Roku Soundbridge M1000 media streamer

Make better use of the MP3s on your computer.

Music streamers free your songs from your PC. You use them to play the tunes stored on your computer on your hi-fi using a wireless network. Most of them look ugly - this, however, is a class act.

Roku doesn't include any software in the box, but that doesn't matter - you can use it with iTunes, Winamp, Slimserver, MusicMatch and Microsoft's Windows Media Connect (WMC), all of which are free downloads. We tried it with WMC and installation was a breeze - we had it hooked up to our Wi-Fi network and playing music within a couple of minutes.

Most music formats are supported, including MP3 and protected WMA, but the M1000 can't play songs bought from the iTunes Music Store because Apple won't license the technology to its rivals. But iTunes issues aside, other formats sound fantastic, with pleasing fizz on the high end and lots of warmth in the lower regions.

There are no buttons on the device; instead all the menus are driven by the small remote control. On the whole it's quick and easy to find your way around, but it's a bit of a shame that the remote lacks shortcut keys for categories such as artist, album and tracks. The display, however, is top-notch. It's very bright and easy to read, and you can set the text to stretch to the full size of the screen if you need to control the device from the other side of a room.

Overall, we were very impressed with the M1000. It's expensive compared with some of its competitors, but the excellent display, classy looks and great sound quality make it worth the extra outlay.