Suggestion. Are you familiar with softsqueeze, squeezeslave, and stream.mp3 ? The two first are software players specifically designed to work with the slimserver and which can be used for streaming from the server. The latter provides an mp3-stream which can be accessed from any streaming-capable software player through the url http://serverip:9000/stream.mp3. Its VERY flexible.
So why not just buy a SB for your most "shiny" setup, e.g. the living room stereo, and then use the other methods to access your music in the kitchen, garden, bedroom, garage etc. Get some old pc's with wireless interfaces, use Linux and you have all you need for creating very cost effective stationary setups around your house. Then use a laptop, the palm, or some of the modern mobile phones, or your favorite choice of handheld device to play music when you are "roaming your mansion", or even roaming the world. Finally the server software is quite powerful. It has many features and many additional features can be added using the plugins. One of the really nice features when streaming is the ability to do server side transcoding. E.g. the ability to use looseless formats on the LAN and transode to lower bitrates when on WAN. Overall I think that slimdevices offers alot. They have chosen to use good quality hardware which comes at a certain cost. Even so, due to the openness of the design and implementation, they certainly do not lock people on tight budgets out. You could even choose not to get the SB at all, but just use the free softsqueeze and slimserver software and get all the features. Personally I'd rather have it this way around, than the company offering crappy hardware and leaving it to third-parties to develop the quality stuff. This turned out a little more comprehensive than I intended. Still I hope it conveys some of the reasons I have for believing that the product is worth the money. Bjørn -- bhaagensen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ bhaagensen's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7418 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39223
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