5. Summary and Conclusions

While the SoundBridge units aren't your least expensive choice for freeing your digital music library from the confines of your hard drive, they're done well. Even though some features, like the lack of support for Apple's DRM protected music files, and no support for 802.11g are a bit annoying, the overall pluses outweigh the minuses. And if you're willing to step outside the supported box a bit, using the SoundBridge with a stand-alone network storage appliance, like the NSLU2 or the Kuro Box, adds a whole new level of functionality. No longer do you have to turn on a large, noisy, multi-purpose PC just to have access to your digital music library.

Small network devices designed to do one thing, and do it well are coming on strong. Without thinking much about it, I've accumulated nearly half a teraByte of storage in my entertainment center for music, photographs and video and I know I'm not the only one with a growing digital media collection. We're all going to need elegant little devices like the SoundBridge to help us get a handle on our libraries. So if you do a home-remodel like I did, make sure to add a network drop or two behind your entertainment center, you're going to need it!