Ok, I got mine three days ago, and I am so impressed. I too had a similar feeling then when I got my first empeg. This device is so nicely done that I really perceive "quality" in it.
And, I really, really like how it sounds! Yes, I too find it does has bass, and it sounds chrystal clear. Given its size, it's the best boom box I've personally ever heard.

So, thank you all for recommending it!

I use it in my bedroom as an alarm clock, mostly, but I am seriously considering to buy another one for the kitchen/living room, until I decide to put some money into a serious 5.1 (or better) system.

I use it via an ethernet port to my music server, and setup was quick and easy.

User interface and display do remind me of the empeg, and that is good I find that switching between "now playing" and the "menu" mode is quick but somehow confusing. I really wish they completely adopted the empeg menu navigation (and operation)style. But, still, UI is overall good.

I wonder if there's any customized firmware available?

Anyway, I am so happy with this. I do recommend it!

You don't need to customise the actual firmware. The "brain" is actually the SqueezeCenter software. The player units don't do much themselves. All of the menus and displays are generated by the server software which is opensource Perl. This includes the visualisations.

If anyone is interested in trading their Boom for a SqueezeBox 3, let me know, the offer is on the table. I have a spare SB3 that I haven't set up since moving and I thin I'd rather use a Boom in my bedroom.

Ok, so I enjoyed my Boom so much that I am now looking to buy something for my living room.

While the idea is to eventually get a PC that "does all", I don't want to invest so much money in it as of yet, and currently I am still not sure on how well a PC will handle BD, TrueHD audio, etc.

So, a Squeezebox Classic or a Duet are the best options available for me, now. But, I don't know which one to get... Can't decide. What do you guys think?

I already have a Boom in my bedroom, but I don't know how that would fit in the equation...

Does anyone know if the Logitech Harmony remotes can control SQueeze devices?

Edit: Ok, of course you can train it to replicate all the IR a squeeze remote does, but, will it work as a full replacemente for a Squeezebox Controller, which I understand shows album covers, etc.?

The Squeezebox Receiver component of the Duet combo doesn't do IR.

Buy an iPod touch and run iPeng on it. Works for me.

I couldn't agree more, just buy a Receiver (or maybe a SB3) and an iPod Touch. The native iPeng app is better than the Controller. I have a Controller and and iPhone, the iPhone gets used to control my Squeezeboxen far more than the Controller does.

If you have a Receiver and no Controller you have to jump through some hoops to do the initial setup, but it isn't that bad.

Oh! Good point! So, now it is really unlikely Harmony remote can be used with a Duet. I can't find any reference on Logitech website of Harmony working via radio (or as a Squeezebox Controller replacement, at all).


Thanks for your recommendation, but
I am just not yet in the mood for another iPod

It can only be controlled via WiFi or the network.

So the Squeezebox Controller is a WiFi device? So, if my wifi router is off, I can't control the receiver with the conttroller?

That's no good for me. SB Classic it is, then. Which I'll be able to control via Harmony, when I decide to get one for all devices in the living room...

Yes. It is a WiFi device. It doesn't have a long network cable attaching it to the wall :P

Just ignore the iPod side of things then, use it as an excellent Squeezebox remote (and then realise later that it extremely handy for a bit of web browsing and checking your email).

Even if I did ignore it (which I don't feel like doing, I admit ), that would need a wifi network, which I don't always keep on in my home. I prefer IR (and therefore a squeezebox classic).

I have a Duet, a Boom and a Classic Squeezebox. Of all of them I like the Classic the most and use it all the time on my office for music while I work, the Boom wakes me up every morning and gets used regularly but the Duet is quite a poor product.

It is slow and clunky and the interface is terrible, what I don't get about it is why they have made such a useless device, it does nothing apart from controlling the Receiver unit, if it had Harmony features on it it would be much more useful. This has reminded me I should put this unit up for sale.

I have to say if you are a Squeezebox user already you really are missing a trick by discounting the use of a touch or iPhone to control them. iPeng is a smashing bit of kit and I use that all the time, I imagine that must be killing sales for Logitech. It doesn't matter what you think if the iPod itself as a remote for the Squeezebox it's worth the money alone. So there is another vote for that solution

The ideal Squeezebox is still the old Classic, the display is great and can easily be read from across a room, they are also getting pretty cheap. They are not limited in features in many ways and the sound quality is pretty good to, forget the Receiver.

Cheers

Cris.

Hmmm

I love my iPhone + iPeng, but I have to jump to the Controller's defence a little here.

First of all it does a lot more than control the Receiver. It can be used to control every Squeezebox that you have.

Also, it isn't just a remote, it is also a player. I can plug my head phones into it and wander round the house/garden listening to anything that any other Squeezebox can play.

