Roku Soundbridge, Squeezebox, etc

[emorphien]

Has anyone used the Soundbridge and the Squeezebox? The soundbridge is a better form-factor and comes at a great price. The M1001 seems nice but the discontinued M500 actually seems to have better specs (24 vs 20 bit dac, higher SNR, etc) and they are selling them refurb'd for $130 or so (assuming it's worth it that seems to be a good deal).

Otherwise, the Squeezebox is the only other option I see. Am I right or are there other competing products now? If I bought anything I'd be wanting to keep it under $300.

Anything else out there worth considering? Bonus points if it doesn't use crappy software.

[Mike Anderson]

Don't know about the Soundbridge, but I swear by my Squeezebox. It has literally changed the way I listen to music.

The software is not the greatest, but it's a minor hassle compared to all the features you get.

Comparisons seem to give the edge to the Squeezebox:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=soundbridge+squeezebox&btnG=Google+Search

[mlsstl]

I'm curious what you mean by "crappy software." Are you talking about software that simply doesn't work or a program that isn't as slick as you'd like?

[emorphien]

I'm curious what you mean by "crappy software." Are you talking about software that simply doesn't work or a program that isn't as slick as you'd like?
I'll say yes to both.

I prefer minimalist software, as in no bloatware or heavy RAM or CPU requirements. There's no reason it can't be very basic and lightweight or even a simple plugin for existing media-player software depending on what it does. From what I read it seems the Roku can use a web interface which could be a nice approach.

[mlsstl]

I use the Squeezebox 3 and run a Linux server using their Slimserver program. It works fine for me. It certainly doesn't appear bloated to me (though I am using the Linux version - can't comment on the Microsoft one.) In fact, before I went to a separate server to house my music, I ran Slimserver on a machine that also was a web & mail server that also did other tasks such as video processing. Never found that Slimserver weighted anything down.

The Slimserver format has web access from other machines (I use my laptop or Palm TX in addition to the remote to access music on my SB3.) It is not the slickest software around (wish it had drag & drop, but that's tougher with a remote web interface) but it certainly gets my music played and doesn't crash.

Since you're still looking around, you can download a copy of Slimserver for free and install it on your machine. You can then stream to Windows Media Player or another such player program and give the server program a test run before you commit any money to the project for the Squeezebox.