LOGITECH SQUEEZEBOX BOOM ALL-IN-ONE NETWORK MUSIC PLAYER / WI-FI INTERNET RADIO
- Built-in high-fidelity amplifier and speakers for crystal-clear, room-filling sound
- Mysqueezebox.com provides simple wireless access to thousands of World wide web radio stations and music services
- Compact, all-in-one design with wireless networking for clutter-free audio in any room
- Included 3.5mm line-in cord works with iPod and other MP3 Players
- Seven-day alarm wakes you to your favorite World wide web radio station or music playlist
Logitech Squeezebox Boom all-in-one network music player with integrated speakers. Plug it in. Turn it on. Rock the house! The all-in-one network music player that combines award-winning squeezebox functionality with an integrated amplifier and speakers to deliver your digital music to any room in your home. Enjoy the music and content you love, with crystal clear sound.
List Price: $ 249.99
SALE Price: $ 208.80
Rating: 
about 1 year ago
The Best Streaming/Internet Radio,
I am a radio nut (going back to the tube days)and the Squeezebox Boom is my third internet radio. I have a Roku Soundbridge R1000 and Sangean WFR-20 as well. All have their strengths, but the Squeezebox Boom is without a doubt a significant step up; it sets a new high standard in performance, capabilities, and ease of operation.
For wireless streaming of your music collection from a PC or Mac, the Boom is best. It can handle more formats (nearly anything except DRM protected iTunes files) and works well without crashes or delays. In this the Roku is #2, and the Sangean ranks 3rd(crashes and stutters a lot).
For internet radio, they all work well. The Sangean is the only one that natively handles RealAudio Streams (like BBC) but has problems with clear channel stations. All of them pick up the stations I want without problems, so I rate this a tie.
If you want to interface with online music services like Rhapsody/Pandora/ MP3Locker etc, the Boom works great, with far more capacity than the other two. The Slimdevices/Squeezebox folks also update and improve their software far more frequently than the other two, so I expect it to remain in the lead in features and available services.
In sound quality, the Roku and Boom are both outstanding, with the Sangean good, but clearly a step lower. The Roku’s subwoofer seems to go a bit deeper in my room, but the Boom is perhaps a bit more smooth and musical. The Boom uses the same woofers and tweeters as the highly rated Logitech Z-10, but with better bass (because of a larger cabinet and new amp/equalizer circuitry). They both sound absolutely great and play quite loud.
Ease of initial setup: If you are starting from scratch, I think the Sangean is the easiest to set up, if you do NOT want to stream audio from your PC…that is a real hassle. Both the Boom and Roku require a bit more work.
Ease of Use AFTER set up: Boom is best BY FAR. Not only do the menus make real sense, but the illuminated controls make it the only radio you can use easily without turning on the lights. The big control knob and back lit function buttons get you through all of the functions fast.
As a Clock Radio, the Boom has more options than the others, and the display has a huge adjustment range so it will not disturb light sleepers.
All of these radios are a lot of fun. The Boom does most, and does it best.
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|about 1 year ago
Amazing sound from such a small box,
I was intrigued by the idea of a network media player that had built in speakers etc, but I was completely put off by the size of the player. For those of you that don’t know, the Boom is heavily marketed to be a bedside type unit (also kitchen wall/cabinet mounted). While shopping I thought I would prefer something with a little more heft at the cost of better sound, so I pretty well discounted the Boom and was looking at Audioengine and other options for powered speakers.
During my research I ended up coming across the Squeezebox Boom Whitepaper (http://wiki.slimdevices.com/uploads/a/ad/Logitech_Squeezebox_Boom_Audio_Design.pdf) and read through that. It went into a lot of detail regarding the amount of time that Logitech/Slim put into the audio output portion of the box. I also found reviews that in double blind testing the Boom was besting a lot of similar sized boxes that are more expensive and lacked network connectivity. I decided it was worth a shot.
Once I got home and go my Boom all opened up I plugged it in and was up and running in 2-3 minutes (I already have a wifi network setup with a Duet and receivers, so software etc…. had been pre-installed). I started with the Boom in our master bathroom. It was EXCEPTIONAL at filling a pretty large room (about 20×9 with 15′ vaulted ceilings) I then played with it in spare bedrooms and the master bedroom. All sounded great.
Even though I usually don’t need it I decided to set up some alarms to wake to. I don’t leave my squeezecenter on, so I set the boom to wake up to Pandora over squeezenetwork. This took a little bit of fiddling, but once I figured out that you need to add a channel as a favorite it worked perfectly. That night I was a little bothered by the brightness of the screen, so I turned it away from the bed. However, the next morning I awoke to a sweet crescendo of Nelly
About the bright screen – There is already a bug report/feature request to change the behavior of the auto-dimming. Apparently people complained that it was auto-dimming too dark during beta, so when they changed it they went a little too high, and now it isn’t dimming enough in certain situations. The fix is likely to be an adjustable low level that the screen dims to. In the meantime I simply overrode the brightness to a level that is acceptable at night.
