Entertainment For Lively Minds
Squeezebox
I've been eyeing up the various Logitech Squeezebox offerings out there, and am sorely tempted by a Squeezebox Touch. Does anyone out in Wordland own one of these and, if so, what do they make of it?
For those of you who think I'm talking about accordians, the Squeezebox is a bit more complex: http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/
It basically syncs up to your pc and plays any tune you want, or plays internet radio or even (apparently?) podcasts and iPlayer stuff. And I believe, though i'm not certain, that you can now simply attach a hard drive to the latest one (the Touch) and not even bother syncing to your pc.
I know there are a few techy types out there, so the benefit of your experience would be most welcome.
- More from Uncle Monty.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Thumbs up from me
I like Squeezeboxen in general, and some others here also do (see a few previous threads); and I own the Classic model. Even if you can't attach a hard drive the other models can be hardwired to a PC.
I have used it to play podcasts and also to access BBC listen again, as well as play tracks.
(edit: but what I want from Santa is one of these---
http://www.russandrews.com/category.asp?lookup=1®ion=UK¤cy=GBP&...
}
Blimey..
Bit of an assault on the wallet..
What's wrong with a Sonos?
Or one of these little beauties? http://www.brennan.co.uk/home/
I didn't say Santa
was going to bring it--but to answer your question, play with one and see what you think--I was quite impressed w/ sound, but I also like the aesthetics--just playing fantasy football here.
I like them...
I don't have a Touch but have had most of the previous offerings, and have three classics at the moment. I'm sure I've gone on about them here before.
Of course you can listen to all your MP3s FLACs etc...but basically anything you listen to on your PC (podcasts etc.) you can pipe around the house. iPlayer streaming works a treat and all your internet radio stations are available without having a PC booted up. Spotify streaming is a bit clunky but works well and I'm sure will get better.
There's a great open source interface so people write all sorts of apps including an iPhone/iTouch app which makes a great remote control.
They've been around for ages and the server has continually evolved while maintaining support for all the old models.
The new products with colour interfaces look great. But, the cheapest way to start is an old Squeezebox2 from ebay it does everything you'd want it just doesn't have a colour screen.
at the moment I have (little used) Spotify on
a different PC from the one with my (much more used) digitized music where the Squeeze server software is running. There are reasons for this and it will change, probably when I get a NAS server or similar, but in meantime would it be possible to use Squeezebox like that or do they have to be on same machine ?
Also does the headphone socket on Duo do anything yet ? I'd like one of these when it is enabled.
How about the Radio or Squeezebox Boom?
I'm quite interested in these as a starting point - they both have bult-in speakers and are relatively portable, which sounds useful. Any thoughts on them?
I have a boom as well as a
I have a boom as well as a duet and the boom is great; I just switched it on it picked up my network, prompted for passwords and I was away. The sound is good from the internal speakers and it looks fine. I’d say it was ideal for a bedroom, kitchen or study situation. If you want it in the main living room you may want to consider something like the Duet or Touch which can be linked to your existing kit.
I honestly can’t praise these things enough as the whole family play far much more music now we have it all to hand. It seems such a pity to have it all ripped onto the computer and then locked away in the study. In fact I like them so much I've registered here for the first time in order to reply! :-)
Phew that’s my first post out of the way now back to lurking.....
Absolutely
Count me as another satisfied Squeezebox owner. I have a Boom in the kitchen now, and don't know how I'd manage without it. A Windows Home Server in the back room serves up FLAC-encoded music, but I have to admit what I love the most is catching up on podcasts, played properly out loud on proper speakers. Liberating your music or radio from your laptop speakers is wonderful.
As for the machines themselves, the Boom is a quality piece of kit, beautiful looking, and just works. Logitech recently released an upgrade to their server software that had a few issues, but they were ironed out relatively quickly. In general, they seem to be a company that really does care about what they put out to their customers.
BTW
Also have a Duet, which gets less use, but is equally good.
Excellent, you're nudging me closer to the Boom.
I was thinking of the Boom for the kitchen to start off as this seems to be where much of my listening is done.
I'm wondering if I could start with the Boom and then move on to a Touch/Duet in time. If I did this, I'd be quite up for eventually sorting out a sensible place (perhaps a server or NAS drive) to stick all my files onto. Is it fairly straightforward to change where the Boom finds the music if necessary?
(By the way, welcome to the blog, NE1 - lurk ye not now you've 'broken the seal')
I haven't changed which PC runs the server software yet
but I *have* taken the laptop and squeezebox to another place and reinstalled it on their network v quickly.
What I am unsure of is how much it can do *without* the server software being up, and whether newer models can do more in this regard. This is a key feature as some other companies make stand-alone internet radios, though I think this is always achieved by having a service like Pure's "Lounge" which acts as a portal. I'd be grateful for a more knowledgeable Worder's thoughts myself.
By the way
if you *did* just want to play files off a disk, I have found the WD TV
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=30
to be pretty good--we have one hooked up to the big telly at my partners for playing video files but its audio performance on ripped iplayer sound files seemed fine as well.
So...
does this act as a drive that could link up to a wireless network without being connected to a computer? (i.e. a source for all the boxes to find the music?)
yeah but no but ...
it acts as a cheap media player with HDMI out for those who just want to plug in a hard disk which already has files.
There are other products for what you want, we don't have a great wireless link from where the laptops and router are to where the telly is.
[edit: It's a measure of how fast this field is moving that my reply is already only half true. WD have recently added a network connection, but *wired* not wireless. Still makes a very cheap streamer if your domestic setup suits it:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/networking-and-wi-fi/media-strea...
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=735 ]