Roku M1000 SoundBridge Network-capable digital music player

Rating:
Summary: Superb piece of kit
Review: First seen advertisements months ago and alwasy thought "hmmm I'd like one of those" and when I ordered it I went through the guilt of spending a couple of hundred quid on a small aluminium cylinder.

But now it's here all hooked up and I'm listening to The Orb from my server and I don't want to see another CD in my room and now I'll never have to ever again!!! I buy my CDs, rip my CDs then put them in storage in the loft and now I'm spending guilt free and loving it!!!

The unit is amazingly well built, nice solid construction and good looking as well!! fits in with rest of a/v equipment which is a bonus.

Using it is childs play with the simple remote and simple doesn't mean crap. I mean simple, you want to play, pause or shuffle it's all as easy as clicking the play, pause or erm shuffle buttons.

Plenty of options for connection around the sides underneath the removable caps, phono connections, optical or digital co-ax, wireless (as standard) or wired ethernet and all hidden so no unsightly cables.

If you like your music and like it accessible then this is the gadget for you.

Rating:
Summary: The best on the market
Review: I am a gadget freak and I try alot of electronic toys. I had two Audiotron's running my whole house audio system, but they were unstable and required frequent re-booting, had no wireless support, and had a clunky software interface that Voyetra had quit supporting. I bought one Soundbridge M1000 unit for my wife's office and had it up and running in 10 minutes (wirelessly). I played with it for a week and it was rock solid. No dropped connections, no dropped packets (skipping), the software is iTunes so it is as simple as can be. I have since bought two more M1000's and gotten rid of my Audotrons. I have owned or tried a number of these types of products...this is one is by far the best on the market.

Rating:
Summary: Strong Sound, Beautiful Design
Review: I preordered a Roku Soundbridge, so I've had one since they were released. The company has made wonderful strides in regularly updating the product's firmware to ensure that issues encountered by product users are addressed in a timely fashion. My network operates via a Linksys Wireless-G router with iTunes serving music from a dedicated machine. The Soundbridge recognized my system immediately and I was up and running.

Not only do I love having access to all of my music without the need to flip through a couple thousand CDs, but I'm also fond of the iTunes' feature that allows you to serve up Internet radio stations. Simply setup a playlist and copy the radio station information into it as if it were a song file. I have several radio station playlists and can now listen to stations from other cities, as well as Radioio.

The sound quality is suprisingly high. Better than expected. The build quality of the unit far surpasses most brands these days. All around this has been an outstanding addition to my home.

Rating:
Summary: Protected AAC workaround
Review: I too was disappointed (actually a bit pissed)to find that the music I purchased on Itunes would not play through the Soundbridge, but came up with the following: If you burn a CD of your purchased tunes, clear the purchased tunes from your Itunes library and then re-load from the CD, you can then play those files via the Soundbridge - so far, so good - thought that anyone considering a purchase would like to know

Rating:
Summary: Great idea - HUGE compatibility problems
Review: I wanted to love this device, unfortunately, it goes back to Amazon today.

Simple story: After connecting the device to my wireless network I couldn't get it to play any music. The M1000 can "see" my network and my iTunes music library, but it cannot connect to the music files.

Anyway, after hours of troubleshooting and slogging through www.Rokulabs.com's support website, I read that this problem is widespread. There are LOTS of customers with the same problem and Roku cannot seem to find a solution. Even the serious geeks on the "user forum" bulletin board cannot seem to resolve it. If there is a solution for this problem it isn't obvious to the "normal" consumer, and judging buy the endless techspeak threads on the user forum, the tech-savvy ones can't figure it out yet either. So, beware. Looks to me like compatibility is a crap shoot.

Also worth noting, Roku's customer service is limited to email inquiries only. The troubleshooting documentation is very technical and aimed at very technically capable users - but a solution to endless 'connection failure" errors still evades me and many others. The user forum bulletin board gets consistent input from their tech staff, but there is no quick way to contact Roku directly for help. In any case, through all Roku had to offer on their website, it is clear to me that this problem is common and irresolvable, for now.


