Logitech Squeezebox Boom

Editors' Note: As of October 2009, Logitech has released the >Logitech Squeezebox Radio. It's similar to the Squeezebox Boom reviewed here, but offers a color screen, smaller form factor, and more affordable price.

One of our favorite streaming-audio products in recent years is the Logitech Squeezebox Duet. That unit makes it fairly simple to access a wide range of Internet- and PC-based digital audio sources, and listen to them in any room of your home. But the Duet is a two-part product--a base station, plus an iPod-like remote control--the former of which needs to be hooked up to an amplifier of some sort to actually hear any music. Wouldn't it be great if you could just shrink all that down into a single all-in-one device?

That, in a nutshell, is exactly what the Logitech Squeezebox Boom is. The Boom crams all of the network streaming functionality of earlier Squeezebox models into a compact, tabletop audio system (boom box--get it?). Just envision one of Logitech's own Pure-Fi systems with integrated Squeezebox functionality. Stereo speakers are built-in, so there's nothing else to hook up. Just plug it in, connect it to your home network (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), and link it to a server--either Logitech's PC-based SqueezeCenter software or its online SqueezeNetwork system, which aggregates a wide variety of Internet radio, music services, and podcast feeds in one convenient place. You'll need to invest a bit of time and effort into getting things up and running the first time, but from then on, it's smooth sailing. The Boom places the bulk of the digital-audio world at your fingertips--with the notable caveat of DRM downloads. With the exception of a few very minor quibbles, we found the Logitech Squeezebox Boom to be the best overall Wi-Fi radio we've used to date, and well worth its $300 pricetag. This should be at the top of the list for nearly anyone who's looking for an all-in-one digital audio player.

Design
The Logitech Squeezebox Boom is a fairly compact tabletop unit: 5-inches high by 13-inches wide by 5-inches deep. The front face is angled back a bit, so you can see the screen even if you're standing up in front of it. Otherwise, the design is straightforward and simple: speakers on each side flank a centered control panel and screen. The unit's topside has a wide button that doubles as a snooze bar or sleep toggle (15-90 minutes).

The screen is excellent, and the controls are generally good, once you get accustomed to them.

The readout screen is a vacuum-fluorescent display that looks all but identical to the one on the Squeezebox Classic. The blue-green readout is great--it's very easy to see, even from a distance, and the brightness auto-adjusts to ambient light. The screen defaults to a clock when not in use, and everything displayed can be meticulously customized using the browser-based controls from your PC (more on that later). For instance, we loved the VU meter visualizer--it gave a nice retro feel to our music listening sessions.

Not surprisingly, the controls are pretty much identical to those found on the remote of the Squeezebox Duet--albeit laid out differently. A nice fat tactile click wheel is in the middle--it'll be your primary interaction with the menu system on the screen above; scroll to a choice, click to drill down, or use a separate back button to revert to a previous menu. There are also transport controls (play, pause, rewind, forward), add (for creating playlists), power, and a volume rocker. Right below the screen are six presets for one-touch access to favorite Internet-radio stations. All of the keys are gently backlit for using in the dark.

We were a bit skeptical of the controls--a dedicated volume knob would've been nice, and the layout of the keys isn't quite as intuitive as we'd like. For instance, we would've put the volume rocker on the left, and the transport controls on the right, so they'd be grouped under the play and add buttons. That said, we quickly became accustomed to navigating with the main click wheel knob in just a matter of minutes. (And, in fact, if you tap the volume keys, you can also use the knob to adjust loudness.)

If you'd prefer to access the Squeezebox Boom from afar, there's also a little remote control. It's got most of the same keys, with the exception of a four-way D-pad in place of the wheel/back button. We loved the fact that it has real buttons and a bit of thickness--it's not the normal cheapie credit-card-style remote that most companies throw in with such products. It's also magnetized, so it can snap to the top of the Boom, or onto any other metallic surface (such as a refrigerator door).

The Boom connects to your home network via 802.11g wireless or wired Ethernet. (Impressively, it can also double as a wireless-to-Ethernet bridge. We used it to provide network access to our Xbox 360.) Besides the network port, the back panel has two 3.5mm jacks: one auxiliary input (use the Boom as a speaker for any audio source, such as an iPod) and one audio output (you can toggle it as headphone/line-out or subwoofer output). There is no digital output (as mentioned on some early spec sheets), but we don't consider its omission to be a big deal--get the Squeezebox Duet if digital out is important to you.

