Squeezebox Digital Music Player Review
Company Info: Slim Devices Category: Gadgets Supported OS: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP; Linux/Unix Price: $279.00 Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
Reviewer: Wayne Eggert
Date: December 23, 2004
Background
I purchased the Squeezebox in February 2004 after searching high and
low for a software or hardware solution that would simplify access to
music in my house. I was looking for some type of visual interface.
Initially I had found eJukebox software (http://www.audiosoft.net) and
purchased a license to the software -- great piece of software, but
much better suited for a touch-screen interface or a bar atmosphere. I
needed something for my living room, something with a high
G.A.F.(Girlfriend Acceptence Factor). I try not to bring technology
into the house that only I will understand and use -- especially if
it's something for the home theater or something that should be enjoyed
by guests or family members.
At last! I stumbled across SlimDevices
I spent weeks and
weeks over the course of several years looking for something that would
fit my needs, and finally stumbled across the great software at Slim
Devices (http://www.slimdevices.com). Their software is free and
open-source.. and there's a great community of people creating plugins
& making the software better & better every day. The greatest
thing about the software was the web interface -- unlike my experiences
with the eJukebox web interface, the SlimServer web interface allowed
control of every aspect of the jukebox. I used the SlimServer software
along with Winamp on spare computer I had around the house.. and could
connect to the juke box through the web interface on my laptop.
But I longed for easier control..Enter the Squeezebox
Although
the web interface was awesome, it still required me to be tied to my
laptop to skip songs, play a different album, pause the music or change
the volume -- and I had no simple way of viewing the artist/song info
unless I loaded up the SlimServer web interface. The price of the
Squeezebox seemed very high -- it took me a couple weeks to talk myself
into it, but I had found myself in several situations over the course
of those couple of weeks where I could see the usefulness of having the
remote to skip songs or the LCD to show what was currently playing. So
I purchased one!
What I liked
The Squeezebox arrived very well packaged and
looked great out of the box. I got the wireless version, which is also
wired.. though I've only been using it wired directly -- the 802.11b is
just too sketchy to use when you're also transferring large files or
streaming anything else on the network along with using the Squeezebox
wirelessly. The Sqeezebox setup was easier than the software setup..
just plug it all in, let it search for the server running the
SlimServer software and it's up and running.
What I didn't like
There's not much I don't like about the
hardware. It's more of "What might be nice to see in future hardware
versions". At times the screen can be hard to read -- if you use small
text display, it's way too small to see from across the room, but if
you use the large text display the artist/song info has to scroll and
it's difficult browsing through tracks because the song info is often
cut off. They have recently upgraded the vacuum display on the
Squeezebox units.. so I believe there is now the ability to choose text
sizes between both extremes which would be helpful. Sometimes the
server software has crashed, but the most recent (as of this review)
SlimServer 5.4 has been rock solid. The Slim Devices community is
awesome and constantly working on fixing any bugs users find in the
unit & also listening to suggestions of new features to add.
Overall
I know there are a lot of companies out there trying
to integrate digital music into the home theater. I wouldn't touch any
other product for the stability or simplicity of the Squeezebox. I have
the same approach I have carried with hardware -- give me a device that
does what it's meant to do extremely well, not something that can do 3
or 4 things badly. The future is digital media in the living room, and
there will be a time that one device can be a PVR, music jukebox, photo
gallery, web browser, video archive, and a game machine.. but we're
still in the early stages of this technology and it will be a long time
before something like Windows Media Center has all it's bugs fixed and
works as well as some of these stand-alone products like the
Squeezebox. If you're looking for something to simplify your digital
music collection, the Squeezebox is the perfect solution. If you're
looking for something more, go ahead and read reviews on products that
try to incorporate music/video/internet and you'll quickly see that an
all-in-one solution is not always the most elegant.
Final Rating: 5.0/5.0
Comments:
No comments have yet been made.