Rating:
Summary: One of the best devices to come out in a long time.
Review: I've been told that I've been very hard to shop for, because I'm very technology-centric and usually have the latest gizmos and gadgets. And if there is one item anyone could have given me for the holidays, it would be the recently introduced Roku SoundBridge M1000. It's simply an amazing and elegant device and I'm totally impressed with it. It's definitely built in mind of those music enthusiasts who have a lot of MP3's.

Some facts from the web site:
* Large VFD Display - The M1000 features a 280x16 pixel display, for up to two lines of text. Its "big line mode" displays your current selection in a large, 16-pixel sized font.
* Compact Body - 12 inches wide, perfect for a shelf, tabletop or nightstand.
* Available in Stores at: Best Buy (select locations), Fry's, Magnolia, Tweeter and at Rokulabs.com
* List price: $249.99

For years, I've wanted the TurtleBeach Audiotron ($399 and no longer made), but the price point was too high and the software was cumbersome. Then I heard of a better alternative called the SLIMP3 player made by Slim Devices. The SLIMP3 player was a first generation device and I thought it was ugly for the price. Recently, Slim Devices introduced their next generation device, the SqueezeBox ($279 with wireless option, $199 without). The Roku definitely looks the best out of all those products with its cylindrical shape and metal composite finish.

What makes the Roku so much better than the SqueezeBox is that it's compatible with iTunes out of the box (although won't play iTunes songs purchased because of DRM protection), uPNP Audio (Microsoft Windows Media Connect with support for WMA DRM protected files), Apple Rendezvous, Real's Rhapsody, Shoutcast radio streams and even Slim Device's own open source SlimServer (which powers the SLIMP3 & SqueezeBox players and enables playback of Ogg files) out of the box. The Roku was so very easy to setup. It comes with a wireless 802.11b Compact Flash card (made by Socket) so you can connect wirelessly or you can use the built-in ethernet port for wired use, a remote with batteries, an audio cable and a power adapter. It has digital optical and coax outputs that can pass 5.1 surrond sound as well as the standard stereo jacks. Anyways, I plugged it in and entered the key for my wireless network and it obtained an IP address and I was off and ready to go play music. I had the device check for new firmware and it updated itself within about two minutes. I easily navigated my library of music from my Windows XP box because I already had Windows Media Connect installed. My sister has an iTunes library on her laptop and I tested it with that and it also played with no problems. Next I tested the Roku out the SlimServer software. This is some really cool software that runs on PC, Mac or Linux. It even has a virtual SqueezeBox, called SoftSqueeze that lets you use the software to play MP3's from any computer that supports java. The Roku had no problems connecting to the SlimServer software and seeing the MP3's. Using a web browser you can pull up your list of songs through SlimServer via artist, album, genre and control the Roku to play music. If you have multiple Roku's you can also synchronize them to play the same music (useful if you want to play the same music in different rooms). SlimServer allows you to have plugins, so you can have it do different things. For example, you can use it as a caller ID display to broadcast caller info when there's an incoming call or even display RSS news feeds. Even if you don't have any music streaming device, I definitely recommend checking out SlimServer and using SoftSqueeze just to see how it works. I am utterly impressed with the Roku SoundBridge and give it a rating of 5 stars out of 5: *****. I think it's even more impressive than the iPod.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best.. easiest setup ever!
Review: I've been using a SoundBridge for a couple of months now and I wonder how I did without it this long. It took me more time to unbox the unit than it took to get it connected to my PC running iTunes. What an elegant piece of hardware. I have a reasonable amount of MP3's (4,000) and I can navigate to any one in a matter of seconds. Roku has been providing software updates on a regular basis, updates are a dream, a couple of quick menu choices and the unit updates itself over your internet connection! This is my #1 electronics purchase in a couple of years time!

Rating:
Summary: A breeze to set up and a joy to use
Review: If you are looking for a way to listen to all your music without having to get out of your chair to change the CD or record, the Soundbridge is ideal.

All is needed is your PC, a copy of your music in MP3 form (use iTunes to convert music to MP3 or Apple version), and then connect up the Soundbridge in 5 minutes you can sit back and listen away.

