The box looks nice and is well made. At my old stereo system via RCA sound the result is rather disappointing, in my home cinema system via the optical cable on the other hand the music sounds really good, but I also want to place a point.
In terms of operation and safety makes the box, unfortunately absolutely no good picture:
1. Integration into my wireless was not possible. This only succeeded me after I enabled the guest WLAN and there have the password changed so that it was considerably shorter and any special characters included. Then the box functioned as intended as a repeater. But I find it appalling that not the WLAN standard is fully supported and you have runterschrauben the security of its network to include the box.
2. For the reason I'm talking about the box over their own Wi-Fi network and can access at the moment about the device that activates the box either browse the net or on the storage on the internal network to from there the music files to use. A streaming of songs from music services such as Spotify is therefore not possible.
3. A further security problem is in the open telnet port of the box. To me it was to research on the Internet also possible to sign up with the login data found on the box via telnet. That this is so easy, I found it very frightening and encouraged me not to include the box in my network.
4. After connecting my Windows 8.1 tablets appears to me on the network, the Box as a streaming resource. With a double click on it to open my browser. It will navigate to an HTML page of the box. However, can not be displayed the page, because I get a 500 error message "Internal Server Error" get. As I use the latest firmware version, currently I see no possible solution.
5. When streaming I had some misfires after about 20-30 seconds on iOS. About my Windows 8.1 Tablet the problem also occurred sporadically. After restarting the box, the problem could be solved in each case.
6. I can appeal to the box using the Xbox Music app from Windows 8.1. However, I have serious problems here. The first song is played back, the second is played, but after a few seconds it changes to the third song, which will continue to play. Then the next song will be played again briefly and then changed to the next, which is completely played. In one use of the Xbox Music app without issue on the IcyBox the problem does not exist.
7. Because of the problems with the Xbox Music app, I have tried to use the application also recommended MediaMonkey. This works on the issue of the music on the tablet well when selecting the IcyBox as an output device but not at all. In this case, the controls of MediaMonkey are grayed out. The attempt on the Windows Media Player with the "Play to" functionality did not bring me further. Here, unfortunately, is not a sound out of the box. The streaming resource is my way, as a "non-Windows certified" appears.
All in all, I am with the problems that I have, very surprised that there are several positive some very positive reviews as well as reviews. In my view, it is at the points shown by me, especially in the software error. Perhaps there is here in the near future a new firmware version. Under the described problems streaming is "somehow" possible, but it's more a cramp and makes no joy! Therefore, I can also just awarded a star.
