Hi Fan

I'm in the process of setting this up at present, so I'll give you the short form version.

You need to copy your CDs to your PC. There are various programmes to do this. The pouplar vote goes with EAC to do the copying (ripping) and the file you've made gets stored as a FLAC file (a lossless compressed file to save space). The SB3 gets these digits either from your PC via a wire connection, or wirelessly if you have a wirelss network set up. The SB3 comes with software which lets you browse the collection of music which you now have stored on your PC (or external hard drives), and lets you play back genres (if you have categorised your music with the file info on your PC), random choices or whatever you select. The apparent advantage is very low jitter, so it sounds good, and you have access to all your music (well, as much as you have copied to the PC).

I'm still setting up the wireless network. I reckon the set up costs if you are starting from scratch without an existing wirelss network are:

(sorry, UK prices here)
�55-�90 for wireless router
�20-�40 for wireless card for other PC/laptop (optional)
�70-�90 for external network storage device (optional if you have enough space in PC)
�140-�180 per 500Gb hard disk for storage (optional if you have enough space in PC)
�180-�210 for SB3, wired or wirelss version.

I'll be looking at ~�500 to get the router, external storage with 1 big disc, and SB3 set up. If you don't deal with computer IT issues for a living, and try setting up a network with a mix of medium old to really old laptop/PC gear (3-5 years old) as I'm doing, you will spend many long hours trying to get it all to work together. Mind you, that's a separate issue to the basic SB3 set up!

I'm looking forward to having it all work, but it's the IT side that's taxing me at present. I'll let you know what I think of the SB3 in due course!

Cheers

George