Electronics : Sony NAS-S55HDE Giga Juke Hi-Fi 'music server'

Rating: - FIddly but worth it
Well, I was ecstatic to get this but it has been sitting pretty and a bit unloved for about a month. This is due to the complexity of the machine for me (not the greatest technological master - but not a total ditz either). I have faith that once I get to grips with the mechanism, there is a lot of potential to be unleashed from the system.
I love the smooth sound from the speakers, and aesthetically it is gorgeous, slick, black and shiny - design is an important feature for me. I want to get the music from my mac to the thing but it is taking me days to figure this out. One significant frustration is (as I understand from my more technologically gifted partner) that we are unable to use the wireless connection as we don't use WEP - we have something more adavenced although forgive me for not remembering its name- and there is no option for this, which is a shame to have the feature and not use it but instead have to drape an unsightly wire across the living room. We are contacting Sony about this.
The occasional slowness i can easily live with as I am just in awe of what we can achive with technology at the moment. I did expect the interface to be a bit more slick though.
As I understand it, there are 2 points to this creature: that it stores a lot of music, potentially freeing space on computers and ipods. We are looking forward to storing our vinyls too.
The other is that it is a server for other independent systems. This is why I am writing a review today: I live in regret for not getting the next system up that comes with an additional client. I regret more now, as the better version now costs nearly as much I bought this system for. We are not able to exploit the machine to its full potential yet, and that is a little disappointing and the clients on their own are a lot extra cash. Also disappointed this model does not come with the wireless hub.
However, we were going to get the cheaper system so we did get a lovely gadget for the hard earnt pennies we have - but if u can afford it, get the next one up!

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Rating: - Some good & some bad points
I love Sony products and thought this was a great idea. It does what it says on the can very well but there are some quirks that I find annoying. Number 1 is that everytime you fully remove power and re-apply it, the unit goes through a set-up phase and then writes away the settings and then turns itself off. Switch it back on and away you go! Why couldn't Sony spend another couple of pence and fit some non-volatile RAM? Secondly, I'm having problems trying to get the DAB side working. After the "initial scan" it has found about 7 BBC stations but no commercial stations and I can't find any way of manually adding a DAB station. Apart from these 2 quirks it's a great system and I hope to get one of the slave units soon to really make use of it's best feature (streaming).

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Rating: - Far too complicated
I've always tended to favour Sony products based on years of good experiences, but this time I think they've got it wrong. This machine is slow to start up, and to switch between functions, and is very hard to work, the interface being almost counter-intuitive. The flip up display is a bit of a joke, it would be far better if it was integrated into part of the front of the system, and the miserable length of speaker wire isn't going to win Sony any friends, particularly when the fittings at the back of the system will only accept the cable which comes with the system.

What's probably most annoying though is that I've already gone through the tedious process of transferring all my cd's onto my ipod, but because Sony want to push their own products at the expense of Apple, there doesn't seem to be a way of transferring straight from the ipod onto the hard drive of this system. This is enormously frustrating.

Having given it a good slating, I must say that it produces a very good sound, rich and clear, it's the complex interface (and utterly useless manual) that ultimately put me off, coupled with lack of ability to transfer data from the ipod to the hd.

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Rating: - Does what it says on the box
The text entry for track info and settings is very slow. The speakers (100W pair)only rate as a midi system so don't get this if you consider yourself to be a audiophile and you want to annoy the neighbours. Having said that it performs to specification and is exactly what I was looking for. the cables to the speakers are of reasonable quality and the ends are tinned so they don't fray. The track selection and randomisation functions are reasonably developed, but only as good as the track info you provide. Transfer from my PC was easy. If you do this make sure the tracks are correctly labelled before transfer. Wireless network was a pain for me to set up as I normally use WEP-PKA but had to change to simple WEP, which meant reconfiguring all my pc wireless settings. network has worked every time since. the Gracenote track syncing function is one I use with my mp3 player (creative) but unlike itunes you don't automatically get an album icon. You can get these separately but is a bit more convoluted.
There is a connection for an ipod and native mobile players, but haven't worked out if I can connect a creative player yet. You can play from USB and from PC with direct network connection or wireless.
the 16 times rip to HDD doesn't seem that fast in reality but you can listen to tracks whilst you rip if you are impatient to hear your new CD.

I would recommend this unit over an ipod speaker system and the unit will work for a technophobe.
Over all I am very pleased and am just waiting to get the wireless music station now.