44.1 and 48 KHz signals, and the product would have to be completely redesigned to allow it to process other frequencies".

However. I must say that I had no idea that internet radio could sound so good, using the SB Touch to the 390S DAC. I will try the SB Touch DAC next.

Thanks again for your comments.

Submitted By: RGibran

member

Location: Dallas, TX

Joined: Oct 11 2005

Posts:

Levinson in question?

Posted: December 22, 2010 - 6:52am

John Atkinson wrote:

RGibran wrote:

seemed to indicate the digital input may support word lengths up to 24 bit but sample rates no greater than 48kHz.

The Squeezebox Touch correctly handles sample rates up to 96kHz via its digital output.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

John, I was referring to his question regarding what the Levinson will accept through its digital input. Can you clarify/confirm that for him?

Submitted By: RGibran

member

Location: Dallas, TX

Joined: Oct 11 2005

Posts:

Try Avro Classical Light @ 320Kps

Posted: December 22, 2010 - 7:01am

cshelton4 wrote:

However. I must say that I had no idea that internet radio could sound so good, using the SB Touch to the 390S DAC.

May I suggest you try:

internet radio > search > (type in) avro

then select Avro classical light

this is a 320Kps stream of exceptional quality (for internet radio)

enjoy!

Submitted By: John Atkinson

Moderator

Joined: Nov 7 2010

Posts:

Re: Touch & ML No.390S

Posted: December 22, 2010 - 12:58pm

RGibran wrote:

John Atkinson wrote:

RGibran wrote:

seemed to indicate the digital input may support word lengths up to 24 bit but sample rates no greater than 48kHz.

The Squeezebox Touch correctly handles sample rates up to 96kHz via its digital output.

John, I was referring to his question regarding what the Levinson will accept through its digital input. Can you clarify/confirm that for him?

Ah, I misunderstood. Apologies. No, the No.390S wouldn't lock on to data with sample rates >48kHz and it truncated 24-bit data. See http://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no390s-cd-processor-measurements .

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile