Review of D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player

Recent purchase of this Digital Media Player from eXpansys has prompted this review by me.....

I wanted a system that would enable me to play my iTunes collection and maybe some video in another room in the house, my PC has an amplifier & Bose speakers in my study & I have the Bose Sounddock in another room, so the idea of buying another Sounddock for another room didn't appeal - however, see my suggestion later....

Not the most expensive on the market, but not cheap either coming in at £155.95, other choices are the Elgato EyeHome Wireless Edition (£209.00 from AppleStore UK) or the Roku Soundbridge M2000 Network Music Player (£330 from Roku Direct) or the wonderful, but truely amazingly priced Sonos (£949 from Sonos Direct - it does make music available in 2 rooms for this price, but one room is where your PC is located) see links in July 15th post.

The D-Link was easy to install & setup, the signal range isn't brilliant, but you can buy a high gain aerial that helps, I hope that my new D-Link DSL-G604T with additional antenna helps as well - I will review the D-Link DSL-G604T next week.

The menu systems are easy to navigate, they are however not very quick.

My biggest problem is having to nominate every single folder on your PC that you want to make available to the Media Player. You should be able to identify just the folder - such as iTunes Music & every sub folder should (in my opinion) be read & made available automatically, but it doesn't. If you have as many folder as I do in my iTunes directory you will give up very quickly - I did.

My suggestion - if you're only after a means to play your iTunes collection in a number of rooms - buy a Bose Sounddock for every room & take your iPod with you from room to room. They are small, neat and have brilliant sound built in with no need for additional speakers. It might sound like an expensive solution, but compare prices with the Elgato, Roku or Sonos & it isn't.

If you have a specialist Hi-Fi setup & want to use that, then on their own review alone go buy the Roku. I might yet still go & get a Roku M2000 & hook it up to my Cinema Surround Sound on the TV & use my D-Link somewhere else, if the range is OK, maybe the Summer House TV could be hooked up.....