home entertainment 2007

switched over to the analog output. Even
matching the playback level between the
digital and analog outputs, I heard more
dynamics, felt more impact in the bass,
and much preferred the music’s increased
depth of soundstage and dimensionality
from the digital output. With some CDs,
the SoundBridge’s digital output feeding
the Bryston sounded almost as good as
that of my Krell CD player.
But despite its superiority to its analog
output, even the SoundBridge’s
digital output was troubled by a subtle
noise that I couldn’t get rid of by repositioning
the SoundBridge in relation
to other equipment. I heard this when,
at top volume, I played the first 30 seconds
of digitally recorded silence in
Samuel Barber’s “Heaven-Haven (A
Nun Takes the Veil)”—track 18 of Cantus’
…Against the Dying of the Light (CD,
Cantus CTS-1202). The silence was
perturbed by a slight background noise
not evident when the same passage
was played over the Squeezebox.
Comparison listening to the same
selections through the Squeezebox was
revealing. I preferred the Squeezebox’s
analog output to that of the Roku. The
SoundBridge’s DAC seemed to collapse
and flatten the musical soundfield, turning
the upper-midrange tones harsh and
bright, and dimming the music’s transparency
and sheen. With levels
matched, the SoundBridge’s analog outputs
had less bass extension, narrower
soundstage depth, and less transparency
than did the Squeezebox’s.
What about the digital output? Even
though the Roku’s digital output was
superior to its analog, it wasn’t as sweet,
open, transparent, or free of hardness as
the Squeezebox’s, again feeding the Bryston.
Though Patricia Barber’s voice on
“Too Rich for My Blood,” from her Café
Blue (CD, Premonition/Blue Note 5
21810 2) was well-defined and stood out
from the background, the SoundBridge
added brightness and extra dynamics.
The timbre of Barber’s voice was definitely
brighter and cooler when the
SoundBridge fed its digital streaming file
to the Bryston DAC. Emmylou Harris’
thin, delicate, translucent soprano in
“Calling My Children Back Home,” from
Spyboy (CD, Eminent EM-25001-2), had
more dynamics and snap than I recalled
hearing before playing it through the
SoundBridge. And in “A Gaelic Blessing,”
from John Rutter’s The Lord is My Light
and My Salvation (CD, Reference RR-
57CD), although the different voices in
the chorus were well defined, there was
ROKU SOUNDBRIDGE M1001
an edge to the male voices. Somehow in
these selections, the Squeezebox’s digital
output was more relaxed than the Roku,
its timbre smoother.
The SoundBridge fared better with
other musical selections, particularly
those that were primarily instrumental.
I was particularly delighted with the
quality of the digital file I’d downloaded
of Keith Jarrett’s “True Blues”
piano solo from The Carnegie Hall Concert,
which sounded most open, involving,
and lyrical when it was sourced
from the digital output of either the
SoundBridge or the Squeezebox.
Conclusions
The Roku SoundBridge M1001’s low
price ($199.99), large display, and ability
to play DRM-protected files are all positive
factors for an inexpensive network
music player. It is less expensive than the
Sonos ZP80 system ($999), and betters
Slim Devices’ Squeezebox in that it can
play DRM-wrapped files downloaded
from Napster. Roku’s manual and website
discourage telephone support, so the
user must rely on a frustrating web-based
fill-in sheet to get tech support, which
responds within 24 hours.
However, I was left with some nagging
concerns about this otherwise
promising network music player. First,
while I strongly preferred the Sound-
Bridge’s digital output fed to an external
DAC over its analog outputs, which
improved the dynamics and soundstage
depth for orchestra music, I felt that the
omnipresent low-level noise lent subtle
colorations to vocal recordings. Second,
running the SoundBridge with Windows
Media Connect 2.0 required too
much maintenance from me. Not only
did I have to kick-start the music server
by moving all of my music files out of,
and then back into, my music subdirectory,
but WMC 2.0 intermittently slowed
and stopped until after I’d shut down all
other software running in the background
on my laptop. Finally, I couldn’t
persuade the Windows XP firewall to
make an exception for the SoundBridge,
so the firewall had to be shut down as
well before I could listen to music.
Roku’s SoundBridge M1001 will
appeal to those who buy most of their
recordings from online music stores—
such as Napster and Rhapsody—that wrap
their files in Microsoft DRM protection.
With some caveats, I recommend the
Roku SoundBridge M1001, using its digital
outputs, as a cost-effective network
music player for casual listening. ■■
EXPERIENCED
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