I'm going to buy one for my living room, for listening music from my laptop. But, I've never got a network music player, and actually dont know what to buy and which are the best. For me, the most important thing, is sound quality. Because I want to connect it to my amplifier, and listen to high quality mp3s or even cds. I've seen many of them... Roku, Slim Devices... I know, there is Airport Express, but I don't like it cause, it doesn't have a display and remote controller. So, here I am, searching for greatest network player, and asking for your help. The most important things are sound quality and only then functionality. And of course, not very expensive. I think not more than 300 $.... Thanks for help.
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best wireless network music player?
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I bought a Roku a few months ago and I like it a lot, but would really like a music selection menu on the TV screen. I read the reviews for the Roku and several others, but it seemed like the really good solutions were in the multi-thousand dollar range. I found the Roku at Best Buy for only $199 and grabbed it up. Setup was a breeze; it immediately connected to my iTunes library, and when my son was home over Christmas we could select either his or my library at will.
I was also considering just getting a dock and remote for my iPod and hooking it up, but decided against that because I have a nano that can hold only about 1/2 of my library, and also because none of the dock solutions offered a display. However, there is now a new dock solution coming out that displays a music selection menu on your TV screen, and I may just have to get that and sell my Roku. We'll see.
Hope this helps.
I was also considering just getting a dock and remote for my iPod and hooking it up, but decided against that because I have a nano that can hold only about 1/2 of my library, and also because none of the dock solutions offered a display. However, there is now a new dock solution coming out that displays a music selection menu on your TV screen, and I may just have to get that and sell my Roku. We'll see.
Hope this helps.
Haven't used any of the options you mentioned, but my personal dream is for an Airport Express. Coupled with my Bluetooth phone and Salling clicker you have everything you need. The new version of Salling Clicker is even Wifi compatible if you have a PDA with Wifi, you could use it at a much greater range.
The big disadvantage of any non-Apple products is that they will not play the protected AAC files of songs that you would buy on ITMS. If that is no a concern for you because you do not buy songs, the the Roku is about as sweet as it gets. I like the easy setup and the display with remote control.
Very cool.
Very cool.
We use the Roku unit also and love it. While it doesn't have on-screen displays to output to your TV, it's on-unit display is very bright and vibrant. There is a Sony music network server we also use, and that DOES output to your TV. We have a few clients scattered throughout the house to receive the signal coming from the server, so it's really cool at times. I don't know the exact model number and I'm not at home right now... all I do know is it's expensive.