Our biggest gripes with the Boom's design? The exterior surface--shiny, reflective black plastic--was a magnet for fingerprints. Likewise, the rubberized control surfaces got smudgy and dirty within minutes, and it's not very easy to clean. Also, the AC adapter is one of the bigger wall warts we've seen--it'll take up some major wall outlet or power-strip real estate. And we would've liked to see a battery option, so the Squeezebox could go truly wireless (like the Sony Vaio VGF-WA1).

Features
The Squeezebox Boom can draw audio from two main sources: the Internet or a networked PC--Windows, Mac, or Linux. The breadth of the audio sources is impressive and varied:

Online music services: If you like online music services, chances are you'll love the Squeezebox Boom. Thus far, supported services include Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, Live Music Archive, Live365, Shoutcast, RadioIO, and RadioTime. (Note: Last.fm and CNET are both properties of CBS Interactive.) Some of these require registration, others index popular online or terrestrial radio streams--but all of them are completely free.

The Squeezebox Boom also delivers full access to popular premium (paid) subscription services such as Rhapsody and Sirius Internet Radio. It also works with MP3tunes, an online "music locker" service that lets you access your personal digital-music collection online.

Internet radio: In addition to the radio-centric music services listed above, the full panoply of online radio is available. That means anything that's not already covered by RadioIO, RadioTime, Shoutcast, et al., can be manually accessed on the Squeezebox Boom as well--just bookmark the URLs of your own favorites through the SqueezeCenter/SqueezeNetwork interface (see below).

Podcasts: As with the Internet-radio bookmarks, you can add the feeds for your favorite podcasts on the SqueezeCenter/SqueezeNetwork home page. Just dial up the podcast menu, and you'll get a selection of the last 6-10 episodes for each show.

PC-based audio files: Of course, many of us have a multigigabyte library of music sitting on our computer's hard drive--and the Squeezebox can access that as well, thanks to a near-universal file format compatibility: MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, and Ogg Vorbis files can all be streamed without issue. There's one big exception, though: DRM. Songs purchased from the iTunes Store, Zune Store, or any service that uses the Windows Plays For Sure DRM scheme won't work on the Boom. At this point, that's not a huge knock against the Squeezebox, thanks to the fact that there are plenty of DRM-free music stores online--most notably, Amazon, eMusic, and some songs at the iTunes Store ("iTunes Plus").

You'd think that controlling access to that wide range of online and PC-based music sources would be a challenge, but Logitech's made things pretty simple. The Squeezebox can pull music from two separate (but related) server sources: SqueezeNetwork or SqueezeCenter. That's a lot of "Squeezes," to be sure, but the two choices have their advantages. Basically, run SqueezeNetwork if you only want access to online audio (no PC needed), or run SqueezeCenter if you want to access PC-based audio, plus anything you can get on SqueezeNetwork. (Each option is described in detail below.)

Both the SqueezeCenter and SqueezeNetwork interfaces can effectively be used as another "remote control" for any Squeezebox product on the network. Using the browser interface, you can set preferences on the Squeezebox from afar, as well as build playlists, access music services, and the like. That includes everything from setting the volume to modifying the tiniest details. Among the user-controllable settings: scrolling text options, display font sizes, active- and standby-display brightness, active and standby screensavers, and date and time display modes. You also get complete menu customizations: add or hide anything you want--elevate "podcasts" or "Rhapsody" to a main menu item, for instance, or remove them from the lists entirely.

The Squeezebox Boom also includes a few extras. Aside from the RSS newsreader, there's built-in support for environmental sounds (babbling brook, crickets, thunderstorm, waves hitting the beach) and alarm clock functions. Again, the alarms are highly customizable: you can set multiple alarms (we quit after four) to go off on any days of the week, to play any station preset, playlist, or environmental sound, at any preset volume--with or without fade-in.

We really liked accessing all those tweaks through the easy interface of our Web browser, but--to be sure--most of them are also accessible through the Squeezebox Boom's front-panel menu system. It also goes without saying that the Boom is firmware upgradeable, so additional functionality (and service compatibility) could always be added in the future.

It's also worth noting that the Squeezebox Boom can be controlled with the Squeezebox Controller. Now, you're probably not going to buy a $300 remote for a $300 product, but users who already have the remote as part of the Squeezebox Duet will enjoy the added value they'll get by being able to send music to the Boom as well.

