Luckily companies like Slim Devices have been working for some time on a range of products to serve music through your HiFi that is stored elsewhere on hard disk. The Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 is the latest in an MP3 streaming evolution offering WiFi access to the collection languishing on your music server.

Quite some time ago we were lucky enough to borrow a 1st generation Squeezebox for evaluation and this model used a cabled RJ45 connection or an optional WiFi card. It was most notable for its support of Ogg Vorbis which was still an emerging format and this willingness to work with the open source community continues in the latest incarnation, although we are really pleased that the 802.11g is now included in the model on test.

The first task can seem quite daunting, we've got to get the Squeezebox 3 onto our WEP encrypted wireless network. The menu system on the unit is intuitive and we quickly found the settings, in fact the device will guide you to enter the connection details the first time you power up. Having removed our WEP encryption and made the SSID visible on the office network the unit quickly found the network and was able to connect, once in our allowed MAC pool we could start to lock things down again. While the Squeezebox is happy to use DHCP it does need some form of fixed reference of where the music server software (slim server) is sitting, this can either be a fixed IP address or by a network name.

We opted for the latter and connected using the music server network name and then added the WEP encryption which was a little laborious via the remote control letter at a time, especially since we'd mixed lower and upper case in the key!  Next up time to hook up the audio connection on the rear of the unit, there is a choice of Digital optical, coax, and analogue connectors, we used the dual RCA connectors but there is also a 3.5mm stereo mini jack available.

Once connected the fun really begins, while the slim server 6.2 software was loaded onto the music server and busily indexing our MP3 files we set about having a play with the Squeeze Network feature. This uses the WiFi connection from the Squeezebox 3 via your wireless router or host PC to the internet where it can access internet radio stations, hosted music and even RSS news feeds.

We hooked up to our favourite live 365 station "Hammondbeat" and got our first experience of the Squeezeboxes audio capability, first impressions were good especially considering that this was a moderate bit rate service via the web. The stream was buffered well and delivered in a seamless fashion while we poked around the rest of the units features. The RSS news feed feature interested us and it seems that you can connect to any that are within Slim Devices walled garden, we tested with CNet and BBC world news, these both seemed to work well and the display is ideally suited to this form of textual information, although manually scrolling the story detail is not easy or logical.

By now the Slim Server software had finished chugging its way through our 6000 MP3 tracks (it took about 45 mins) and the web browser interface showed that it had got everything indexed. The server software runs in the background on the music server and can be accessed as localhost on port 9000 for you to change both server settings and also player settings (which is easier than using the remote control).

Time to fire up the Squeezebox 3 for some serious listening, navigation is beautifully simple with tracks shown in order of either artist, album, track and genre. In fact its very easy to navigate round even a large collection like ours using the up / down arrows on the remote or by using the search feature and spelling out the name you are after. Select the track and hit play and the streaming begins, we tested with a whole range of tracks right up to a 320kbps WAV file and never managed to upset the device. Slim Devices have ensured that the Squeeze box supports a wide range of formats that include MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless formats. Plus it will work with Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris operating systems.

Audio quality seems improved over the original Squeezebox (but not over version 2) this is in part due to the high quality 24-bit Burr-Brown™ DAC which portrays the quality (or lack of) in each encoding. We found that the majority of our 192kbps MP3 library and Ogg Vorbis tracks sounded superb with the whole audio range balanced and sounding clear from our HiFi system which comprises a Denon amplifier and B&W speakers. After many hours of listening we had forgotten that the Squeezebox was in charge and the only time we were reminded was when we decided to change track which is a lot easier than using a connected iPod or god forbid changing a CD!

We also tested using the Slim Server feeding the unit over a cabled Ethernet RJ45 connection and this worked without any issue as expected, what it did show is that the 802.11g support is so robust you wouldn't use the cable unless you absolutely had no choice. The WiFi connection allows you much more freedom to place the Squeezebox next to your HiFi and may even tempt you to buy more than one. Should you make that call then you'll be pleased to hear that not only can you add up to 12 but you can make them all play in sync should you have a party and want to show off. Plus as the Slim Server and the Squeezebox are very open to mods there are a number of applications that can turn your PDA (when equipped with WiFi) into a wireless remote to control the Squeeze box over the WiFi connection.

All this gushing praise and we haven't even got to the revised looks of the Squeezebox 3, after all the canny ones amongst you will notice that the visual changes are the biggest part of this third generation player as the majority of features were available on series 2 devices. There is a choice of White (the unit we reviewed) or in black. This colour choice changes the sides of the device and the rear, the silver front remains on all devices as does the large 320 x 32 pixel screen which bathes in a fluorescent blue colour which has more than  touch of the eighties about it.

The more we played with the device the more features we uncovered including an alarm clock feature to wake you to your chosen MP3, visualisations to make the screen look like a graphic equalizer or analogue VU meter and even using the RSS feed as a screensaver.

The 192mm x 93mm x 80mm unit comes in 2 flavours a cabled version which is selling for $249 (£150) or $299 (£175) for the Wireless G version. For our money the extra £25 is a no brainer and for this kind of money it makes the Netgear MP101 look like a poor relation and the Sonos home system an extravagance you could avoid.

Perhaps our biggest worry for the Squeezebox MP3 system is that it's a sod to buy in the UK as there are only a few dealers and our partner Amazon seems to have variable stock.

It's rare that we find a device we can't fault and try as we might to find some negative to make our review sound balanced we just can't, is the Squeezebox 3 perfect? All we'll say is that our trial unit is due to go back next week and we've been thinking up excuses as to why it has to stay......we think it's got bird flu!

Published - 12/11/2005

More Audio Reviews-

[ Up ] [ Squeezebox 3 ] [ Sony MZ-NHF800 Mini Disc ] [ Sony MZ-NH700 ] [ Roku M2000 ] [ Linksys Wireless B Music System ] [ Linksys Wireless Media Adapter ] [ Creative Labs Jukebox 3 20gb MP3 Player ] [ Netgear MP101 Review ] [ Pinnacle Soundbridge Review ] [ Roku WiFi Radio Review ] [ Belkin Tunestage ] [ Acoustic Energy Internet WiFi Radio ] [ Philips SLA5520 ] [ Logitech Wireless Music System Review ] [ Pure DRX 701ES DAB Digital Radio ] [ SliMP3 MP3 Network Player ] [ Rio Volt MP3 CD Player ]