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Listen to internet radio and music from your computer
Like other Squeezebox devices it plays music from any network-connected computer in your home
Though the Squeezebox Radio from Logitech is now rather old, it's available at a good discount (many retailers stock it at £99) and it has some very modern features.
Like other Squeezebox devices it plays music from any network-connected computer in your home. It looks like a little clock radio, with a built-in speaker and a small but bright colour screen on the front.
It connects to wired or wireless networks, though for the latter the dial and buttons on the front must be used to enter the network password, which was fiddly.
Music streaming was easy to set up but, unlike with most other devices, you need to install the Squeezebox Server software onto the PCs and Mac computers from which you'll be sharing music.
If you have a Netgear Readynas network hard disk you can download the software for that, but otherwise you'll have to have a computer on if you want to listen to music on the Squeezebox Radio.
Compare that with the Sonos Play: 3, which is more expensive but can play music from any computer or network disk without any extra software, which was both more useful and more efficient (a computer uses much more power than a network disk).
Like the Sonos device, the Squeezebox Radio can be controlled using a smartphone app – instead of using the front panel controls, you can use a phone to select tracks and stations, which worked well, though the Logitech app was less polished than the Sonos one.
Sound quality was fair – it was about what we'd expect from a radio this size, which is to say, speech sounded good and music was fine but a bit muffled.
In addition to music on a computer, the Squeezebox Radio can also play music from the online service Spotify (though you'll need a paid-for Spotify account) and internet radio stations.
Using one of the menu options you can install apps for easy access to stations and even for easily buying the CD, through Amazon, of tunes playing through the device.
As with the Sonos device, we found the navigation of Spotify tracks, on the screen or the app, quite fiddly, though navigating long lists of music was easier thanks to the Squeezebox Radio's front-panel dial.
This is a decent player for internet radio and music but the requirement to have a PC on all the time diminishes its use.
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Our verdict
A decent player hampered by some annoying technical requirements
Easy to set up and use; good value; clear screen; plays Spotify and other music
Needs PC to be on the whole time for streaming music; smartphone app not well polished; sound quality only fair; network setup fiddly
£160
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Voice over IP. The routing of voice conversations over the internet, which is cheaper than the telephone...
Stop the government spying on you
Yes...but there is more
NIce article. A couple of comments though, first you only need to leave the computer on if you want to listen to your own tracks, not if you listen to Internet radio or Music services like Spotify. Then the Netgear NAS is the only NAS drive Logitech provides the Software for, but more and more NAS drive manufacturers offer the squeezebox software themselves (Qnap, Synology, Zyxel, Dlink, Buffalo etc..). Also about the iPhone/iPad/Android apps, its true that Logitech app is not as polished as Sonos's app, but there are some third party apps that are at least if not better than the Sonos app (iPeng, Squeezepad..). This is one of the advantages of the Squeezebox system vs the Sonos system, Logitech leaves the platform open for third party developers as Apple and Google do for example, and often if something is not provided someone will make an app for it. - Spotify was available on the Squeezebox before any other Wifi radio, or other things like Weather apps, youtube streaming and more are things that contribute to make this device unique.
Posted by remd1196, 28 Sep 2011
mp3 player
You can plug in an mp3 player.
Posted by Chad, 28 Sep 2011
Incorrect product review - PC is not required.
I own two of these, and while you obviously need a PC or network device to play YOUR OWN music library, you can listen to services such as Sirius and Spotify, and an endless number of radio stations worldwide. I also suggest you listen to this unit when accessing a high quality stream, at least 64kbps AAC or better - the sound quality is excellent.
Posted by Bob, 20 Oct 2011