Networked Media Player.


There have been a number of threads which have explicitly discussed the issues of spooling audio files from a PC to a pre-amp. A number of members have suggested using either an external USB (such as the now defunct stereolink- which I currently use for my headphone system) or a high end audio PCI card preferably with a digital out.
Both of these options require a PC to be within easy reach of the pre-amp or listening area.
A third option is to use a Networked Media player such as the squeezebox or audiotron to interface between a remote PC and your listening station / high end gear by either wifi or ethernet. I have used both the squeezebox and audiotron to greater or lesser success’s but have yet to find one that matches all of my criteria:
1. Digital out
2. Can spool multiple file formats, MP3, WAV, FLAC etc
3. Looks great and not like some cheap molded plastic gizmo that was hatched in someone’s basement – see SLIMP3, predecessor to the squeezebox.

Has anyone experimented or stumbled across other such devices and what have there experiences been?
Current options are:
1. Roku http://www.rokulabs.com/products/soundbridge/index.php
2. Joyport 2 http://www.joyfaktory.com/index.html

Thanks
extra_action
I've actually got four 250 GB Lacie USB 2.0 drives. I had the space, and it was a bit cheaper than going with one humungous drive. Had some issues with the fact that they showed up formatted FAT32, but I reformatted as NTFS and it works better with my XP system. I've got a pair hooked up to a Linksys NAS box (just an ethernet port with a pair of USB 2.0 inputs).

Had some bad experiences before with the Maxstor external drives.
Edesilva,

Just out of curiosity, what are you using for your 1Tb of disk storage, (and backup)?

I have been having tremendous problems with the LaCie Terrabyte disk.
I've got a bunch of audiotrons in my house that served me in good stead for background music (mp3s). But, I wanted to trim down my CD collection, and thought the ATs wouldn't work for me because I wanted losslessly encoded audio *and* tagging. Turns out that (whee!) I seem to have missed some AT development--the Turtle Beach folks now have a new piece of software that "tags" WAVs files in a manner that the AT can read 'em! So, I'm now the owner of 1TB of disk storage...
build a custom case for a graphical squeezebox. I've looked at the Roku and don't like some of it's limitations and reliance on someone else handling the server software. I've had a SliMP3 for a year and a half and will likely buy a graphical squeezebox to get the digital out once we move our media room and my current 2 channel equipment finds a new home.

http://www.moyo.me.uk/squeeze
http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/plugins/BigHam/front-small.jpg

-twylie
Still ain't such a thing. Seems that inductry considers such devices as toys for teenagers, where flashy box is significantly more important then sound or built quality...