Yes it is clunky. It is restricted by its small screen and lack of a touch interface. The development was started before Logitech bought them and they simply didn't have the cash and the sales volume needed to bring something iPhone/iPod Touch like to the market.

I'd agree the UI isn't the best. It suffers from the same thing that all the Squeezebox stuff suffers from. It tries to be all things foe all men, cramming in every features you could possibly hope for. They could really do with a little more focus, cut down on 50% of what they do and polish the rest.

But I don't expect them to do that, they wouldn't bee Slim Devices if they didn't try and provide every feature that every users asks for...

Ok, I get iPod + iPeng is good.

Still, I understand such solution has to use WiFi, and I like to be able to listen to music without having to power up my home WAP. So, while WiFi controllers may certainly be future upgrade, I think I am still leaning towards the Classic. It is also a bit less expensive than the "receiver + anything else" option.

I am also thinking that I don't mind having a display underneath my TV set showing track info. iPod or Squeeze controller will not be so effective in doing so, I assume, even when docked...

I have to say that I do like the idea of being able to carry the controller (and so the iPod) around the house with headphones, but we won't use it much that way, and, I have Zune and iPod classic for that, should I want to...

I'm just trying to imagine a reason why I'd ever turn my WAP off

Eliminating a senseless waste of energy?

My WiFi routers don't have power switches, but they both support turning off the WAP radio - I'll have to get one of those kill-a-watts one day to measure the difference.

While I need the router active practically 24/7 (so my PVR/server can access the net to schedule updates and downloads), I don't need the wireless radio on all the time. Neither of my products has the ability to schedule on/off for the radio though.

Without WiFi, the SqueezeBox will have to be wired via ethernet, so that's something to keep in mind.

Mine's using wireless even though it's within 2 feet of the WAP.

Mine are always on but my Squeezeboxes, TiVo, laptop and phone all use them.

Only the Squeezebox Controller lets you do this, the touch/iPhone only acts as a remote.

Most of the time I control my various Squeezeboxes through the web interface, although the newer Logitech interface is a little slower and clunkier than the old SlimServer ever was it's still one of the best ways I have found to file my music collection.

Most of the time I just use the random function, I find it works really well and is very random often digging up tunes I haven't listened to in years. The only option I would like to have is to be able to skip tracks from one of the buttons on the side of my Wacom Tablet, I can get it to do that for iTunes but I am not clever enough to figure out how to control the Squeezebox from a key stroke combo in OS X.

You won't be disappointed with the Classic

Cheers

Cris.

DD-WRT has a very simple (web) interface for selecting on/off hours for the wireless. Sometimes free is better.

All my Squeezeboxes and our iPhones rely on it, so it makes perfect sense for it to be on most of the time. The fact that it is also our adsl router it has to be on anyway.

Excellent! The incremental cost of wifi "on" is tiny when it's integrated into the modem.

Cheers

Especially as the modem/router/wap recently replaced separate modem, switch and wap. Unfortunately the box in question is the Thomson one that I was complaining about the other day. I've found even more problems with it since, some of which aren't liveable with, so I'll probably have to replace it.

Or just keep it, and put a WRT11-GS + DD-WRT behind it. Though I suppose a simpler Thomson modem might be more appropriate/cheaper for that kind of setup.

I want a single box and I don't think there are any good Linux based options for combined ADSL modem and N class wifi ?

I'll probably splash out on a Vigor 2820N, which is what I should have done in the first place, given that I already max out my ADSL line most of the time on non Thomson modems.

Edit:

To be clear, last time I looked to see what the option were for dd-wrt, ADSL2+ and N class wireless in the UK I didn't have much luck. Even the ones I did find it was pot luck which hardware version you'd end up being delivered, with significant downsides if you ended up with a non-optimal version of the hardware.

If anyone knows differently, let me know, I'd be happy to give dd-wrt a go.

Unfortunately Mark, as well as the Thomson's various other problems (including forgetting to hand out dhcp responses after a few days up time), it also isn't coping too well with basic routing.

After a few hours of heavy load (bittorrent), it starts to get crappy at routing traffic. Even when you stop the heavy traffic it takes it a long time to start routing other traffic sensibly, with tcp handshakes timing out. A reboot of the router or waiting an hour of so fixes it.

This is with the BT traffic restricted to 70% of the total available bandwidth (restricted on the PC doing the BT). All other routers that I have used have been able to cope with this level of BT traffic (with NAT off at least, many consumer level routers can't cope with that much BT traffic while also managing NAT sessions).

I think this is due to it trying to do some QoS shaping, but it is far from clear how to turn its QoS queues off.

I really haven't had a good time with it

There are a variety.