Squeezebox Wireless Network Music Player, Black

Additional Squeezebox Wireless Network Music Player, Black Information

Squeezebox gives you full control over your entire digital music library. And it couldn't be easier.

Stereo level meters are a nice touch. View larger.

All the connections you need are on the back. See detail.

Enter Squeezebox to save us from this hassle. After plugging this streamlined device into your stereo via a standard RCA cable, and taking all of five minutes to download software to your computer and configure Squeezebox to your wireless network (okay, maybe seven minutes if you're chewing gum at the same time), you can immediately start "pulling" music off your Mac or PC for full-sounding playback through your entertainment system. Imagine being able to keep your computer on your desk, and your digital player in your pocket, and still crank your digital music with abandon! It's really that simple: within a few minutes of unpacking the Squeezebox, your digital files are yours for the asking from the comfort of your couch. (Squeezebox is also offered in a "wired-only" model that connects directly to the Internet via an Ethernet cable.)

Once Squeezebox is set up, it immediately presents your music on its easy-to-read display by genre, artist, song, album and even year. With the help of a handy remote, you can scroll through just about every music file on your computer and play songs in whatever sequence you desire. As long as your digital files are in a single location (in your iTunes folder, for instance), Squeezebox will get them to you. Although your computer must be on in order to play your digital files, you don't necessarily have to start it up just to play your music. Squeezebox also gives you the option of using the remote to wake your PC or Mac from a "sleep" state remotely, adding to the system's ultimate ease of use.

Squeezebox offers lots of setup options.

A handy remote is included. View larger.

Surely there must be a catch, you're probably thinking. In fact, there are a couple of glitches that beg for improvement in the next-generation model.

First, while you can create play lists for Squeezebox on your computer via the software's browser interface -- a somewhat clunky procedure --, or with the remote itself -- an easier, though still time-consuming process --, Squeezebox could not access the play lists we had already created in our iTunes player. According to the manufacturer, only iTunes users suffer from this problem; Squeezebox recognizes lists created in Windows Media and other popular players. The second issue has to do with encrypted files. Simply put, it can't play any files you purchase or download from an online store, such as the iTunes Music Store, that are protected. For those files, you'll have to continue to resort to the primitive plug-and-play method.

Internet Radio without a Computer
In addition to playing digital files, you can use Squeezebox to stream Internet radio straight into your living room without a computer. Squeezebox feeds directly from your wireless network to do this. With the Web interface, or via the remote, you can create a list of your favorite Internet radio stations for streaming. Squeezebox also comes loaded with several stations covering the full array of musical genres, from jazz and world music, to 70's pop and 90's electronica. For news junkies, Squeezebox can also stream your favorite RSS feeds across its aqua blue display.

About the size of a bedside digital alarm clock, Squeezebox can sit inconspicuously on any horizontal surface. The ports, all located on the back of the unit, include a mini headphone jack, RCA connections, a digital optical output and coax output, and an Ethernet connection. An extremely intuitive interface on Squeezebox lets you easily configure the display's text size, illumination, screen saver, and track information.

Until the day comes when affordable entertainment systems exist that offer seamless convergence of wireless Internet and digital technology with high-performance playback, Squeezebox will let you share your digital music loudly and clearly with just a few clicks of the remote.

Pros:

• A seamless way to stream digital music through entertainment systems
• Offers easy and remote access to all unencrypted digital music files on our computer
• Streams Internet radio through your receiver without a computer

• Does not play encrypted music files from online digital services
• Does not recognize iTunes playlists
• Creating playlists can be time consuming

What Customers Say About Squeezebox Wireless Network Music Player, Black:

I've owned this unit for about a year. It easily connects to my server PC's, and stays connected (can't say that about your typical wireless laptop). Not cheap, but in this case you get what you pay for and then some. Not only does it sound great, but it interfaces to my wireless LAN without flaw. It's a great looking unit, guests at my home are always intrigued how such a small stereo rig can sound so good and play so many songs ("where is the CD player."). Highly recommended.

