Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio
by Logitech
Our Price: $499.99
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Category: Speakers
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: LogitechBrand: Logitech
Edition: Electronics
Model: 930-000054
Publisher: Logitech
Studio: Logitech
Music Label: Logitech
Product features:
- Built-in high-fidelity amplifier and speakers for crystal-clear, room-filling sound
- Mysqueezebox.com provides easy wireless access to thousands of Internet radio stations and music services
- Compact, all-in-one design with wireless networking for clutter-free audio in any room
- Included 3.5mm line-in cord works with iPod and other MP3 Players
- Seven-day alarm wakes you to your favorite Internet radio station or music playlist
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio
Customer Review: The Internet Is THE Way To Listen To The Radio!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a brilliant product.
About a month ago I read most of these reviews for the Logitech Squeezebox avidly, probably like you are currently doing. With their technical depth, along with other reviews elsewhere, I concluded that this had to be a very fine product--and for me it certainly is.
Prior to buying this I'd bought a conventional Sangean radio with an atomic clock for the kitchen. My home is 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, and my primary interest is talk radio, but I receive only two stations over the air with that format--KABC and KRLA. The KRLA signal becomes too weak to listen to at sunset, and late in the evening even the KABC signal becomes variable and starts to warble. Frankly it was driving me crazy moving the radio this way and that and trying to hear what was being said. (By the way, I'm not in the foothills or in some secluded valley: we get excellent over-the-air HDTV reception, so I really don't know why the conventional radio reception is so poor in the evenings.) Another practical problem for me is that the LA Dodgers baseball team has "moved in" to KABC, and broadcasts of their games--and apparently even talk shows about what their players are up to--preempt far more important programming. I'm incredulous that such pointless and trivial programming can take over the air waves on a flagship station like that, but there we are.
Well, prior to the Sangean I'd looked into HD radio and read all the reviews here at Amazon. But something seemed to be missing: The selection of HD radios seemed very limited, and then it appears that KRLA doesn't even broadcast in HD (at least, I could find nothing on their site about it).
So I was thinking there had to be a better way--perhaps I could string speakers across from the computer and listen via the Internet. Then one night I heard a radio commercial for Internet radio: There actually was such a thing. I went looking for all the available radios, and before long the Logitech Squeezebox began standing out as I read all the reviews about its design and functions and quality.
Now, if KABC preempts regular and important programming for "exciting" tales of the exploits of baseball players, I can simply switch to any other station in the country--or to the BBC World Service, or BBC Radio Two for that matter. If I want to see what they're talking about on the other side of the world, I can put on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. If I want to catch someone's program after its normal broadcast time--Glenn Beck let's say--I can select his program by name from the Favorites menu, then view the stations currently carrying it (usually there's two or three, though sometimes this information is inaccurate).
The sound is deep and rich as you've probably read, though it's also dependent on the quality of a station's Internet feed: I tried KFMB in San Diego and it sounded like they were broadcasting from inside a metal canister. In fact, I sent the Webmaster an e-mail about it, and got no response.... But just about everything else I've comes across sounds fine.
There are shortcomings: I spent about three hours the first night trying to figure out how to tune in BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4. From what I gather they make it difficult to receive those broadcasts in other parts of the world due to some sort of rights restrictions. There is an add-in that one can use to get them on the Squeezebox player, as long as one is using the SqueezeCenter software on your computer (I do because my computer is always in use, and because you can play your own music files that way), as opposed to the SqueezeNetwork Web site connection method. The add-in is called AlienBBC, and I spent a lot of time looking through threads on the Squeeze player's forums, and searching elsewhere on the Web to see how I could get it. Well, after a long time I found the option to use this buried in an obscure menu location in one of the Squeezebox settings pages. Frankly, they didn't make it easy to find, and the forums should have "sticky" subjects at the top, or easy-to-find answers in the frequent questions area, that can save people three hours when it comes to locating AlienBBC and tuning into BBC Radio 2.
I'll spend more time looking at the forums later, but one wants to get up and running more quickly at first, so I hope they'll work on these issues. But this is the type of product that's so software driven it can always be improved.
Now imagine: You can listen to any Web radio feed from anywhere in the world in any room of your home. As for me, I'm no longer restricted to a warbling KABC after dark. I love this thing, and there's so much more to discover.
The hardest thing was setting up a wireless network router at home prior to ordering the player. But now that I have that, it's possible to have streaming radio, as well as streaming video via the Roku player. If you're new to this, there's a helpful Microsoft article on setting up a home wireless network--just do an Internet search for it.
Because of the technical challenges, WiFi Internet radio may be a bit slower to catch on, but I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys radio as opposed to the bland nonsense delivered by conventional network and local TV news and current affairs programming.
Further on the subject of shortcomings, here are some other issues in case the developers are reading: Even though my computer is usually running programs on all four of its CPU cores, the radio generally changes streams to different stations via the preset buttons quite fast. However, when I hit the preset button for the BBC World Service it is frequently unresponsive, and the preset for BBC Radio 2 is even more unresponsive, so hopefully there'll be improvements for those issues later--though the problem is perhaps with the BBC itself. Another issue is that stations added to one's Favorites via the SqueezeCenter don't always work: I've found bad links for KGIL and Deutsche Wella, as well as others that I don't recall right now. I'm not sure if bad links will be fixed in future versions, or if they need to be reported, but I'll check that later if I have time.
In summary, this is an outstanding player, and Internet radio is definitely the best way to tune in.
More Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio reviews:
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Description of Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio
Logitech Squeezebox Boom all-in-one network music player with integrated speakers. Plug it in. Turn it on. Rock the house! The all-in-one network music player that combines award-winning squeezebox functionality with an integrated amplifier and speakers to deliver your digital music to any room in your home. Enjoy the music and content you love, with crystal clear sound.Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
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