I was gonna get a Squeezebox but at $300 I decided to do a little research first and see if there were many cheaper alternatives. I found the Roku M500 for $139 at newegg.com a few weeks ago but I was early into my investigation so held off a bit. I went to order it yesterday (Friday, February 17) but they didn't have it listed anymore. So I headed out to Best Buy since they carry the M1000 for the msrp of $200, but I had an AmEx $50 gift check from work so it ended up costing about the same as the M500. The only difference between them is the M1000 has a bigger, nicer display.

Wow! This thing is awesome. I can see already it will completely change the way I listen to music at home. Having instant access to all of your music files and playlists, via remote control is a big step up from loading CDs into a changer, and then having to program it, and the slow disc swap time, etc.

The Rokus are plug 'n play for iTunes, except for Apple Lossless files, which require the free Slim Server software to run. That doesn't really matter to me because I'm using Windows Media Player 10 mostly, anyhow. Windows Media requires Windows Media Connect, which is a free download and works with any format WMP can play, including wma lossless (which sounds great, BTW). I have all of my .wav files on a separate hard drive which has nothing but .wavs on it and iTunes doesn't seem to be smart enough to play them without copying to iTunes first. I see no point in having the exact same files in two places on my computer. WMP10 on the other hand works fine with the second hard drive. I like to rip in .wav so I can use the same files with WMP, Nero and Nero's excellent .wav editor, and my Creative format converter software.

I haven't tried the Roku's analog outputs yet but it sounds great via the coaxial digital output (it has an optical out as well) so I don't really even care what it sounds like on its own.

Great product and these kind of devices are definitely the future of audio. I think I'll get another one soon to use with my other stereo system.