Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System
Squeezebox Duet consists of a multi-room Squeezebox Controller & charging stand, and a Squeezebox Receiver.The multi-room controller with 2.4-inch color display makes it easy to browse playlists, albums, artists, and more. Even search by name. Convenient scrollwheel, simple menus, and intuitive buttons make navigation a breeze.Expert engineering and sophisticated audio rendering technology provide sound clarity to please even the most demanding audiophile.Advanced 802.11g wireless technology eliminates the need to string wires everywhere just to listen to the music from your computer. And setting up an additional room is simple as pushing a button - even on secure networks.Access millions of songs, thousands of Internet radio stations, and music service providers such as Pandora, Rhapsody and Slacker, without ever turning on your computer using SqueezeNetwork, the unique Internet service. Even your personal music collection can be stored online in an MP3tunes music locker and played through your Squeezebox.Connect the Squeezebox Receiver to your stereo or powered speakers and create a musical oasis. Add additional Squeezebox Receivers and listen to a different song in each room, or synchronize them and hear the same music everywhere.
Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System Accessories
 Logitech Squeezebox Receiver
Logitech 930-000054 Squeezebox Boom All-In-One Network Music Player with Integrated Speakers
Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote
AudioSource AMP-100 2-Channel Bridgeable Stereo Power Amplifier
Logitech Squeezebox
D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, White)
PlayStation 3 Blu Wave Remote
Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage
Transcend 16GB SDHC CARD (SD 2.0 SPD CLASS 6) with Compact Card Reader
Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System Reviews
The future is here (although this is nothing new to me because I've been using the earlier Squeezebox products over 5 years now). I use the Linux version of the Squeezecenter software, I've had the server system going for over 2 years now with no problems, just lock that server in your closet away from sight and you have all your music at your fingertips through these things. Excellent. Also this device works flawlessly with Amazon.com's mp3 store files as well as files downloaded in many other formats which aren't locked down by useless DRM. Currently I have 4 Squeezeboxes counting the Squeezebox Duet. I've had the Squeezebox players since the product line began.
This makes having house parties a breeze with different music in the bar in the basement, the living room, pool area and bedrooms. Highly recommended. This iteration of the Squeezebox sounds fantastic and is the perfect way to get my Lossless Non-DRM FLAC and WAV files played through my stereo system. The sound is better than the 3rd generation squeezebox (possibly due to the upgraded power supply and lack of screen noise). I connected the Squeezebox duet to my Bel Canto DAC3 and in about 10 minutes (after the firmware updates) I was on my way to an experience which to my system is the flawless execution of having all of my music I ripped from my over 2,000 cd collection in every room of my house. You can connect the controller directly to the Duet base station or through your whole house wi-fi to control all of your players (even the older players which are connected to Squeezecenter).
I have had two 1st generation Squeezeboxes, and two 3rd generation.
With a very open standard that they've created, you can easily write software to interact with your squeezeboxes. The setup is simple, and troubleshooting is generally simple as well. New features are added ALL THE TIME. The software is open- and there's a community at slim device's website (now rebranded to logitech) that will discuss problems, troubleshooting, and best yet- feature ideas. You can sync different players, or keep them seperate. It's great to join and interact with the community, but it's not a must. While the network setup isn't always painless- it's a good start for a product in this price range. This product is absolutely amazing.
But, if you love to tinker, set things up just right for yourself, this is also a perfect addition to your collection. They've got Rhapsody, which is awesome. They've added synced crossfading. This player stands on it's own. The programmers that work full time on the software for all the squeezeboxes frequent the forum, and discussing ideas directly with the developers is common, and easy. If you're having network problems or frequent drop-outs, I find that unplugging your router and plugging it back in will fix the issue. I have been searching for something like this for YEARS, and then BOOM. (My Microwave kills my wireless network).
Watch your microwave as well. Write your own plugins, download the source and change it. The software is very customizable, and if you don't like it, you can make changes yourself. They happen. I personally am in the beta program and run the latest software available, and I would like to mention that typical network issues are usually issues with your router. They've added sirius stations, for anybody who's a subscriber, which is awesome. Here's the DUET, a sleek, wireless, home entertainment system. After that, it was a matter of time before the developers added the feaure and there you go.
If you're looking for any easy-to-do plug in and turn on solution, this will definitely get you going. Amazing. Although, thanks to the community, after I posted my initial ideas, everybody joined on and a full discussion was launched. I personally have seen an idea that I suggested become implimented in the latest beta (soon to be released, next month I believe)- Party Mode (Playlist setting). I very highly recommend this product.
Even if the sonos was the same price, I'd go the open route ANY day. First, I should address network issues. There are complaints of network issues.
