Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System

I've had my Soundbridge for 3 years. I love this thing, and my wife won't live without it. I've used it with Windows Media Connect and TwonkyMedia- never had a problem.

Having said that, I'm worried that the company is not hanging on very well- they have scaled back their consumer products (down to 2 now, with no video product), and several long-time employees who were active in the customer support forums have recently left.

This will product probably serve me very well for many more years, but they just aren't giving me the warm fuzzies right now at the corporate level.

Amazon has two listings for this product. Don't think there is any difference between them for the M1001. But I'm duplicating my review here.

There have been changes since the previous model. I just bought mine 11/07 and it can handle 802.11g and WPA as the encryption system.

After reading a lot of negative reviews for soundbridges produced by some of the wireless router manufacturers, I was very discouraged. Fortunately someone mentioned Roku as an alternative and I found my way to this unit. It costs a bit more, but it looks great, has great features and I found it to be very easy to install. No problem working with my Linksys WRT54G wireless router. No problem working with Windows Vista.

Probably the most difficult set up was having to input the encryption code with a remote! Other than that, piece of cake. Within an hour I was standing in the livingroom, remote in hand, scrolling through my iTunes library. You can search by artist, album, or choose your playlists. I haven't even gotten into the Internet radio capabilities. Do check out radioroku for listings and reviews of stations. There is also free software that allows you to preview stations on the Internet and add them to your list. Normally the unit is controlled by a remote, but there is also free software called iBridge which will allow you to control it from your computer. Frankly, this might be a little easier if you want to do more than play your presets.

Works great and looks a lot nicer than some router-looking thing.

I have had a Soundbridge (M1000) for over a year now. Wanted music in our living room, but as it's a 100-year old farmhouse, a stereo stack was not an attractive option. Wanted unobtrusive presence, but good sound. We're pretty picky on sound. Here's the solution...

Had an older Onkyo receiver that had been made obsolete by 7.1 DTS, etc. But still a very good receiver. Moved it to the basement. Got a Soundbridge, a small powered subwoofer, and a couple good satellites (Mirage Omnis) and drilled holes through the floor near the walls just large enough to feed (a) speaker wire, and (b) the audio plug for the Soundbridge. Now the soundbridge feeds its signal to the receiver, which provides a very high quality output to the sub/sat setup. Almost invisible, except for the sound. Wires strewn across (old) basement ceiling, not living room floor. Love it. Immediately found my music, playlists, etc. on my music server (i.e., my laptop) upstairs using wi-fi.

Now for the problems...

- Remote is funky, dated-looking, and necessary. Get used to it, or get a multi-function remote. (We have a Logitech Harmony for the home theater setup, and it's great.)
- On occasion, the Soundbridge looks like it is playing what you want, but no sound comes out. Have to restart (a 1-minute process, +/-) and everything is fine. Not a big deal, but seems to happen when trying to just get some background music for dinner, while everyone is waiting... (No occurrences since most recent firmware upgrade.)
- Entering the 128-bit WEP key for out network with the interface provided is awkward; an alphanumeric setup on the remote would be much easier (think T9 for texting on a phone keypad) Would also make it easier to actually browse for artist, etc. rather than scroll...

All in all, once I got the volume set to the range I wanted, sub output just right, etc., it's a very good solution to what had been a pretty big dilemma. Even made use of "old" technology instead of landfill / recycling, or trying to get $20 on craigslist for an old receiver.

Now, if only there was more on the market in this arena. Want to do the same kind of solution in another room, but would like a larger screen, maybe an LCD remote that show track / playlist info, etc. Don't want to have to buy a media PC and pull down the movie screen / turn on the projector just to see the on-screen display that shows my music choices!

Since moving into our current house and with the establishment of our wireless network, I've gone through some grief trying to connect the family computers' music collection to the central sound system in the main family room / den. Our setup consists of a Motorola broadband modem wired to a Linksys Wireless-G router wired to the two computers in the study. There is one wireless access point in the den, as well as a new, third computer, which connects to the wireless network via a Linksys WMB54G Music Bridge (I'll explain).

Last Christmas, I bought the Linksys Music Bridge for my parents, with the idea of broadcasting music to it from the computers located in the den. I had read about the problems encountered with trying to make it work, but I saw it as my only real option at the time and decided to risk it. Following some of the user-created tutorials here and elsewhere on the net, I managed to get it working for periods at a time.I say periods at a time, because inevitably, it would lose connectivity and the bridge software would not be able to pick it up, requiring me to tinker with it to try and reestablish a connection. Recently, it seemed to stop connecting altogether.

