I4U News

Overview
The Squeezebox V3 is definitely easy on the eyes. Smooth shiny surfaces and a slim body, which comes either in black or white. Slim Devices sent me the black model with wired network option. The Wireless supports 802.11g and is $50 more expensive than the wired version. Because it is so shiny Slim Devices bundles a cleaning cloth to keep it that way.
The reason to get such a device like the Squeezebox is to listen to digital music stored on Hard-drives or available from the Internet away from your PC through a Hi-Fi stereo system. Via the free Slim Devices Server music files from PCs can be accessed via the Squeezebox. Additionally Slim Devices runs SqueezeNetwork, which allows to listen to tons and tons of Internet Radio stations without having to connect to a PC.

On the back of the device are plugs for a headset, analog audio, digital optical output, digital coax, Ethernet and power. I plugged mine into my Hi-Fi system via the analog Audio connection. My aging Hi-Fi system does not support digital optical yet.
Why Roku Labs and Slim Devices are using aqua-blue VFD displays for their music streamers, I just do not know. Why not have finally full color TFTs on such devices, to also use it as a Photo viewer. Anyway the display is easy to read and several brightness levels are available.
Setting up the Squeezebox V3 is super easy and done with the bundled remote control. After the box checked for updates it displays the setup options. After choosing how the box should get an IP address and choosing to what slim server it should connect the Squeezebox is online and I can start streaming music. Does not get much simpler than that.
 

The Slim Server software is available for download on Slim Devices and is released under Open Source GPL. Current version is 6.2.1 and the Slim Server supports besides Windows also Mac OS X 10.3 - 10.4 and Linux RPM. Audio files support includes: MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and WAV. To administrate the server a straight forward web interface is available. See hi-res screen-shot

The audio quality is excellent. The browsing through files, folders or channels on the Squeezebox is simple and fast. The remote control is not pretty, but it is acceptable. The did not let the industrial designer pretty that one up. On the other hand the remote control is apparently easy to replace with any other universal remote control in case it is lost.

One additional and kind of  cool feature is a RSS news reader. Everything is supporting RSS these days. Since this week also the  Sony PSP supports reading RSS feeds. The Squeezebox V3 displays configurable RSS feeds and I could read headlines and the text that comes via the feeds. The feeds need to be configured in the Slim Server. Above you see the I4U News feed. See more photos in our Gallery.

Conclusion
The Slim Devices Squeezebox V3 is a slick and hassle-free device, that enables users to access digital audio (and RSS Feeds) away from their Computers. Slim Devices offers with the Squeezebox V3 a stylish and well manufactured product. 
The main difference between the Roku Soundbridge and the Squeezebox is apparently that Roku is supporting several music servers and the Squeezebox only works with the Slim Server. Slim Devices also claims to have a better DAC than Roku Labs. Of course having control over the streaming server allows for extra features like the RSS feed reader that other network music player do not have.

How to Buy
The Slim Devices Squeezebox V3 sell for $249.00 or 299.00 (Wireless) on Slim Devices or via Amazon.com.