Has anyone used the Slim Devices Sqeezebox?

[Mr Do]

Has anyone used the Slim Devices Sqeezebox as a source. This thing seem to good to be true. Check it out!
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html

Later.
Do!

 

[mkozlows]

It's a great device, almost certainly the best networked audio device out there. (Sonos MIGHT be an exception, but I actually don't think so, and they're too expensive to worry about either way.)

(Well, and to be fair, the Xbox 360 has some advantages over the Squeezebox -- it can play DRMed music, and the games are a lot better -- but the Squeezebox is still better as a pure music device.)

 

[Mr Do]

Thanks for the response.

Enjoy the Music have a good review on this thing.http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazin...squeezebox.htm

It seems likely High Def video support will follow in future generations. Imagine high def streaming from your computer to you home theater system in another room with audiophile quality. Sounds like a winner to me. What do you guys think?

Later.
DO!

 

[morsel]

I just installed 2 Roku SoundBridge M1001 Network Music Players for friends over the past two days. They are slick and attractive. Neither install was a stereo good enough to judge sound quality, but given that it has both optical and coaxial digital outputs, it shouldn't matter to audiophiles, who will be using their own DACs anyway.

 

[Mr Do]

Quote:

Originally Posted by morsel I just installed 2 Roku SoundBridge M1001 Network Music Players for friends over the past two days. They are slick and attractive. Neither install was a stereo good enough to judge sound quality, but given that it has both optical and coaxial digital outputs, it shouldn't matter to audiophiles, who will be using their own DACs anyway.

No Flac support is a big let down for me. Nice looking player though.

Thanks.
Do!

 

[morsel]

You can use the free SlimServer software with the SoundBridge:
Quote:

SoundBridge also supports the file formats supported by the Squeezebox, but only connecting to a computer running Slim Devices’ own Slim Server. Once SoundBridge connects to Slim Server, its menu system changes to match that found on the Squeezebox and SliMP3, which is quite a bit different from SoundBridge’s native menus. By connecting to the robust and mature Slim Server, SoundBridge can take advantage of features that Roku engineers haven’t managed to write into SoundBridge’s own software yet, including support for file formats such as FLAC, Apple Lossless, Ogg Vorbis, and WMA. (Slim Server does this by converting those other formats on the fly into MP3 format.)

Google squeezebox + soundbridge
Music Streamers Compared

 

[mkozlows]

Quote:

Originally Posted by morsel I just installed 2 Roku SoundBridge M1001 Network Music Players for friends over the past two days. They are slick and attractive. Neither install was a stereo good enough to judge sound quality, but given that it has both optical and coaxial digital outputs, it shouldn't matter to audiophiles, who will be using their own DACs anyway.

The M1001 doesn't pass a straight digital output -- it resamples to 48KHz. This pretty much kills it for audiophile purposes.

The clunky UI (it's not totally horrible, but if you get a chance to use a Squeezebox, you'll see how much worse the Roku is) is the other main problem.

 

[mkozlows]

Quote:

Originally Posted by morsel You can use the free SlimServer software with the SoundBridge:

Not well, though. It's unsupported by Slim Devices (obviously), and Roku won't support it, either. I tried briefly to get the SoundBridge to work with SlimServer 6.2, but wasn't able to. (I didn't try hard, because if I wanted something that worked with SlimServer, I'd just buy a Squeezebox; I was trying the SoundBridge to see how well it worked with Windows Media Connect.)

 

[morsel]

It resamples to 48kHz? Yuk.

Fortunately my two friends will not care or hear the difference.