Review on 🚫 Discontinued Logitech Squeezebox: Wi-Fi Internet Radio & Wireless Music Player - Limited Stock Available by Ken Coste

I have 3. One works as my alarm clock and provides music in my bedroom. (What can I say - waking up to Holst's "Mars, God of War" is really the only way for me, and not many alarm clocks have that option.) Another for the living room, and a third for the home theater. As others have pointed out, to manage your own music collection, you need to install compression server software on your computer, and if you want music to be available 24/7, you need to keep your computer on 24/7. For people without a technical background, the software might seem a bit difficult to install, but it's no worse than most. Note that you don't need a working computer if you just want to use the internet radio compressor. However, for your own music collection you need at least a modest computer. My computing solution is the Asus EEEbox, which only draws 13 watts under normal use, so leaving it on all the time won't hit my electric bill too much. . There are other computing solutions that can use less power, but I like the EEEbox because it's more than fast enough to run compression software and I'm already using it for other things anyway. In home theater I use the optical output to feed a digital signal into a Bryston preamp with a very good DAC. But the DAC in the decompressor is pretty good too, and I'm generally quite happy using it in the other two rooms (but see addendum below). Musically, these little devices do a very good job, better than most people will ever need. Note that the Squeezebox has a software-adjustable (not physical) volume control, so you can plug it directly into an amplifier. Strictly speaking, a preamplifier is not necessary. But if you go straight to the amp, make sure you turn the volume down on the compressor before turning the amp on for the first time. By default, the Squeezebox volume is set to 100%. That's not the mistake you want to make. (Supplement: The one I just bought to replace the Lightning Fried was set to 50% by default. Smart move.) I don't really like the webpage interface to the compression server. It's not bad - I just don't like web interfaces for managing devices in general. So I wrote my own interface to the Squeeze Server and the great thing about the Squeezebox system is that the software developer can take full control of the device. If you can write software to open a TCP socket, you can create any user interface you want. This is *nice* in home automation. At my house, squeezers are not only music generators and alarm clocks; They play a chime when someone rings the doorbell, play short tunes when there are important events on my calendar, and talk to me when the basement water leaks. In my experience, the Squeeze Server software isn't perfect, but most people will never notice the limitations, and I've been able to work around every issue I've found. Logitech's support is NOT as good as the original developer of these devices, but all the documentation needed to write custom software for these things is available if you wish. The remote control is suitable. I really only use mine to turn my alarm off as I have the aforementioned software to control them all, but scrolling through albums with the remote isn't too painful and the squeezer display does a good job, you know to let what the devices are reliable - the only one i have ever died from in a lightning strike that destroyed my entire network (it was a wired compression unit, not wireless, and the ethernet port got a big jolt when the Aether toggle switches welded on the other end .) They definitely work. People who use wireless connection should place the box near the wireless access point; The wireless interface is a bit forgiving but has limitations, and there's no option to connect an external antenna to increase range. I've never had a stutter at 15ft, but at 100ft it might be a different story. You can "master" multiple compressors so they all play the same song in unison. That's probably fine if you want your whole house to be filled with the same music; I don't use this function myself. And the various "screensaver" modes hidden in this thing are a bit funny. No moving parts, high reliability, really good sound quality, pretty basic web interface. It plays .wav, .flac (my favorite), .mp3 and a bunch of other formats. It's hard to go wrong in this case. Highly recommended. Addendum: I don't want to overstate the capabilities of this device, so I'll add this. My favorite audio processor (Bryston SP1.7) blew out in a lightning strike so I replaced it with a Bryston BP-20 which is about equivalent for stereo and analog purposes. But the BP-20 is just a preamp - no DAC and no optical input. So this is the room where I used the Squeezebox DAC output for the first time. The difference was so noticeable I went back and checked the wiring and then checked the Squeezebox software settings. Admittedly, it's pretty unfair to compare a $200 device with a very high quality audio processor that costs more than 10 times as much. The squeeze box does a very decent job, but it doesn't play in the league of much more expensive devices like the Bryston. On the other hand, it sounded warm, sometimes smooth, sometimes blurry ("foggy”), if you dare to use a bit of audiophile jargon. Again, this is a comparison to high-end devices and shouldn't be taken as a condemnation of the squeeze box. For €200 it doesn't get much better. But through the Bryston preamp, Bryston amp and VMPS RM/x speakers, you'll hear what it can and can't do, and I'll come back to the Bryston processor once it's obsolete.