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I’ll admit out of the gate that I was predisposed to liking Logitech’s new Squeezebox Boom streaming audio player. When I cook in the kitchen or just sit back with my girlfriend in the living room to read without the TV on, it is exactly the kind of anywhere-anytime connection to my digital music I crave. In short, it is a boom box that plugs into your home network as well as the Internet to deliver most of our favorite music sources throughout the house.
The built-in 802.11g networking detects your home network easily. Using SqueezeBox Center software that resides on your main PC as well as an account on the Squeezebox site, you can access all the digital music files and playlists on your PC and even hook into your Web radio accounts for Rhapsody, Pandora, last.fm and even Sirius Satellite radio. We used Pandora and last.fm, and we found the experience superb. Once you get into your Pandora account, all your familiar channels are available, Mark anything as a favorite and the Squeezebox has a shortcut to your personalized Web radio station. Likewise, you can navigate the music folders on your PC and iTunes playlists, create shortcuts, and just start playing. We did suffer some pauses as the unit lost signal and had to re-buffer, so it is not clear how strong the WiFi chipset may be in cluttered and distant situations.
Navigating your PC’s file folders via the few lines of text visible on the Squeezebox display can be challenging, and we did have problems with some playlists finding the right music files on our PC. Generally, once you get things set up properly, you can create shortcuts to services and even connect them to the clock alarm in the Squeezebox. The only thing missing in this mix is a built-in FM tuner. We don’t quite understand why that was left out. Of course, just about any radio station you like, both local and international, is now available online. The twin speakers are serviceable, with decent fidelity throughout a strong volume range. There is an audio output if you want to drive the music through a more sophisticated speaker system or headphones.
While the vicissitudes of WiFi remain generally, and the unit works best with a tidy music library on your PC, the Logitech SqueezeBox Boom is getting us closer to the ideal. We want devices that easily tap into our growing library of digital media and sends them anywhere. The inclusion of easy Internet radio access is a true gift to anyone who has fallen in love with Pandora or last.fm.
The $299 price is hefty, however. Is WiFi and slapped between a set of speakers really that expensive to make? Someday every home entertainment component will have built in WiFi and a network navigation interface of some sort. Until then, the future is going to cost you.
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