Music lovers, you are in for a treat! Introducing the Logitech Squeezebox receiver, part of an amazing digital music streaming system you can put in your home providing you audiophile quality, instant access to your entire music collection. I don't work for Logitech but by the time you finish reading this review you'll think I do. Nevertheless here it goes:

Over the past 20 years I've amassed a very large CD collection (742 to be exact (as counted by SqueezeCenter)). When I wanted to listen to something I first had to locate the CD from a wall of CDs, remove it from the case, put the case somewhere, load the CD player, listen, then do the reverse to put it back on the wall. This sounds simple enough but if I wanted to bounce around from artist to artist or album to album quickly, this became a real drag, not to mention the storage/display space needed to host 742 CDs.

Now I sit back in my easy chair holding a Squeezebox wireless controller and have iPod like access to my entire CD collection. Spinning the wheel and pressing a buton I can play anything from my collection within seconds, all at audiophile quality.

So what is the Squeezebox (SB for the remainder of this Epinion) receiver? It is a small box that connects to your music source and your audio equipment. By itself it is useless but when you couple it with a SB controller (the handheld device I mentioned above) it comes alive streaming both digital and analog music to whatever it is connected to.

I realize the readers of this Epinion will have varying knowledge of computers, networking, audio equipment, etc so I'll be writing this for multiple audiences, please feel free to ignore what you already know and take to heart what you learn here.

I mentioned "music source" above. The music source for the Squeezebox is a PC running a program called the SqueezeCenter. For those familiar with iTunes, the SqueezeCenter (SC for the remainder of this Epinion) is like iTunes but it has the ability to stream music to SB receivers. Music gets into into the SC by scanning your computer's hard drive for music files then adds them to it's library.

How do your CDs get onto the computer's hard drive? You "rip" the CDs using a ripping program such as iTunes or Media Player. It's important to note however that not all rippers are the same. There are 2 very important things to know about ripping, first you want the rip to be as accurate as possible, meaning the music or data coming off the CD is error free, and second, you're going to want the CD indexed properly, indexed meaning all the songs properly identified by artist, title, etc for the SB. In regards to accuracy, you may be surprised to learn that not all CD players (or computer CD readers) always obtain 100% of the data stored on the disc. Using complex mathematics, CD players (and drives) are able to ignore a certain amount of read errors recreating the missing data much like how JPG and other compressed images are recreated. The truth however is any loss of data translates to a slight degredation of sound. Noticable? Probably not but if you're going to rip a CD into your permanent music library, you should want it to be as accurate as possible.

I use CD Ripper from dBpoweramp.com which goes several steps beyond the well known programs. The biggest fearture of CD Ripper is what they call "secure rip". With "secure rip", the program will compare your rip with the rips of the same song of others. If a difference is noted it can and will re-rip the song using various methods attempting to obtain a more accurate rip. The next claim to fame for this product is called PerfectMeta which is their name for an interface to 4 different meta data providers? What does this mean to the layman? When looking at your SB controller you're going to want it to show you the correct artist, song name, genre, etc. Querying 4 different sources ensures the meta data saved with the songs is almost always 100% correct.

Now that we've discussed ripping, you need to know a little more about the SC. As mentioned above, the SC is the program which runs on a PC and acts like iTunes or Media Player. When you go to setup a SB receiver, it will ask you for the music source. The PC running the SC is your music source. It manages your library of music and allows you to customize your Squeezebox implementation. In my case I built a separate PC (or server) to house all my ripped CD and run SC but it can run on any PC or laptop in your home. You should also know that you can connect your SB to more than one music sources on your network. Perhaps you have one SC loaded with classical music, and another with rap. For most of us, a single source is probably enough but it's nice to know the capability exists.


And this section would not be complete without mentioning Internet radio. If you have a broadband (Cable, DSL, FiOS, etc) Internet connection, SB can connect to several free music sources (Radio IO, RadioTime, Live365, SHOUTcast) for an endless listening a a huge variety of music. If you're a Sirius subscriber, that's available to you also on the SB for a few extra dollars on your Sirius account.

So getting back to the SB receiver. The SB receiver has several connections on the back. Starting with the obvious, the SB receiver needs power. Included with the SB receiver is an AC adapter which provides DC power to the unit. Next there's the analog and digital (TOSLink and coaxial) outputs. If your reciever or DAC has a digital input, use it, if not the analog output must be used. If you're using the digital outputs, you're passing music in the digital domain so there's not much to talk about, if you're using the analog connections, be aware that Logitech chose to supply the analog outputs with a Wolfson 24-bit DAC. If you don't know what a Wolfson DAC is, not to worry, rest assurred the Wolfson is way better that what is found in most consumer grade CD players.

