Squeezebox - the simplest ideas are often the best

[autopilot]

There is no difference in sound quatiity. The datastream being received is exactly the same and will sound exactly the same when it's decoded.

Of course WiFi does have it issues, but i have found the SB3 to be rock solid - streaming lossless FLAC files at 'b' speed (because i have an ad-hok network) has been faultless in the year or so i have had it.

[Mutley]

Same here. Mine wifi net is all "g". I get 75% connection on my sb3, and like dom, I stream FLAC files with no problem at all.
I can even play games on my PC while it streams music to the SB3. Which is nice.

[BenW]

What does 75% connection mean? I'm quite interested in this, my CD players nearly 20 years old and stuggles with some slightly scratched disks/doesnt play CD-RW but i want CD quality sound

[autopilot]

He means the signal strengh, mine is usually around 50-60%. It does not represent the quality of the sound. Remember, this is digital data transmission - it's not like old fashioned analogue transmission. You either hear it or you dont (ok its not quite as simple as that, but thats all most people need to know). Good buffering in the SB3 means you should have no interuption to you music listening.

If you rip using a lossless format (preferably FLAC) you will have CD quality music. In fact many say better than CD, due to reduced 'jitter' and the fact the SB3 has a very good DAC. Not as good as their new Transporter product, but better than many CD players that cost twice as much and much better than anything else in it's class of device. The DAC in the SB3 is more than good enough for 99% of people. Only audiophiles, beardy irritating types with far more money than sense and who are obsesed with audio equipment to point of me wanting to punch them and shout "Forget the £100 Phono cables, just enjoy the music FFS!", will need anything better.

The quality of the sound you hear will be mainly down to the music format and bit rate you choose, and the actaul quality of your AMP/Speakers.

Plus you will never have to worry about sctatched CD's again. In fact, many CD's i have have minor scratches and skip like mad in a CD player. I have ripped them using EAC and managed to recover all the data (to FLAC) and they now play perfectly using my SB3.

[BenW]

Thanks dom, great reply

I rip all my music in flac with EAC so thats no problem

How does the sound quality compare to say an arcam alpha 7se/8se as those were the other solutions i was looking at (£120ish on ebay). Obviously this has the advantage of being able to stream my downloaded music and internet radio.

FWIW i have an old pioneer amp/EQ (But set to cd direct), B&W 601 S3 on soundstyle stands and a reasonable yamaha subwoofer (Was about £250 a few years back AFAIK)

[Mutley]

I couldn't say - have a look at the forums on http://www.slimdevices.com - lots of useful information there, and your question has probably been answered.

Hint for ripping CDs with scratches - give the cd a light polish with furniture polish (the spray-kind). Works a treat for CDs that wouldn't rip properly!

[suniil]

they offer 20% discount until today (mods: if posting URLS are against the rules of forum, please remove)

http://www.simplyautomate.co.uk/default.asp

HTH

[autopilot]

www.scan.co.uk have also had SB3's on the 'Today Only' page. I think they were around the £80 mark for the wireless version (free delivery), which was a good price (usually £230ish, which is what i paid). I recommend the wireless one even if you plan to use ethernet ost of the time. Just gives you that extra flexibility, i often take mine out into the garden with my Denon M30 mini system for when we have parties/BBQ's.

[Mutley]

Hey dom, I think you meant 180, not 80 pounds...!

I got mine for about 180 on Today Only.

[Howard]

I love my SB3. There was a noticeable jump in sound quality when my SB3 arrived after having borrowed an SB1 Burr Brown