SqueezeNetwork: All of the online music sources are aggregated under a single online location called SqueezeNetwork. Set up a free account (it takes about 30 seconds, and you don't need to give more than your e-mail address), and the SqueezeNetwork service provides a single location to coordinate everything--all of your account information for any of the premium online services to which you're subscribed. (The Squeezebox generates a unique PIN code during setup that you input to the SqueezeNetwork page, linking the two together.) The SqueezeNetwork home page is also where you add your Internet radio favorites and podcast RSS feeds (just cut and paste the appropriate URLs). You can even add text RSS feeds, for viewing Web clips on the Squeezebox Boom's screen (which can be set as the screensaver when the unit is powered down in standby mode).

In all, the SqueezeNetwork site provides a quick and easy way to pull together all of the online assets available on the Squeezebox Boom. Anything we added was instantly available on the Boom just a couple of seconds later. Moreover, because everything is accessed via the Web, effectively it's universally compatible, regardless of what browser you're using (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, whatever) or from what sort of computer (Windows, Mac, Linux--or even a portable device, for that matter).

SqueezeCenter: If you need access to your local music files as well, download and install the latest version of the SqueezeCenter software. Previously known as "SlimServer," it's largely the same great software that's been developed by the Squeezebox community for years. Thanks to its open-source roots, the software is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux machines (it can even be installed on Netgear ReadyNAS drives). During installation, just point the software to the directories holding your music files and playlists, and the SqueezeCenter will make them available to your Squeezebox.

A few things we liked about the software: like the SqueezeNetwork site, the controls are all browser-based, and it's very noninvasive--it doesn't change any of your file preferences or make itself the default music player. In other words, it works in concert with your existing music management software--namely, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp--so any DRM-free music and playlists you add in those programs will be instantly available to the Squeezebox ,as well. As a result, iPod users can continue to use iTunes for their music management, and let SqueezeCenter do its thing in the background.

Previous versions of SqueezeCenter only provided access to local music files, so users who also wanted access to online sources would have to toggle over to the SqueezeCenter to do so by accessing the "music sources" menu option on the Boom. But as of SqueezeCenter 7.2, the software integrates all of the SqueezeNetwork options as well--as a result, the Squeezebox can "see" the totality of your local and online-music options simultaneously. It's yet another nice usability improvement, and removes one of the minor issues we had with earlier iterations of the Squeezebox.

Performance
Setting up the Squeezebox Boom was pretty simple: turn it on for the first time, and it guides you through a quick setup wizard. We had no trouble logging on to our Wi-Fi network and using the control knob to input our WPA2 password. Once you're on a network, the unit displays a five-digit PIN code (for linking the hardware to your SqueezeNetwork account).

Once the hardware is setup, you need to provide the Squeezebox with a music source. To do so, either set up the online account at SqueezeNetwork (for online music providers, Internet radio, or podcasts) or download and run the SqueezeCenter software on your computer (to access music on your hard drive, plus whatever services you've set up at SqueezeNetwork). As mentioned above, you can use either or both, and toggle between them at will.

Once the Boom had access to those servers--and we had configured SqueezeNetwork with our favorite Internet-radio stations, podcasts, and various account information, it was smooth sailing. We were able to dial up anything on our PC hard drive and Rhapsody account, and even make an on-the-fly playlist that mixes songs between both sources. Likewise, the full range of podcasts, music services (Pandora, Last.fm, Live365, etc.), and Internet-radio stations were available at the touch of a button. And because we've long given up on DRM music purchases, there was nothing in our music collection that the Squeezebox couldn't play.

As we've found on previous Squeezeboxes, streaming performance and network connectivity was flawless. On a wireless network located several rooms away, there were no discernible dropouts or stuttering when listening to either online- or PC-based music sources.

In terms of audio quality, the Boom was better than average. It's got a 30-watt digital amplifier, and a two-way speaker design--3-inch woofers flanked by 0.75-inch tweeters on each side. They did justice to the variety of music genres we auditioned--everything from Boston to Outkast to Dizzy Gillespie to some classical selections. The Boom can get pretty loud without distorting, and we liked that full bass and treble adjustments are available, as is a "Stereo XL" expander to provide a wider soundfield.

Again, if you want the very best sound from your digital audio, you'll probably want to get a Squeezebox Duet and connect it to an AV receiver with full-size speakers. And the classic "garbage-in, garbage-out" caveat of digital audio applies here as well--online radio stations below 128k are going to sound bad no matter what, and MP3s at higher bit rates will sound noticeably better. All in all--and not surprisingly--we'd rate the sound as somewhere in between Logitech's own Pure-Fi Elite and Pure-Fi Dream iPod speakers. That's quite good for a tabletop product of this size, and more than adequate for digital audio listening sessions.

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