Tom that's a great price on the Touch, definitely worth the buy.
I have both a Touch as well as a Classic and SQ wise there's no difference but the user friendliness and ease of use with the touch screen Touch is a major advantage over the Classic which has to be controlled by a remote control ... which is where the iPad apps come into play. I also have both iPad apps, the Squeezepad as well as the iPeng app and in my estimation the Squeezepad is several steps ahead of the iPeng. To me the iPeng seems like a first generation product with some after thoughts whereas the Squeezepad is more like having a large version of the Squeezebox Touch that you can carry around.
I rip and store all of my music in flac via a
Votexbox Appliance for home only use that supports the Squeezebox software and since I'm not concerned with portability, requiring MP3 files is a non-issue for me. The DAC is one of the highlights (Bur-Brown I believe) of the Squeezebox and I've done direct comparisons of CDs played through a player to both the Classic and Touch and could never find any difference while being played through the home system ... wireless even!
Squeezbox forums