Overall I must say I am more than impressed with the Boom, especially for the price. I am already thinking about adding one to the baby’s room so that I have a stereo in there I can remotely control from my Duet/PC to play soothing music while still being able to listen to my tunes when I have to wake up with her.
If you are looking for a small network music player that you can move to the various rooms of the house then the Boom is definitely worth looking into…Now, don’t expect room filling sound in a 50×50 banquet hall, but for bedrooms etc… it is pretty awesome.
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|about 1 year ago
UPDATED: Pros now outweigh the cons (2010),
UPDATED: 10/07/2010
WOW, I didn’t realize how popular my original review was. I have been living with the BOOM in my bedroom for the past 2 years, and still enjoy it EVERY day. My wife uses it to stream Hungarian radio stations while she gets ready for work in the morning. We also listen to RadioIO Acoustic when we fall asleep (on timer). Strangely we NEVER use it in the back yard as originally intended… And we even have a power outlet there. We also almost NEVER stream our vast MP3 library off our dedicated RAID5 Thecus N4100 Pro NAS running SqueezeCenter (why I LOVE open source). Yes, I finally got rid of my dedicated HTPC. I guess I need to create some useful playlists to enjoy MP3 streaming on any of my DLNA devices… So the Boom has been relegated to an internet radio device, and it’s a pretty good one.
I stand behind MOST of what I wrote. I was trying to be unbiased about the feature set as provided TWO years ago and SHORTLY after release. This was right after Logitech bought Squeezebox and started major firmware improvements on the product line. But after reading all the comments going back and forth, I realize that many of the issues I brought up have been addressed in firmware. Some were admittedly nits, but isn’t that the point of an unbiased review? I was trying to give a broad perspective to anyone that hasn’t actually touched one.
The problems I was having with the BOOM connecting are mostly gone. They resurface briefly on the occasion that I unplug/lose power. But I don’t have nearly the headaches I did when I bought it RIGHT after it came out. Moral of the story… The MSRP hasn’t dropped to my “magic” point yet, but the firmware is MUCH, MUCH better now. I am adding an additional star, making it a 4 star device in 2010, and thus recommended. I still believe you need a pretty good technical aptitude to wring every last function out of this device, but if you’re looking for a good, self-contained internet radio, and direct ipod connectivity is not a feature you require, you would be hard pressed to beat the Boom.
I would have no hesitation in buying another one if I could get it at the same price as I paid 2 years ago (half of MSRP). But at the same price as a PS3, a small HDTV, an Ipod Touch, a netbook, or other “must have” tech items, I don’t think the Boom makes it to the top of many gadget lists. At 100 or 150 I think it would be much more desirable by a much wider range of consumers. It’s two years old without a model update, that’s a LONG time to hold an MSRP on an unchanged tech device in my world… No matter how good it is.
-Original Review 12/27/2008
Was looking for a device that I could stream music to my back yard for parties and what not. I found the Boom shortly after it came out and figured it might be what I was looking for. I admit I was waiting for a bit of a price drop however. I managed to get one from AmEx Wishlist at a huge discount (about 50% off internet price) so I bit.
After playing with it a bit I have some pros and cons to share:
Pros:
1) It plays just about anything you can throw at it including almost all audio file formats, streams, and even RSS feeds. Fairly effortlessly I might add.
2) Small and quite portable, even at nearly 8lb. Yet it feels solid and quality built.
3) Can stream internet radio without attaching to a PC, but there is a con to this too, see below.
4) Open Source development. I found a decent community of support for this device and its stable mates. I was hoping for Squeeze Player on XBMC and Squeeze Center on DD-WRT, but apparently people who buy these prefer to run it on QNAP or other NAS devices which are considerably more expensive and challenging to configure. But being open source it just takes one dev to make dreams into reality. (2010 update: running SqueezeCenter on my Linux based NAS!)
5) Built in support for some of the most widely used internet audio sources including iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora, Last.FM, Live365, Sirius, etc. Unfortunately the vast majority of these are NOT free services, but they do provide 30 day trials.
6) Web control is very cool and allows you to fully control the device from your web browser, even on your internet enabled phone. I like this even better than the built in IR remote and it is more functional to boot.
Cons:
1) No battery operation, decreases portability. Would be nice if it had a built in rechargeable battery, even if it only allowed 2 hours of use. As is it always needs a plug and a huge wall-wort. (2010 update: I never unplug it, thus it’s not portable, though it’s easy to relocate)
2) No usb port to attach external storage. Would be amazing to plug in a flash/external HDD drive, mp3 player, and have access to any music on it. (2010 update: still think this would be a good…
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