This is a review that I posted on Amazon a while back, and thought it might be useful to others:
It is not often that a piece of technology comes along that totally revolutionises the way you do something. Waxing lyrical? Well, yes!
The Squeezebox Boom is part of a family of products which allow you to listen to music anywhere in your home, in a easy and simple to use way. The music source can be your CD collection (after you have converted it and sucked it into the SqueezeCenter software – more of this later). Or any suitable Internet music source such as an Internet radio station.
The Boom is smaller than I imagined, but packs quite a sonic punch; it has two bass speakers and two tweeters giving a good response for such a little unit. It also comes with a small remote control.
I purchased this for my girlfriend, as she wanted something to listen to her music collection whilst in the kitchen. She is very much a technophobe, and although a music lover was very dubious about the new gadget I had just purchased. After a couple of days, she is now totally sold.
Okay – so a little more on the technology. Other reviews have covered what the device does, however it is how it does it, which for me makes this an outstanding product.
The centre of all this is a piece of free software called Squeezebox Server(used to be called SqueezeCenter, and formerly SlimServer – what is it with manufacturers and changing names!!). This is available in both Windows and Linux versions, and is the hub that stores all your music and associated settings. You will need a PC to install this on, or a suitably compatible NAS box.
I plumped for the Linux version, and I must say I am very impressed. The software is accessed via a web interface and enables easy control over all your Squeezebox devices from anywhere with a web browser (including your mobile phone!).
You can stream music to individual Squeezebox devices, or synchronise multiple devices. This latter feature means you can walk throughout your house listening to the same music wherever you go on multiple Squeezeboxes, very neat.
The ability to retrieve a piece of music easily, especially if you have a large collection is important, and SqueezeCenter and Squeezebox devices makes this very easy, enabling you to access by artist, track, album etc. The indexing software is very quick and our CD collection was indexed in seconds. It also fully supports album cover art. If you are using their latest Squeezebox Controller with built in colour LCD display this means you can have cover art graphics showing on your remote, another nice touch.
Sound quality from the converted CD collection is excellent (I would recommend ripping your CD collection to .flac, a lossless format), and resource use on the server I installed the SqueezeCenter software on was incredibly low, even with multiple streams of music playing simultaneously.
There are also software only versions of the Squeezebox available for download. SoftSqueeze emulates a real Squeezebox in software, enabling you to listen to your CD collection in yet another way. SqueezePlay does a similar thing but emulates the Squeezebox Controller instead. So, two different ways to play your CD collection on your PC if you don’t have a Squeezebox handy!
If you are not sure about whether this technology is for you, why not download SqueezeCenter and give it a go. The Windows version is easier to get up and running, especially if you are not a Linux user. In conjunction with the virtual players mentioned above you will have a fully functioning streaming audio system for nothing but the time it costs to set it up. Believe me though; you will want to try the real thing!
The Squeezebox Boom is a great product, but to fully understand all of its abilities you need to look beyond this to Squeezecenter software. Logitech definitely have a winner on their hands with this.
