Roku SoundBridge vs. SqueezBox3

i'm looking into the sb3 option. it appears to be most popular around here. no first hand knowledge though.

Wireless is not cool! Why on earth would you want to bombard your home with microwave frequencies? 802.11g operates on the exact same frequency you cook your food with in a microwave oven. Not to mention the fact that wireless networks are the easiest to hack. You would be much better off using a UBS Dac or a high quality PCI sound card to deliver SPDIF.

I compared the Roku to the SqueezeBox2 via their built in DACs -- and I bought the SB2. I thought the SB sounded a bit better, but it could just be that I preferred the cosmetics and interface of the SBI. I could live happily with either.

I went with the SB2 and SB3 because of the slimserver freeware. But I prefer the larger Roku Display. I'm having one of my squeezebox modified. The DAC's in the SB2/3 are quite good and even better modified. www.audiocircle.com has some discussions under Boulder Audio and Red Wine forums (both modders)

Terrat, a simple tinfoil hat should keep out the microwaves. I'm afraid it won't do much for those voices in your head though...

Wireless completely isolates the SB from the computer and its power supply.

All,

Thankyou for your responses. Even the Terrat who missed that I was connectiong via ethernet (cable) to the soundbridge.

I have had the soundbridge for 2 days now on loan from my favorite dealer. It works with MusicMatch 8.2 if you are using mp3 files but not .wav files.

I uploaded windows media connect and now it will stream .wav files. But there is a problem with .wav files in thay are not tagged with Artist or Album so the only way to search or browse is by song. This is not optimum.

My first impressions taking the spdif out to a DAC is that it is at least as good as my transport. One one track the sound stage seemed to be wider with more localization of the instruments. As far as tone quality I will not say that there is any difference at this point but it is so close that I need to do more listening.

Michael

May i suggest Sonos (www.sonos.com). It is self amplified, does not need a pc to be, comes with a great controller with a large color screen, and most importantly is very reliable.

I was just checking out the sonos, and it does need a PC. I would also not view the self amplified part as an advantage, but that's just me.

Randy

Artizen65, I think ethernet is definitely the way to go. I think both the Soundbridge and the SqueezBox would be great products if they excluded WI-FI. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the WI-FI is always transmitting regardless of which connection you use. My frustration lies in the fact that these companies are trying to appeal to the mass market, rather than making a top notch product. BTW Does anyone know where to find "Audiophile" grade tinfoil hats?

You an take the wifi card out of the Roku and just run wired ethernet.

just to be clear, if all of your music is stored on an NAS you do not need the pc to be on. trust me, i have the sonos and i do not have my pc on...

Ok,

I finally downloaded Itunes at Roku's suggestion. It does everything right. I like the way Itunes saves the song lists vs other players. I can now browse and search .wav files by artist, album, song and playlist on the soundbridge.

Itunes will copy to .wav files with error corection and play them through the soundbridge.

As far as quality, I can't tell the difference between my transport and what is streamed from the computer as long as I am going through my DAC. Analog is another story :(.

The only issue I am having now is that some times Itunes and the SoundBridge loose the network connection. I am still troubleshooting this issue.

Last of all but not least I did purchase the SoundBridge as I am very satisfied with the sound quality.

Artizen565,
I too had a few problems with my Soundbridge loosing my network connection. Try deleting iTunes and Roku in your "exceptions" in your firewall settings in Windows and then add them back in again.

I got rid of my SACD player as I was using an external DAC anyway for redbook. A digital music server is the way to go. I currently have a 400GB and it's almost full. I'm ripping my music as AIFF files. File sharing is almost as big a benefit as sound improvement over my previous digital setup. Hey, I now have a volume control!