Finally, there is network jack. For you computer geeks, the SB receiver is actually a small computer. If you think about it, it's purpose is to receive digital data from your SC (sorry for all the abbreviations but to write Squeezebox and SqueezeCenter over and over again would make this Epinion many pages or screens longer) and pass it along to your receiver or DAC. So from a network standpoint, the SB receiver is just another node on your network. If your SB receiver is close to your router (if you have a router, and it has an available port) then connect it, if not don't worry as the SB receiver includes 802.11g wireless technology meaning it can connect to your wireless network (if you have one).

Early in this review you heard me mention the SB controller. The SB controller is a handheld device which operates similar to an iPod. It has an LCD screen, a wheel and several buttons. Some would say it is the heart of a SB setup as without it you cannot setup a SB receiver and using the SB system wihout the controller is a nearly unusable experience (you can control what the SB reciever is playing directly from the SC but it's nearly impossible to use). So as I mentioned, the SB controller is the heart of the system. You use it to setup a SB environment, then more importantly use it on a daily basis to select the songs that play, to which SB reciever, at what volume, etc, etc. Did you notice I just said "which" SB receiver? This is very important. A SB setup can include one or many SB receivers. In my setup, I have one SB receiver connected digitally to my main audio system, and I have 2 additional SB receivers connected analog to JBL Radials which I use outdoors during parties and wherever else within the house where I may want music.

OK, so now that you've been educated on all the pieces and components, let's get to the meat and potatoes. How does it perform?

I can answer this question in one word...Outstanding.

I told you earlier. I pick up my SB controller, dial up a song to play, press a button and instantly, music comes out of my speakers. My main system is connected in the digital domain. The SB receiver is connected digitally to my DAC (A DAC is a "digital to analog" converter. If you have a receiver with a TOSLink or coaxial digital input, the you have a DAC. Some of us audiophiles have a stand-alone DAC which generally provides a higher level of sound quality that the DACs build into a receiver). If I want to change songs, I dial up another song, push a button and instantly the newly selected song starts playing. How valuable is this? For me it's incredible. No longer and I fumpling through 742 CDs. No longer an I waiting for the CD to load and start playing. Now (using playlists) I can play a number of songs from different albums and artists with the flick of the wrist. This is truly AMAZING.

OK, so how does it sound? Here we go again...some additional education. Remember, everything the SB receiver is playing is in the digital domain coming from your music source. When you rip a CD, you have many options on which format to rip the CD into. By now I'm sure you've heard of the term MP3. For those that don't know, an MP3 file is a compressed version of the original WAV file (WAV file is the format an uncompressed song is stored on a CD) on your CD. MP3 files are "lossy" meaning during the compression process some of the data is lost. So, if you're an audiophile, you are going to want the purest, untouched sound, which in this case means you want to rip your CDs using an uncompressed format. CD Ripper from dBpoweramp offers a number of encoders (a plug-in or module which knows how to rip to a certain format). For me I chose to rip my CDs using the Apple Lossless format (.m4a). Apple Lossless is recognized and supported by the SC and since it's Apple, is also supported by iTunes. What do I need iTunes for? To copy my ripped music to my iPod and to occasionally burn a CD for my car from my ripped music library.

OK, so how does it sound? Outstanding. Using the Apple Lossless format and streaming it digitally to my DAC leaves zero sound degredation. I (or you) cannot hear the difference between the original CD and the ripped copy being streamed to my SB receiver and connected to my audio system in the digital domain.

Earlier I mentioned analog outputs from a Wolfson DAC within the SB receiver. Let's just say, you won't be displeased with the analog outputs if you must use them.

So let's go back to the network discussion for a moment. The receiver is both wired and wireless. Believe it or not, the bandwidth or amount of data transferred to the SB receiver, even for the Apple Lossless format is fairly small so you can feel comfortable using wired or wireless. If you can do wired, do it, it not, the wireless will work just as well provided the SB receiver is within range of your wireless router.

I could go on for may more pages but I believe I've told you enough. This IS the most incredible gadget every created for music lovers. The convenience (once you'd ripped your collection) is amazing, the sound quality is equal to the original CD and the wireless portability is a real plus. And at $299 for the purchase of a SB receiver and controller, this is a no-brainer for most.

This Epinion would not be complete without the mention of the Sonos system. Sonos was the first provider of this type of technology. Unfortutanely (for Sonos) however, the SB system has far surpressed the Sonos system in both usability and price. The Sono handheld is huge and requires 2 hands to hold and operate, and the pricing of the Sonos products is several times the cost of a SB setup.