Hello there.
Great review.
I'm actually trying to decide which device to buy, hesitating between soundbridge and squeezebox.
I think there is one very important point, that would make me afford the higher price, is the WPA security level capability.
I definitely don't want to downgrade my wireless network security level to mere WEP.
By the way, I can't understand why Pinnacle, re-labelling Roku's product, did not improve this aspect.
And no offense meant, but maybe you should have considered this point in the review.
This could be a rather determinig factor for many peaople.
|
 |
 No choice, Squeezebox all the way I say.
I would agree that charging £50 more for the wireless model is a bit steep but it's still a better product than the Roku or whatever it's called now.........
|
|
 Cheers for your comments everyone - keep 'em coming! Having updated the firmware on our Pinnacle Soundbridge we found it no longer works with iTunes - Apologies Ian! Apparently, for whatever reason, Apple didn't grant Pinnacle a licence for use with iTunes. For those of you with a Pinnacle Soundbridge, pop along to Roku's website where you can download Firefly, an open source server that'll get the Soundbridge working with iTunes again. Certainly not ideal we admit...
|
|
 These alternative sources are indeed quite interesting... I think I would jump on one for my living room, if I was not plannig an HTPC for my setup...
The SB3, seems to me a very good option... ok, the Sonos is better (that GUI and controller are just sweet), but it's muuuuch more expensive!
|
|
I am looking to buy a wireless music streamer. The Squeezebox is looking like my preferred choice but I noticed it was over a year old now. I haven't been able to find any more recent group tests / reviews. Does anyone know if this product is likely to be update anytime soon? Or are there any newer products that are better than the squeezbox?
|
|
The Squeezebox 3 is a great piece of kit but it is no better soundwise than a £300 - £500 CD player, especially as it is a little light in the bass region, probably because of the switchmode power supply. Slimserver is also quite thirsty on your PC's CPU, but that could be because of my processor I suppose. What is nice is that it is a great looking and compact piece of kit that sits nicely on top of a shelf and the rest of the stereo can be hidden away out of site - not important for most blokes, but in the main living room my nearest and dearest would object to lots of boxes and this sidesteps the issue better than Jason Robinson!
|
|
 It would have been interesting to compare these to the sound quality of a similarly priced CD player. I have over 800 CDs and would like to stream lossless audio to my Hi-Fi, but if they sound no better than my Arcam 8 CD player, will probably just endure the inconvenience of CDs. Any chance of doing this comparison AVReview? You have compared a games console to a Blu-ray player after all 
|
|
 And we've compared audio streamers too, Wingnut, though I'll admit we didn't focus on lossless content. Could be worth a look though, I'll see what we can do...
|
|
Fascinating stuff and I'm really interested in going this wireless route to stream CD files (not MP3) from my PC in one room to my main HiFi system in another room. Although looking at this thread the SB3 gets better "sound quality" vote, surely with a decent DAC setup in your HiFi (I have DCS Purcell/Elgar) it's the digital output that's most important, and here they should be all the same? Thus the Pinnacle makes the most sense? Or have I missed something ...
|
|
