Squeeze me
Here's an advance peek at my review of the Squeezebox, which will be printed in a forthcoming issue of the Lawrence Apple Users' Group newsletter....
Slim Devices' Squeezebox
Is your music yearning to be set free? Sure, there's your iPod, but sometimes it would be nice to sit on the couch and listen to your music on your home audio system with the same ease from the "old days" of doing nothing more then putting in a CD and hitting "play." You may have tried Apple's Airport Express, but tired of it the first time you realized that you had to get up and walk to another room in order to start the music. Slim Devices' amazing third-generation Squeezebox solves this dilemma and in the process turns out to be a fun, simple, and revolutionary way to bridge a home stereo system with your Mac's music library. The Squeezebox lets you control and listen to your music wirelessly from any place in your home via a nice-looking little piece of hardware that hooks up to your stereo.
The Squeezebox itself is small and elegant, about the size of paperback book. It comes with a small stand so it can rest on top of your stereo system or anywhere you have a few inches of shelf space. The design of the Squeezebox is Applesque in its minimalism, without any buttons and a beautiful blue screen which displays information on the current song and can be used (with the included remote) for navigating through your music library or viewing news headlines. As a nice touch, the display will even broadcast holiday and seasonal greetings, which was amusing except it was still wishing me a happy new year in mid-February!
The actual setup and use of the Squeezebox is easy. You use the included RCA cables to hook it to your stereo, and then follow the guided setup with the remote. You will need to enter data such as your wireless network's name and password (if any), but these steps are very easy thanks to the setup assistant. You also need to have a computer that actually holds the music library (the Squeezebox itself doesn't store your music; the music streams from your Mac). Setting up the Squeezebox software on the Mac is a piece of cake, and it will automatically scan your iTunes music library and import all your playlists. Once this initial setup is done, you are ready to listen to music. You can navigate, play and control everything from the Squeezebox itself using the remote control, or if you wish you can manage the tunage from your Mac (or any other Mac in the house) using a simple Web interface. The web interface gives you a lot of power; you can create and manage playlists, set preferences, and if you pride yourself on your geekiness, delve into a plethora of highly technical and fully customizable settings.
If you have an Airport Express, you may wonder why the Squeezebox commands double the price to do roughly the same thing. There are many advantages to the Squeezebox over the Airport Express, especially for audiophiles. The Squeezebox has both a remote control and a display, so it can be controlled from your living room without making you walk over to the computer in order to do something as basic as switch tracks or pause the music. Another advantage of the Squeezebox is that it plays a much wider variety of music types then the Airport Express, including FLAC, Window Media, and OGG. It can even automatically connect to numerous internet radio streams directly from the Squeezebox! The device itself also features an optical output for connection to higher-end audio equipment and can have its built-in software upgraded automatically to support more features in the future. I would also like to add that Slim Devices' support is phenomenal. They have a very thorough web site, with excellent and responsive technical support, and an active user community, a nice change from Apple's sometimes truculent support.
With so many superlatives, it is difficult to find any negative aspects to the Squeezebox, but unfortunately, a few things stood out. Navigating through a large music library using the remote and Squeezebox itself (as opposed to doing it on the computer) can be slow and and the web interface, while powerful, doesn't have the polish of a native OS X application like iTunes. Worse, whenever I added new music to my library, the Perl process used by the Squeezebox software churned away using some 80% of my processor for several minutes at a time. I also noticed rare music drop-outs while listening to the Squeezebox, although to be fair I was using an 802.11b wireless network rather then the faster 802.11g. Finally, the Squeezebox will not play copy-protected music downloaded from the Apple music store; keep in mind that this limitation is Apple's fault (for not licensing their copy protection), not Slim Devices'.
Those small areas of criticism are minor compared to the amazingly powerful plusses of the Squeezebox. This device is truly revolutionary, and it will give you the ability to enjoy your Mac-managed music library on your stereo system anywhere you wish. If you want to listen to your digital music library on a home audio system, "Squeezebox" is the only thing you need to know.
Squeezebox
by Slim Devices
http://www.slimdevices.com/
$249 - $299
Pros: Amazing feature set, plays a wide variety of music formats, beautiful and elegant, excellent support
Cons: Navigation and performance quirks, won't play copy-protected tracks
Rating: 4 dogcows
Here's an advance peek at my review of the Squeezebox, which will be printed in a forthcoming issue of the Lawrence Apple Users' Group newsletter....