Make sure to change your wireless channel so you're not conflicting with the neighbors or your telephone. The community. You certainly don't need to be a computer geek to get this going.
I personally replaced my old linksys and watched ALL my wireless problems dissapear. It's a full home audio solution, and when your friends see it, they're gonna want one. It's a fraction of the cost of the SONOS, and it's open.
If you are reading this review trying to evaluate the product and decide whether to purchase one, you would do well to explore the Wiki first (the Beginners Guide is excellent), and then perhaps skim through the support forum. In summary, I'm extremely happy with my Duets, and use them to bring music (not only my own personal CD collection, but also Internet radio) to different parts of my house, with a controller that makes it easy and convenient to select what I want to listen to, and where. But people who are unfamiliar with the world of CD ripping, audio codecs, network administration and other computer-technical jabber should approach it with open eyes and a willingness to do some reading and learning, rather than just assuming it's as easy to install as an old-fashioned record player. The browsing/scrolling wheel works very well; I can go through over 500 albums from A to Z in seconds. Take that with a grain of salt, because most of the people who don't have problems don't spend time posting messages saying "I'm not having any problems."). Putting together an extensive playlist using the controller, however, can be quite tedious and time-consuming.
But the good news is, you can (if you have some slight technical know-how which isn't difficult to learn) put together a playlist using any one of dozens of media-player applications on your computer, and then make it a part of the playlist collection available to your Duet. But to think that a technical novice can get full use out of this system without having to learn some of the computer-networking-techie arcana is probably overly optimistic. but it's very, very good, and very flexible to use. It works well for me, and meets exactly the need for which I purchased it, which was: to make my entire CD collection easily and conveniently available throughout my house, in a way that was simple enough for family and friends to use without lengthy tutoring.
I found it relatively painless to set the system up and get it working, but I'm a computer geek by profession; I wouldn't suggest that my parents tackle the project without assistance. (Remember, though, that the support forum, by its nature, gets a lot of questions and complaints from people having problems. It offers just the sort of interface I was looking for: portable, convenient, easy to use; it allows me to browse through my music collection quickly and select music in a variety of ways, including by artist, by album name, and by genre. Another feature I really like is Playlists, which should be familiar to any user of media players. Essentially, this is just a collection of songs, as many or as few as you like, which you put together and give a name, for future access. If the prospect of that scares you off, perhaps you can get a tech-ish friend to help you get going. The design of the interface might not be completely perfect (what in life is). One aspect of the Duet I hadn't given any consideration before buying is the use of Internet radio.
As for the product itself: it works very well, the sound quality is excellent, and the controller is terrific. Fortunately, there is a lot of excellent information available to help the novice along, much of it in the SlimDevices Wiki at http://wiki.slimdevices.com. Many advocates of the SqueezeBox line of products (or other networked streaming music systems) seem to forget that not everybody is as savvy as they are regarding ripping; configuring router ports and DNS options; IP and MAC addresses; audio compression formats (lossy or lossless) and codecs; ID3v1, ID3v2, APEv2, and VORBIS tags; or the vast array of computer programs and tools available for handling these things. There are also many other options and features (too numerous to go into here), either built-in or available as "Add-Ons" from the SlimDevices website. And the Duet delivers, beautifully. I can also search for songs or albums by title, though it is true that entering the letters of a title via the controller can be tedious. There is also a good support forum available at http://forums.slimdevices.com.
However, I personally don't take that approach very often; I generally know what album I want to put on, and get at it by scrolling quickly through the albums or artists in my collection. However, after getting my own collection of music up and running, I started playing with this feature, and found several stations and services that suit me, and Internet radio (particularly the free Pandora service) is now a common source of music in my house. So as not to bury the lede, I'll state up front: I really like this product. Now for the "however": this is still new technology, and for people lacking experience, knowledge and vocabulary of the technology involved, it could possibly be troublesome to set up, get working, and keep working. Playing a predefined playlist is very simple, quick and easy. If the list of geek-jargon terms in the preceding paragraph are unfamiliar or intimidating to you, you should still be able to use this system once it's set up, but to get it all set up and working, you will probably have to spend some time on the Internet researching and learning about those things. I wanted a way to get my music from a central source to different parts of the house, wirelessly, without having to go back to a central location every time I wanted to change the music.
It has gotten into a locked up mode where it was stuck "connecting to squeezebox"; I fixed it by unplugging / rebooting everything and 2). the XM add-in does not work. I have had two issues with it: 1). I am generally happy with the Duet when it works correctly. Overall, the sound is great, especially with FLACs, and unlike some reviews I read, I have not had any trouble with delays on playback.
The box showed up within 5 biz days seemingly brand new yet almost $100.00 cheaper. Great product along and straightforward service.
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