Altogether, the SqueezeBox gives me access to a lot of services in my living room and without having to sit at a computer.So why not five stars. I needed 802.11g since running wires just didn't appeal to me. One nice feature of the SqueezeBox is the inclusion of digital audio out.1) I installed SlimServer on both a PC and a Mac iBook with little difficulty. I listen to Pandora a fair amount, and this device is good for that, though it will cost $3.95/month. In addition to Pandora, RadioIO, RadioTime, Rhapsody, and Live365 all integrate into the interface without any cost (unless you want the premium services). I considered AppleTV and Roku and a couple of others. I did not want to have to have my high-def TV on just to listen to audio, so it needed a display of its own.The SqueezeBox came as close as I could find within the price I thought the budget committee would approve (I got it recently direct from SlimDevices at $249).

AppleTV doesn't do Internet radio as of yet; it does have a hard drive; no display. Roku is 802.11b only, which would drag down my D-Link router, and many people have been less complimentary about its sound quality. I was looking for a dual-purpose device for my living room: 1) access my MP3 collection on my computer and 2) access Internet radio. You can choose a directory and push Play, and all files within are played, shuffled if you so desire. (Note, the "Favorites" playlist here is best ignored).2) The Internet radio feature (SqueezeNetwork) has been very good. I also listen to a station my wife and I did a weekly show at (KXCI, Tucson, AZ) many years ago--you can add most any streaming site to your own "Favorites" within SqueezeNetwork. The set-up was initially frustrating, but I got over that, and so I do suggest this for someone with technical familiarity.Others have mentioned some reliability problems, but maybe those were early production runs. Given the large front panel it would be nice to have used more of that acreage for three lines of display.

I would have liked it to have a built-in hard drive to store my music files in order to be able to leave my computers off, but that wasn't necessary. Well, because I can't choose 4 1/2 stars. ITunes is not needed, but if iTunes is your thing, it integrates well. I have my files organized by boys/girls/bys&girls/classical and so forth directories, and then by artist within those, and the SqueezeBox lets me browse within those directories quite easily. You see, the form factor doesn't quite fit in with other A/V gear. I will certainly keep in mind those experiences in a year when the warranty is nearing its end.

But it is browser based and a bit quirky. I may eventually hook my Squeeze & stereo back up, but I'm not holding my breath.PS: Many hours went into developing the software for this product.

I love the product because you can play just about any format. The display is stunning.

I bought the wired version. The Apple Nano has spoiled me for life.

Squeeze did an outstanding job on the hardware. However, a year ago I boxed up my family room stereo along with this device.

The developers put a lot of sweat equity into it and made the playable formats very flexible (mp3, ape, flac, wma, wav, etc.). I would have preferred an exe, just a preference.

I have used a the squeezebox and the rokulabs M500 & M1001. It consistently failed to locate all my songs, but the real reason for abandoning the aqueezebox was the consistent dropout. The squeezebox promised a lot, but failed to deliver. Setup over the wireless network was not a problem, but slimserver (open source) was a pain. The unit was 12 ft across a room from the wireless router and the Rokulabs M500 I replaced it with has performed flawlessly, so I suppose that the flaw was with the slimserver software. In the end, whilst I appreciated the flexibility of the software, I prefer the reliability of iTunes and Rokulabs.

Best of all, I am now enjoying internet radio easily--I set my favorite stations to favorites. It is fast and easy to scroll through my holdings.

In fact, nowadays, I buy CDs and immediately encode them to MP3's and shelve the CD away. Like most, I have a good sized collection of MP3's on my computer.

This thing almost never cuts out. The Squeeze box is an amazing device.

First and foremost was to play songs without the skips and glitching that plagued first generation MP3 network players like the Creative Wireless Music player that I had. The device can output through RCA AND optical (my preference).

FANTASTIC PRODUCT.