Slim Devices' Squeezebox
Is your music yearning to be set free? Sure, there's your iPod, but sometimes it would be nice to sit on the couch and listen to your music on your home audio system with the same ease from the "old days" of doing nothing more then putting in a CD and hitting "play." You may have tried Apple's Airport Express, but tired of it the first time you realized that you had to get up and walk to another room in order to start the music. Slim Devices' amazing third-generation Squeezebox solves this dilemma and in the process turns out to be a fun, simple, and revolutionary way to bridge a home stereo system with your Mac's music library. The Squeezebox lets you control and listen to your music wirelessly from any place in your home via a nice-looking little piece of hardware that hooks up to your stereo.
The Squeezebox itself is small and elegant, about the size of paperback book. It comes with a small stand so it can rest on top of your stereo system or anywhere you have a few inches of shelf space. The design of the Squeezebox is Applesque in its minimalism, without any buttons and a beautiful blue screen which displays information on the current song and can be used (with the included remote) for navigating through your music library or viewing news headlines. As a nice touch, the display will even broadcast holiday and seasonal greetings, which was amusing except it was still wishing me a happy new year in mid-February!
The actual setup and use of the Squeezebox is easy. You use the included RCA cables to hook it to your stereo, and then follow the guided setup with the remote. You will need to enter data such as your wireless network's name and password (if any), but these steps are very easy thanks to the setup assistant. You also need to have a computer that actually holds the music library (the Squeezebox itself doesn't store your music; the music streams from your Mac). Setting up the Squeezebox software on the Mac is a piece of cake, and it will automatically scan your iTunes music library and import all your playlists. Once this initial setup is done, you are ready to listen to music. You can navigate, play and control everything from the Squeezebox itself using the remote control, or if you wish you can manage the tunage from your Mac (or any other Mac in the house) using a simple Web interface. The web interface gives you a lot of power; you can create and manage playlists, set preferences, and if you pride yourself on your geekiness, delve into a plethora of highly technical and fully customizable settings.
If you have an Airport Express, you may wonder why the Squeezebox commands double the price to do roughly the same thing. There are many advantages to the Squeezebox over the Airport Express, especially for audiophiles. The Squeezebox has both a remote control and a display, so it can be controlled from your living room without making you walk over to the computer in order to do something as basic as switch tracks or pause the music. Another advantage of the Squeezebox is that it plays a much wider variety of music types then the Airport Express, including FLAC, Window Media, and OGG. It can even automatically connect to numerous internet radio streams directly from the Squeezebox! The device itself also features an optical output for connection to higher-end audio equipment and can have its built-in software upgraded automatically to support more features in the future. I would also like to add that Slim Devices' support is phenomenal. They have a very thorough web site, with excellent and responsive technical support, and an active user community, a nice change from Apple's sometimes truculent support.
With so many superlatives, it is difficult to find any negative aspects to the Squeezebox, but unfortunately, a few things stood out. Navigating through a large music library using the remote and Squeezebox itself (as opposed to doing it on the computer) can be slow and and the web interface, while powerful, doesn't have the polish of a native OS X application like iTunes. Worse, whenever I added new music to my library, the Perl process used by the Squeezebox software churned away using some 80% of my processor for several minutes at a time. I also noticed rare music drop-outs while listening to the Squeezebox, although to be fair I was using an 802.11b wireless network rather then the faster 802.11g. Finally, the Squeezebox will not play copy-protected music downloaded from the Apple music store; keep in mind that this limitation is Apple's fault (for not licensing their copy protection), not Slim Devices'.
Those small areas of criticism are minor compared to the amazingly powerful plusses of the Squeezebox. This device is truly revolutionary, and it will give you the ability to enjoy your Mac-managed music library on your stereo system anywhere you wish. If you want to listen to your digital music library on a home audio system, "Squeezebox" is the only thing you need to know.
Squeezebox
by Slim Devices
http://www.slimdevices.com/
$249 - $299
Pros: Amazing feature set, plays a wide variety of music formats, beautiful and elegant, excellent support
Cons: Navigation and performance quirks, won't play copy-protected tracks
Rating: 4 dogcows
posted by Mike at
8:15 PM
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