Duet Build Quality and Setup

If you haven’t heard of Squeezebox - you've been living under a rock. On the other hand, you may recognize the name but not know what it does. Well, we'll fix that in a moment. The Squeezebox products have always gotten good reviews here but that was before Logitech bought them. At first, they tried to compete with their Wireless DJ system but eventually they ended up just purchasing their competition. One thing we really liked about the Wireless DJ system was its remote. When we finished the review, the first thing we said to Logitech was that we thought it'd be a great idea if they integrated the Wireless DJ remote with the Squeezebox functionality. They didn't exactly answer except to give us a wink and a smile. Since then, we've been waiting with bated breath.

Build Quality

When I received the Squeezebox Duet, it was so new that there was hardly any information on the web - which was a problem considering that the Duet didn't come with a manual. Later on, when they got their information up on the net, I found out that this wasn't a mistake as I had suspected, but instead the way the unit ships. It only comes with a Quick Start Guide. While I was able to get the unit up and running with only the Quick Start Guide, I definitely felt like I could have used a little more direction that a full fledged manual would provide. I'd suggest that you download the manual from Logitech's website as soon as you purchase the unit.

Packaging of the Duet was very well done on both a functional and aesthetic level. Inside the lid of the box, there is a removable shelf of sorts that contains the Quick Start Guide and some additional information on some of the pay services you can sign up for with the Duet. The power cords are different in that you need to slide in the appropriate plug for your region. Interestingly they only include the plug for your region which begs the question why they didn't just provide a regular power cord.

The remote is a bit thicker, less wide, and a bit taller than a normal sized iPod. The screen on the remote is nice and big and has a ton of colors. The recharging cradle is small, heavy and chrome and looks suitably high tech given the overall look of the product. The remote sits in it firmly and leans back just a bit. The Squeezebox receiver is small and black (probably about as thick as but twice as much surface area as your wallet) with a single button on the front. The back of the receiver has power and Ethernet ports plus stereo analogue, coax digital, and TOSLink audio outputs. The receiver is black and plastic and feels a bit lighter than the recharging cradle. While the cradle is heavy for it's size, the receiver definitely feels a little light and I would have worried about it sliding off the shelf with two quality (read: thick) analogue cables connected. As it was, I didn't have to worry.

Setup

Setting up the Squeezebox Duet is a snap… for most people. For me, I had issues. Major issues? No. But I apparently either have bad networking karma or live in a network free zone and am constantly struggling to keep my home network afloat. Need a receiver hooked up? I can do it in no time flat. Tell the difference between two speakers? I'm your man. Set up a home office network that is both stable and lasting… well, perhaps you know someone that works in IT? According to the instructions, this is supposed to be how it works:

1. Plug everything in and all that
2. Charge the battery (there is usually enough of a charge on it to get through the setup process)
3. Download software (see below)
4. Turn on the remote and follow the onscreen instructions
5. Play music

Wonder where I got stuck? Actually, it is a pretty easy process as long as everything is finding everything else. First thing to do is to make sure if you have any sort of WPA keys (passwords) on your network, you find them and get ready to enter them into the Duet remote. The basic idea is that the remote can connect to the network as can the receiver. So, once you enter the information into the remote, it configures the receiver for you. Technically, there are three ways to connect to the Internet - Wireless, Hybrid, and Bridged. Wireless is just that - both the remote and the receiver connect wirelessly. Hybrid is when the receiver is connected via Ethernet and the remote connects over your wireless network. Bridged is when the receiver is connected via Ethernet and the remote is connected to the receiver wirelessly and accesses the Internet over the Ethernet connection. Basically, you don't have to have a wireless network nor do you need to have an Ethernet run to you home theater to make the Squeezebox Duet work. You do, however, need to have a router.

My problems arose when I was trying to connect the receiver to the network. For some reason, it just wouldn't find the wireless network and even had problems connecting via Ethernet. I tried multiple placements but nothing seemed to help. Just when I was about to give up, it started working. Which was weird but I was happy that it was working. A couple of times during the beginning of the evaluation period it lost connection but eventually, it seemed to settle in and work again. Sort of strange. It definitely would have helped if there was some way of knowing what was going on with the receiver. The only feedback you get is the changing of the colors of the light on the front. It doesn't tell you why it isn't working, just that it isn't. Very frustrating.

