Logitech Squeezebox Boom review

Logitech Squeezebox Boom Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Reviewed on: 17 September 2008

Since giving Logitech's Squeezebox Duet music streamer an epic rating of 9.3, we've been eager to see what was next for the Squeezebox world. It turns out it's the Squeezebox Boom -- an audio streamer based on the Duet, with the bonus of built-in speakers and the same feature-packed innards.

It's quite possibly the most exciting streamer we've played with this year, and it's on sale now for £200.

Design
Inside the superb packaging is the weighty and beautifully built Squeezebox Boom. It's encased in a glossy black plastic and resin, with soft-touch controls, top-mounted alarm clock buttons and a terrific dot-matrix display.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, boom: Streaming Jazzy Jeff has never been so fun

This is a two-way audio system, with silk-dome tweeters and woven-cloth woofers sitting on either side of the central control panel, behind non-removable metal grilles. A bunch of buttons sit between the speakers, but most navigation is done with a large central wheel, which can also be pressed to select menu items.

Connectivity wise, twin Wi-Fi antennae are hidden inside the system, and an Ethernet port sits around the back, along with a 3.5mm line-in socket, combined 3.5mm subwoofer/headphone output and the all-important power input. Our only niggle is that having the headphone socket tucked so far away requires you pick up and spin around the Boom to jack in your cans. This socket should really be on the front.

Full colour would be nice, but the dot matrix screen is large and clear

Features
Regardless of whether you even own a PC, Mac or Linux machine to hook the Boom up to over your home network, you'll still be able to enjoy the system's functionality. It will work with compatible NAS devices, it integrates with your Last.fm account for customised radio streaming and 'scrobbling', pulls podcasts from the Internet and works with an array of other online services and Internet radio providers. You can even listen to the Internet Archive's vast collection of live music recordings, on-demand, free of charge, without so much as a registration with the Archive.org Web site.

But the fun starts when you install the free SqueezeCenter software on your computer. It manages all the media your Boom can pull from your PC, and simply runs in your Web browser. It's extremely simple to use. The software monitors any folders in which you store music and can monitor and make accessible your iTunes library and playlists. It only reads your music files, though, so it won't add play counts or ratings to your library.

Connectivity is decent, but not ground-breaking