The S550 has multichannel analog out (via 7.1 rca ports) on the back of the player. As the S350 only has analog stereo out. If you have an HDMI 1.1 receiver or prepro, the S350 will do. Also, the S350 didn't ship with profile 2.0 (available through firmware update) I think the S550 shipps with profile 2.0
To add to what TonyD said, the 350 doesn't have 1gb of onboard memory so it's profile 1.1 out of the box. However, if you plug in a 1gb or larger flash drive (can be had for almost nothing these days) in the USB port on the back it will bring it to profile 2.0.
If you have an HDMI receiver or plan on getting one in the near future save your money and get the 350. Otherwise the 550 is ideal since you can get high def audio on an old receiver using the analog outputs.
Okay, so, if you don't care about analog audio outs, then, as far as performance is concerned, there's really not much other difference between the S350 & S550?
The analog outs justifies the price difference? What about performance? Loading times?
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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What's the difference between the 350 and the 550? Anyone?
The S550 has multichannel analog out (via 7.1 rca ports) on the back of the player. As the S350 only has analog stereo out. If you have an HDMI 1.1 receiver or prepro, the S350 will do. Also, the S350 didn't ship with profile 2.0 (available through firmware update) I think the S550 shipps with profile 2.0
To add to what TonyD said, the 350 doesn't have 1gb of onboard memory so it's profile 1.1 out of the box. However, if you plug in a 1gb or larger flash drive (can be had for almost nothing these days) in the USB port on the back it will bring it to profile 2.0.
If you have an HDMI receiver or plan on getting one in the near future save your money and get the 350. Otherwise the 550 is ideal since you can get high def audio on an old receiver using the analog outputs.
Okay, so, if you don't care about analog audio outs, then, as far as performance is concerned, there's really not much other difference between the S350 & S550?
The analog outs justifies the price difference? What about performance? Loading times?