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“When my high end FM tuner developed a fault after 9...”

written by SteveR1 on 11/09/2008

Good Points
Beautiful packaging, stylish appearance, Hi-Fi audio quality

Bad Points
Terrible Wi-Fi range, buggy software,

General Comments
When my high end FM tuner developed a fault after 9 years I decided to investigate whether it was possible to replace it with an H-Fi internet radio device that could connect to my router via Wi-Fi. This would replace the 10 or so FM stations I could currently receive with access to thousands of internet radio stations. After reading several reviews I decided to invest £264 in a Logitech Squeezebox Duet. When the package arrived by courier on Friday evening I was looking forward to a great weekend connecting the device and accessing my favourite internet radio stations.

The Squeezebox Duet comes in packaging that oozes quality. Inside you get the Squeezebox receiver itself which is a glossy back box about the size of a paperback book. On the front it just has the one status light. On the rear there is an internet connection, dual phono line level outputs and a digital output. You also get a controller that is also gloss back and a elegant yet heavy charging stand. Both appear very well made and would be an attractive addition to your Hi-Fi and Living room

Setting up the Squeezebox Duet is not altogether straightforward. Both devices connect to a free Logitech site called Squeezenetwork over the internet rather than directly to each other. You need to create an account on Squeezenetwork and download and install software called Squeezecentre to your PC before you setup your Squeezebox Duet. I would suggest downloading the User manual and printing it out at this stage since you are likely to need it. I would also suggest putting the rechargable battery in the controller and and letting it charge for several hours as well.

I connected both controller and Squeezebox by Wi-Fi. I have MAC address filtering and WEP encryption on my home wireless LAN so I needed to add the MAC addresses to my router's table of allowed MAC addresses. The MAC address of the Squeezebox is underneath and that of the controller is inside the battery compartment.

Once you power up the controller it will ask you to set up your network connection. To do this you will need your LAN network SSID and your encryption key (if any). My controller easily found my wireless LAN and connected to the router. I then had no real trouble in connecting to the Squeezebox. The Squeezebox connected to the internet and the status light changed colour as the Squeezebox found the wireless connection, connected to Squeezenetwork and automatically updated its own software. I ended up with the dim white light that indicates a healthy connection to Squeezecentre after only two attempts.

The controller is easy to use and I had no trouble finding internet radio station Radio Paradise and setting the Squeezebox to play. The light went bright white to indicate that music was being downloaded. This was the highlight of the weekend.

I never got better than very intermittent music out of the Squeezebox in the lounge despite many hours of experimenting, consulting the manual and the user forums. The Squeezebox worked well when connected by ethernet cable to my network and sounded very good over the budget miini Hi-Fi system in my study. Over WiFi I could only get a decent connection over a range of a few feet. Searches on the internet revealed that a significant minority of people report this problem.

For the technical among you I am in the UK and I use a Netgear MR814V2 wireless router at 11Mb/S using 802.11b. Both my IBM T42 laptop and my Lenovo T60 laptop report a strong signal in my Lounge next to the Hi-Fi (50 feet from the router) and have no trouble streaming internet radio at 192kb/S via Wi-Fi. The problem appears to be a very poor Wi-Fi receiver in the Squeezebox. I live in a built up area and most of my neighbours have at least one Wi-Fi device so my laptops can also find several other Wi-Fii networks (mostly 802.11g) on different channels. I suspect the Squeezebox has poor adjacent channel rejection and so communication is being disrupted by these,

Although the controller software is easy to use it has several bugs. My controller locked up several times, and at least once I found myself in a menu that had no option to return. Removing the battery solves both problems, but at the price of setting tit up again (I knew my WEP encryption key by heart by the end of the weekend)..

The Squeezebox Duet is also capable of streaming music from your PC, but I did not investigate this in detail other than proving that it works. According to the manual it will not work with songs downloaded from i-Tunes.

If you want high quality access to internet radio and to songs stored on your PC this would be a worthy but pricey investment provided you are going to connect by ethernet cable, If you plan to connect by Wi-Fi go for another product. I returned mine for a complete refund.