Home > Consumer Reviews > Logitech Squeezebox Boom All-in-One Network Music Player / Wi-Fi Internet Radio

What a cool idea! This device is a wireless boombox. It connects to the Internet via your wireless router and allows access to a variety of Internet radio stations (using Squeezenetwork) including many local radio stations. With the installation of the Squeezecenter, you can have access to all of the music you have stored on your hard drive!

Setup is far more complicated than the MINISCULE manual would lead you to believe and is very cryptic. I am not a technology newbie, but was a bit lost on this one. I had to call Logitech Tech support and manually enter exceptions into my software firewall in order to connect to my computer's hard drive (Tech support was superb, BTW). Also, this machine is far more complex than you might think (which in the end is a good thing). Audio quality is okay (I am a little fussy), not great by any stretch. I get far better sound plugging my MP3 player into my Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers. But this is a very slick device. I just wonder why they are shipping these things with such minimal installation instructions and documentation?

So this is a very neat device. I think it could be the beginnings of some very exciting innovations in audio technology.

I have been waiting for something just like this, ever since music systems began to get smaller and smaller and it seems that everything I have seen lately has an iPod dock, from music systems to toasters! I don't own an iPod, don't want an iPod, and don't like iTunes (or most other Apple software products for that matter) and I love this squeezbox! It took me 11 minutes from opening the box to be playing music!
You have to set up a squeezebox software program on your pc or laptop first (takes about 3 minutes to download) you can also join the squeezbox network (optional) and a host of other online free music software, from Rhapsody to Sirius, and more (again, ALL optional). I have a modest CD ripped collection on my PC and it was a breeze to access. Straight out of the box the unit (very classy looking) configured my wireless network, password, IP address and was up and running. There's also a hard line ethernet port for those who don't have wireless. Line in, and out, completely portable to every room in my house with a wireless signal this thing is brilliant. Tons of other features, free internet radio - Worldwide !! Alarm function, clock, and on it goes. I'm so glad I didn't get sucked in to buying an iPod, this unit is 5 stars all the way.

The following review contains two parts, the first part id related to this player, and the second part is related to amazon.com...

I bought this player as a gift to my friend, and my sole motivation is my experience with my Logitech Transporter. If you are on market looking for a WiFi music player, please give this gem a chance. I do not have any complain about it at this price level, it even exceed my expectation! Having said these...

When I got the package, open the traditional amazon.com brown box... I found that the seal tapes has 2 layers... So, I carefully removed the top layer, and found out the other layer as seals had been cut open! Open the box, and check what's happening inside the box, I found that the BOOM from amazon.com is NOT BRAND NEW! It is an used unit (with a tiny scratch on the remote control), and I do not believe my trusty amazon.com sell me an open-boxed BOOM as a brand new merchandise! Like I mentioned earlier, this is a gift that I want to give to my friend, this unit is completely un-acceptable! 5 stars for Logitech, but 0 stars for amazon.com.

I asked a friend to do the shopping for me to giving the criteria that I wanted music in my house and wanted to be able to move it from room to room. I wanted good sound and access to a large variety of stations. He came back with the squeezbox boom and I am very happy. I've been using it for several weeks. I haven't investigated all it's uses yet but will. I have book marked many many stations and have more fun. I am dancing my 64 years away to the 50's 60's, 70's the 80's soft rock and 90's just didn't work for me. I love that I can play blues, jazz, bluegrass, whenever I'm in the mood for them (I prefer rock). Have a ball folks.
Thanks

I'm very happy with the sound quality, and I'm also generally happy with the ease of use. However, its lacking in supporting the still popular MMS/WMA streaming is a major flaw. There are many radio stations that still use MMS/WMA streaming but Logitech apparently is not interested in providing MMS/WMA streaming support. As the result, many of the radiotime.com radiostations could not be played (Logitech claims is supports [...] portal). BTW, it doesn't support Real Media format either. See [...] for the history - it's been more than 3 years and now they are saying because Microsoft deprecated MMS in favor of RTSP in 2003, they are not planning to provide the MMS streaming support, which is just very unfortunate.