I read about the Apple Airport Express, so I picked one of those up. I brought it home from Best Buy and plugged it into a socket just behind the main entertainment system's cabinet. It has one light that blinks amber if there is a connection issue or solid green for an established connection with the network. Going through the configuration routine a couple times, I was able to get it to connect to our wireless network without nearly as much trouble as I had 8 months prior with the WMB54G. The only drawback to the Airport Express is that you can only access it with iTunes, which, when an external speaker connection is detected, creates a dropdown box in the lower area of the main window that lets you select which external speakers or Airport you would like to output to. To me, this felt a bit limiting, but I would probably have lived with it, had I not encountered an anomaly:

Now, I was planning to junk the WMB54G, but we had just bought a third computer (den), which of course needed a way to connect with the network. On a whim, I plugged it into the Linksys Music Bridge. Lo, and behold, it was able to use the Music Bridge like a wireless modem! (so it wasn't a total loss, after all). However, opening iTunes, it was somehow unable to see the Airport Express, and despite my efforts, I never could get the dropdown box to appear. I wasn't about to have a 2/3 solution, so back the Airport Express went. I scanned the isle, and there was the Roku M1000. It looked promising and well-made, so I bought it.

I cannot describe how cool this thing is! Setup of the Roku M1000 to the network was a real pleasure, for a change! In the first place, all setup configuration is performed at the Roku itself, using the remote and the display, which sure beats the heck out of going through a setup routine at every computer on the network! The Roku is an electronic Einstein compared to the others. It found and displayed the network name on the screen. I told it to connect. It immediately acquired all the right IP/gateway information without me having to baby it. Awesome!

Second, the Roku is smart enough to be able to scan for and find music sharing servers on the network by itself, without any additional software installed on each computer. I have not tried WMP specifically yet, but so far, whenever I have had one or all of the computers running iTunes with sharing enabled, the Roku would always find and display their library names on the screen. Sweet! Then it's just a matter of choosing one, and deciding which browsing method to use. That simple! It also will connect to hundreds of internet radio stations, right out of the box! So, even if you have not set up a music collection on your PC, you can still use it. It also shouldn't be overlooked that, unlike other devices, you don't have to go to the computer to play music from it. Since the Roku has its own display, you can browse and change the music right there, using the remote.

When I contrast my experiences regarding other devices, such as the Linksys Music Bridge and Apple Airport Express, both of which are more limiting and more prone to setup issues, with the Roku M1000, I feel that everyone wanting to get music from their PCs to their home stereo system should be made aware of this little guy, as it is by far the easiest and most versatile solution out there.

Ok. I know this is not really a 'new way'. It is, after all 2007 and I've been streaming radio for at least 7 years now but I have never really linked the computer with my home stereo until now.

I had two full CD towers and giant speakers from the 90's. Soundbridge put things in motion.

First when I got soundbridge the installation was a snap. I already have a wireless router in my house. I answered less than 10 questions on the display and the radio connected to the internet and retrieved hundreds of stations from around the world.

I scored bennie points with my wife by finding her favorite Czech station. Given that we live in Maine and she can now listen to it on our stereo is huge.

Then I took all my CD's and over the weekend while reading a book I mindlessly ripped them all in WMA losless format to maintain great quality.

Then I discovered Soundbridge on my network. Right clicked it and entered it's own web site. There I followed a few links. Some were clear and some were not but after a few days of intermittent playing I now have the device registered on my own rokulabs web page where i maintain my stations.

The quality of the music is great. Losless WMA's are great too. MP3 - not so much as Borat would have said.

I spent a few hours editing my Windows Music Library and eliminated all songs/artists/albums labeled unknown. Good move.

Then I found my local stations I listen to. Local college radio and local NPR. Now I don't even need an antenna for local stations.

The whole setup prompted a chain link reaction where I got rid of my giant speakers, giant CD towers, giant TV and saved a lot of space. Bought satelite speakers and subwoofer... well I'm straying from the main topic.

The end result is that I LOVE this little unit and wholeheartedly recommend it. My loves the Czech stations so much that I bought her the Soundbridge Radio too. This way she doesn't have to fiddle with turning on the receiver, switching to the right source and then turning on the soundbridge unit... you know what I mean... some of this stuff is for geeks. The soundbridge radio she pushes one button and that's it.

Ok. Done with the review. Thank You Roku. Now make something for videos that is better than Picturebridge.