Eventually it went back down and I ended up on the phone with SlimDevices for the better part of an hour before we got the Squeezebox connected correctly - but only when connected up via Ethernet in bridged mode. Wirelessly, I was only able to connect to the SqueezeNetwork and not any of the computers on the network. Even that was flaky as once I disconnected from the network, it would take anywhere from minutes to hours to reconnect. After a few more calls, tech support decided that it must be some combination of interference between the receiver and the router and/or conflict with my firewall/virus protection. This didn't make a whole lot of sense to me as at first I was also having problems connecting via Ethernet (at first). Regardless, once I did a little reconfiguring of my firewall, the wireless connection seemed to work as advertised. Is this a problem with the Squeezebox? Probably not. But don't think that just because Joe Techie Review Guy gave it 100 stars on ease of setup that it will be that way for you. It is going to depend a lot on your settings and equipment.

What was neat was that one day I noticed that the remote wasn't connected to the wireless network. I was listening to music so I knew it was working but the display showed that the wireless network was not available. It occurred to me that the Duet had switched into Bridged mode in order to keep my music flowing. After I shut down the remote and powered it back on, it found the network without a problem but it was neat to see that the different connection modes where there not only for convenience, but to keep you connected without you having to do a thing. Ultimately, I ended up with the receiver and remote connected wirelessly.

There is a link in the information to visit www.SqueezeNetwork.com and create an account and download their SqueezeCenter. Let me say, for the record, that you do NOT have to do this if you don't want to. It isn't mandatory. The Squeezebox Duet will be completely happy to stream content off the Internet (podcasts and Internet radio) through the SqueezeNetwork if that's all you want it to do. You can even set favorite stations that are unique to the SqueezeNetwork. But if you want to have access to all your content on your computer, you're going to need the SqueezeCenter. While the Wireless DJ needed to co-op your computer in order to work, the SqueezeCenter is a much more elegant and much less intrusive solution. A few fun facts from Logitech about the SqueezeCenter:

• Web Interface—control the player and manage playlists from a web browser

• MP3 & WMA Internet radio

• Alarm clock

• Automatically imports iTunes library and playlists (Windows and Mac)

• Automatically imports metadata tags

• Browse and search by title, artist, album or genre

• Shuffle and repeat albums or songs

• Create, save, and import .pls, .cue and .m3u playlist files

• Displays current date and time when not playing

• Open protocol and command line API—easy to control from other applications

• Expandable through 3rd party plug-ins and skins

• Supports multiple synchronized players

• Cross platform Open Source software, written in Perl (GPL)

• Listen from any computer using an MP3 software player (Winamp or iTunes)

Big deal right? Actually, it is. You can use your SqueezeCenter on your computer to give the Duet access to your content but also to your playlists and favorite stations. So, rather than keeping a global list on the Squeezebox you can access your personal one through the SqueezeCenter. The Duet can access any computer on the network that has SqueezeCenter loaded up on it so theoretically you could have different settings on your desktop, laptop, and any other computer on the network. Your kids could have their own as well as any friend that you gave access to your network. No more, "Oh, I found this great station, let me send you the link," stuff (which, incidentally, is pretty easy to add through either the SqueezeNetwork or SqueezeCenter web interfaces). They can just grab the remote, access their SqueezeCenter, and hit play (though seriously, if you ever come over and grab my remote, there's going to be a problem).

I hooked up the Squeezebox Duet via TOSLink and analogue cables to test the difference. As I expected, with Internet radio, you'd be hard pressed to notice one since most of the compression is so bad. The Duet sports 24 bit Wolfson DACs so it makes a fairly good standalone audio solution though you may find that you prefer the DACs in your equipment more depending on their quality. As many Zone 2/3 on receivers can only access analogue inputs, good DACs on the Duet are a much welcome addition. Digitally you have a coax and TOSLink options. Either will sound the same (regardless of what the esoteric audio elitists say). It is nice that they give you the option as many receivers have more TOSLink than coax though too often users are left with only one option at their disposal.