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February 27, 2005
Mini review/HOWTO: Roku Soundbridge M1000
My cousin-in-law's husband asked for help in streaming his music library to his home stereo setup wirelessly so when we went to visit I did just that.
Components:
1. Laptop with music collection (Windows or Mac)
2. Roku Soundbridge M1000
3. Linksys 802.11a/b access point
4. Linksys broadband router
5. Digital coax cable for audio
6. Sonic Frontier's Anthem AV Preamp, Anthem amp, B&W 803 speakers and a 600 watt Velodyne sub all bi-wired.
I installed Windows Media Connect on his laptop and added all his music to the library. The Soundbridge picks this up automatically via the 802.11 wifi connection. The music was encoded in WMA lossless so to avoid bandwidth issues his laptop connects via 802.11a and the Soundbridge via 802.11b. I had to configure the Soundbridge's wifi connection to use WEP encryption so it could get on the network. It was all seamless and I was extremely impressed. The Soundbridge also saw my iTunes library and we could switch between both so it has great multiplatform support.
It's a bit pricey at $249 but Best Buy has M500's for $199 which actually had M1000's in the box. The only difference is an LCD display vs. a VFD (brighter vaccuum fluorescent display) and I suspect Roku had to rush the M500 out to market so they stuffed some M1000's in to meet demand. Navigating the Roku Soundbridge was quick and responsive. The Soundbridge also has analog, optical digital and coax digital audio out options. There are a number of different server-side software packages you can run. Slim devices Slimserver is an interesting music server that runs on many platforms. Here's a detailed comparison of what's out there that you can use to sort and stream music to your Soundbridge.
As an aside, the sound quality was amazing coming out of a great audio system.
Posted by beamz at February 27, 2005 10:47 PM
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