the file can be played in only one room at a time. (The Sonos system allows several players to play simultaneously.) The DRM-wrapped FairPlay AAC files downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Store will not play, however. Installing the SoundBridge I initially installed the SoundBridge M1001 on my office desk, next to the laptop that serves as my music server. The SoundBridge has no physical user markers and all between –92dB and –95dB. I have no idea what these might be due to—they are certainly not jitter-related. I did some Googling online to see if anyone had noted anything similar. I didn’t find any such comments, but what I did find was some discussion on the Roku Web forum (http://forums.rokulabs.com) about the fact that the SoundBridge converts the sample rate of incoming data to 48kHz before presenting it to the internal DAC and the S/PDIF digital output. I checked the X-24K’s samplerate indicator when it was supposedly being fed 44.1kHzsampled, CD-derived data by the SoundBridge: “48kHz”! A Roku spokesperson on the Web forum stated that though this design decision “makes passing 44.1kHz sources through untouched impossible . . . we’ve used a very high quality sample-scaling routine in an effort to make the resampling as good as possible and it should be inaudible.” Yes, the SoundBridge does use Analog Devices’ respected Blackfin DSP chip, but my experience has been that converting data with a sampling rate of 44.1kHz to one with a 48kHz rate is difficult to do with sufficient precision. It looks as if the Roku’s automatic but, in my opinion, unnecessary conversion to 48kHz compromises the audio data’s noise floor by introducing mathematical artifacts that I would be surprised wouldn’t be audible. Add that corruption of its digital output to its underperforming DAC and analog circuitry, and you can see why I was disappointed by the Roku SoundBridge M1001. It actually Fig.8 Roku SoundBridge M1001, HF intermodulation spectrum, 19+20kHz at 0dBFS peak into 8k ohms, volume control at “100%” (linear frequency scale). ROKU SOUNDBRIDGE M1001 controls—it must be operated from its remote or from a computer via a WiFi or Ethernet connection. Setup was easy, and as I browsed my music library on my laptop, the SoundBridge displayed all of the album and song titles and artist names of music I’d ripped from my favorite CDs using Windows Media Player software. Then, trouble: I’d visited www.nap ster.com to buy October’s “Recording of the Month,” Keith Jarrett’s The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM 1989/90). Once I’d entered my credit-card information, Napster had rapidly downloaded the 13 files that make up the two-CD set and written them to my hard drive as DRM-wrapped, lossless WMA files. Download completed, I browsed my music library, found the album, and clicked on the first track, Part 1. The SoundBridge displayed “ACQUIRING LICENSE”; then, its time display showed that the music was flowing through the M1001. Just to measures worse than the DAC in the cheaper Apple Airport Express WiFi base station (see www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/505apple), let alone that in the more expensive Slim Devices Squeezebox (see www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/207slim). Very disappointing. —John Atkinson Fig.9 Roku SoundBridge M1001, high-resolution jitter spectrum of analog output signal (11.025kHz at –6dBFS, sampled at 44.1kHz with LSB toggled at 229Hz), 16-bit CD data. Center frequency of trace, 11.025kHz; frequency range, ±3.5kHz. Fig.10 Musical Fidelity X-24K, high-resolution jitter spectrum of analog output signal (11.025kHz at –6dBFS, sampled at 44.1kHz with LSB toggled at 229Hz), 16-bit CD data sourced from Roku SoundBridge via TosLink connection. Center frequency of trace, 11.025kHz; frequency range, ±3.5kHz. www.Stereophile.com, May <strong>2007</strong> 71
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"After intensive listening sessions
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MAY 2007 VOL.30 NO.5 48 61 FEATURES
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The RAINMAKER will exceed any expec
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©2006 NHT, Inc. now hear this. www
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Bred Bred for for forhostile hostil
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call us today! 800-782-3472 shop on
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The Ultimate HD Viewing Experience.
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In 1981, John Beyer and Steve Keise
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Ely’s musical depth is more than
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Performance ★★★★ Sonics ★
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Thompson and Gigi Gryce. He is an i
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MANUFACTURERS’COMMENTS Kuzma Stab
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