Squeeze Box Love'n'hate

Regalmal: I also have problems with Slimserver and my squeezebox about from 2-1 years ago where flac would stutter either wired or wireless.... Slimserver and the firmware has really improved since than and been really stable for me over the last 5 months. I also had to upgrade the firmware on my router which helped tremendously, and I dumped my old Dlink router which was non-stop problems.

Chazzbo: You can get some CD-R's that last 300 years now, you just need to look for archival quality. They use a different dye and cost a little more. I would recommend buying another external HD and then keeping it disconnected when not backing up to protect the drive.

Sounds like your SB3 is wireless... fix your wireless network or go wired. There are settings to increase or decrease how much your system buffers (I prefer a longer first buffer to prevent drops...) Dump your 2.4ghz wireless phones and go 5.8ghz, if you have neighbors switch your wireless broadcast channel on your wireless router (typically it will be either 6 or 11, try the other and see how performance does or switch it to 1. Check signal strength from the front of the SB3 to see if you are still having problems even with a good connection. If you are then your machine running slimserver might be underpowered. Slimserver running on Mac's is slower performing than Linux or the Windows equivalent. When was the last time you upgrade your slimserver software, it might be time (but it is opensource so it could get better or worse depending)

Since you are a Mac guy, you are use to paying more for simplicity (this is not a slam and don't take this as an insult Mac's Rock for their intended use); so buy a Sonos System which doesn't require the software of Slimserver running.. it just uses PNP media and it will create it's own wireless network between units which is much stronger than some of the wireless routers I have used. The remote is the bomb since you don't have to squint to see the SB3 display.

Or go with a USB DAC from your mac into your system and use Itunes on a nice LCD monitor between your speakers!

Slimdevices has a forum to help with setup and issues if you want to fix some of these problems (help you determine whether it is a Slimserver software version problem or a network/computer problem)