The Squeezebox Receiver arrived early this morning via UPS. The package contained the SBR, its AC adapter, and 2 pages of instrutions. But first, to the hardware itself. It's a nice-looking little unit. Fit and finish are equal to the SB3, which is to say quite nice for a consumer product. It is fairly light, but the large rubberized area on the bottom should help keep it in place. I've got one bedroom location with heavy interconnects at a tricky angle, and that is where I plan to install the SBR next to test its analog capabilities. So I'll also be able to see if the heavy cables overwhelm the little SBR. One thing I can say is that the AC connector plug fits snugly in the socket on the back of the SBR. If all the units are like this, there should be no problems with dodgy connectors. The other jacks also look to be top-notch and sturdy.
I was able to set up the SBR using the SB Controller, but I might have had some problems with my wi-fi setup. I don't know a lot about wi-fi and the SBR and SBC are the only wi-fi capable devices I own. The SBC found the wireless network, and found the SBR, but when I tried to complete the setup, the SBC kept saying it was connecting to the wi-fi network. It was unclear if that means it was TRYING to connect or if it was connecting successfully and hanging for some other reason. Anyway, the setup process would get hung there, then eventually ask me to re-press the button on the SBR to go back into setup mode. After a few such unsuccessful tries I plugged an ethernet cable into the SBR, and the SBC became aware that there was a wired as well as wireless connection available. It asked me to select between them, I selected ethernet, and the setup completed successfully. I will try the wi-fi again on my next install location. For now, I used it with ethernet. I am running the Jan 21 nightly of 7.0, running the Windows version on my PC while the linux server continues to run 6.5.4 and controls the other players in the house. Performance for 7.0 seems fairly snappy on my 5-year-old PC, and I'm sure my Linux server will be even quicker running 7.x. The Controller successfully updated its firmware once it connected to the freshly installed 7.0 server. I placed the SBR in my main (home theater) system, using the same digital coax normally used for the SB3 that resides there. As far as I could tell, the sound through the digital coax was the same as that from the SB3. I checked that it was bit-accurate by sending some DTS files through the SBR to my HT receiver. Everything was fine. The SBC worked well. The firmware for it keeps improving. The Now Playing screen updated properly and the Controller was responsive. There isn't much to say about the SBR in action. It is small and silent and does its job. It's a tidy little package that hides its true power. This will make for a very cool "stealth" component, easily hidden among the monster amps and such. It'll also be great for custom whole-house installations. So, a favorable first impression for the SBR and the Duet package. My next report will address the analog performance and I'll also do more experimenting with the wifi connection. -- Pale Blue Ego ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pale Blue Ego's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=110 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=42570 _______________________________________________ jive mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/jive
