Logitech Squeezebox Wi-Fi Internet Radio and Wireless Music Player by Logitech
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Digital camera reviews of Logitech Squeezebox Wi-Fi Internet Radio and Wireless Music Player
Digital camera Review: A 20-year old vision come true!
Summary: 4 Stars
In the late 1980s, while in college, a friend and I mused about how cool it would be if we could digitize our music collections, put them into a computer, and play them on demand. No more swapping LPs, CDs, or Cassettes.
Digital music players like the Squeezebox fulfill that vision. I have two Squeezeboxes, one in the living room, and one upstairs in the master bedroom. You can synchronize them and fill your home with sound. I have not listened directly to a CD in my house in years.
Additionally, with Internet Radio, the world is yours, not from tinny computer speakers, but from your living room hi-fi system. Groove to SomaFM, chill to TSF Jazz live from Paris, get the news from the BBC, listen the game from your alma mater even though you moved hundreds of miles away, or even listen to your local AM radio stations after dark.
Ease of use on the Internet Radio feature is phenomenal. When connected to the Logitech [...] service, the service detects your location based on your IP address and automatically populates local stations into the menu.
One caveat: Don't buy Apple's DRM m4p AAC files from iTunes. DRM protected files will not play on Squeezebox. Instead buy non-DRM mp3s from Amazon. They work great with Squeezebox.
Why 4-stars and not 5? Some minor annoyances, and I believe the price is still a high for Squeezebox products compared to alternatives such as Roku SoundBridge M1001. I got my first Squeezebox for sale for $250 several years ago, and the second one was on sale because it was the white model (this was back when black was the cool color, and before Apple had succeed in making white the cool color). If it were possible to give half-star ratings, I would rate 4.5 stars.
Update: I recently started using Squeezebox's ability to connect to my Pandora Internet Radio profile and play my Pandora stations through Logitech's [...] service. This is a great feature, and the fact it works with a four-year old system is awesome investment protection. Pandora sound quality is outstanding. I had to contact Logitech customer support due to a problem with one of my Squeezeboxes and Logitech corrected the problem quickly and professionally. Kudos to Logitech's technical support.
Digital camera Review: A Royal Paiin to get going-but enjoyable
Summary: 4 Stars
I had fussed with my Suezzebox for over a week. This included the installation and registration on the internet. I gave up and talked to my Dell consultant. I told him I had a wireless Logitech device just like my wireless Logitech mouse that I have not yet used. It was not coupling with my computer when I tried to use it wireless in my living room. The Dell consultant sold me a Linksys router. And that solved the problem. Plus I also took my Squeezebox to my PC and read from the PDF owner's manual and worked through the set up. I have six years of college in science and grad school and I found this thing hard to get going. But I am pleased that I was able to get it going and it works well. It has no speakers, so I had to hook it up to my Bose home theatre. And it plays just fine!Digital camera Review: A Step Forward In the Evolution of Digital Music Players
Summary: 5 Stars
The Squeezebox is not everything I would want in a digital music player. However, it is certainly a cut above the rest, and a step forward in the evolution of digital music players.
Prior to purchasing the Squeezebox, I used a PC with Foobar as a media player, and an M-Audio Transit as a digital link to an external DAC. This is a nice sounding setup but requires a dedicated PC in the listening area. It also requires much tweaking of Windows XP to get a bit-perfect datastream through Foobar and the Transit. The Squeezebox solves those issues for me, but has some tradeoffs such as the small display, and seemingly less reliable WiFi reception. I'm giving the Squeezebox five stars for the overall value, and crossing my fingers that the next generation of digital media players will address these shortcomings.
Pros:
- Easy to setup, though WiFi requires some knowledge of home networks
- Supports lossless file formats such as FLAC
- Digital outputs allow for best sound quality using external DAC
- Streaming internet audio is a nice bonus
- Very active user forum on website
Could be better:
- Less range, more susceptible to interference than other WiFi devices
- Web based server software has a rather bland interface and is slow displaying pages with a large music collection
Cons:
- Small display doesn't show as much information as I would like
Digital camera Review: Amazing Product!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love my squeezebox 3 and squeezebox duet! These units coupled with the squeezecenter software really unlock your digital music. The streaming is flawless and sound quality is also terrific. I think the squeezebox setup is much more flexible and cheaper than the alternative (i.e., sonos). The duet controller is very nice and easy to navigate with one hand. It syncs flawlessly with my Rhapsody subscription as well as my digital music collection (which is on a WHS). I would be happy to answer specific questions if you want to email me. Overall I am very pleased with my purchases and definitely plan on buying more squeezebox's to extend my music to all my rooms! Highly recommended!Digital camera Review: Any style of music you could imagine
Summary: 5 Stars
Great product! Very easy plug and play set up. Immediately found my wireless network, obtained IP address automatically, and in minutes I was listening!