Yes it takes a while to rip music to MP3, yes you cannot yet play encrypted Apple files, and connecting to your computer needs a network or wireless connection.

But the thing just works! Connected to your hifi and streaming music from my CD collection as well as radio stations just got so much better.

Also it looks cool!

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother trying the competition
Review: Quite a few devices are now competing in the market segment originally created by the TurtleBeach Audiotron: Netgear MP 101, Linksys WMLS11B, Homepod, Sound Blaster Wireless Audio, SLiMP3 and its successor the Squeezebox...

There are also many other displayless devices which either rely on a TV set for their user interface (Happauge MVP, Roku HD1000...) or use a computer to relay the audio to them (Apple Airport Express).

What makes the SoundBridge stand out from the crowd?

- Looks
Its gorgeous bright green fluorescent display. Similar to the one used by the Squeezebox, it puts to shame the inexpensive LCD screens used by Netgear, Linksys and Homepod and makes using the SoundBridge with the remote easy and convenient.
Its look and finish is also quite unique and beautiful; it won't look out of place next to high end audio components.

- Ease of setup
The LAN configuration is extremely easy; the SoundBridge comes with both wired LAN and 802.11b. Note that so far the only supported security protocol over WiFi is 40 or 128 bit WEP. If you require a more recent security protocol check the Roku web site to see if and when they plan on supporting it, or use the wired LAN interface. WiFi functionality is brought through a standard Compact Flash interface, and Roku sells a slightly cheaper version of the box without the card bundled.
What I really liked with the SoundBridge is that unlike most of its competitors it does not require you to install any server software on your computer, and force you to manage your music collection on it. Rather, it supports the most common protocols (iTunes music sharing, UPnP, SlimServer 5.x) and as long as your music collection is shared through one of these protocols it will find it automatically and make it available.
Firmware updates can be downloaded and installed directly from the device itself. The latest firmware supports connecting directly to MP3 internet radio (this feature previously required streaming through a local computer)
Most audio file formats are supported; notably absent for now are protected AAC (music you buy from the iTunes Music Store), ALE (Apple Lossless Encoding) and its Windows equivalent. Protected WMA is supported. This is the biggest limitation I found; if your music collection contains lots of music you bought from the Apple store, or if you have encoded all your CDs using ALE, the SoundBridge may not be for you until Roku can add support for these formats.

- Ease of use
The SoundBridge's user interface is extremely well thought out. The menus are clear and very easy to navigate.
Connecting to various music servers on the LAN is a breeze; if several family members have their own music collection, for instance, it is very easy to switch from one to another.
Finally, unlike many competing products the user interface is very fast and responsive.

- Sound quality
The SoundBridge offers analog stereo RCA jacks, coax and optical digital output. I didn't make any measurements but the analog output sounded excellent on my main stereo system.
Even on my busy wireless network, I have yet to experience any audio break-ups, a problem that seems to plague the competition (check their reviews).

The SoundBridge M1000 is by far the best music player available today, only surpassed by its big brother the M2000, which is essentially the same device in a larger box with a display 4 times the size at double the price.
Its closest competitor is the SlimDevices SqueezeBox, but its interface is not as slick and it requires that you install its (open source) server on your computer. The other devices don't even begin to compare.

After trying many other network players and returning them back to the store, I am absolutely thrilled to have found the SoundBridge. This one is a keeper!

Rating:
Summary: bluestar
Review: Well I read the reviews and bought one of these. I had high hopes. Mostly what I bought it for was to add my favorute streaming internet radio stations and listen thru my stereo. I was very disappointed that the only ones I could get to work were thru I tunes. I called customer service and at first they were eager to help me. They were supposed to call me back but never did. So I phoned them. They could not figure out a way to help put in my preset radio stations. The last conversation I had with a so-called tech is that I get back with you shortly. I had a feeling deep down it was the last time I would hear from them. I was right. I was honestly not a pain either. As for as I am concerned I will never buy another item from this company because of their poor customer service. Save your hard earned money.