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Logitech Squeezebox Radio | 
| Brand: Logitech
List Price: $199.99 Buy New: $135.00 as of 3/17/2010 00:17 WIT details You Save: $64.99 (32%)
New (23)
Seller: maverick493 Rating: 163 reviews
Color: Black Media: Electronics Autographed: No Memorabilia: No Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.5 Dimensions (in): 4 x 5.3 x 8.8 Warranty: 2 years warranty
MPN: 930-000101 Model: 930-000101 UPC: 097855063601 EAN: 0097855063601
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Listen to infinite music, news and sports from every corner of the globe with this
easy-to-use, all-in-one Wi-Fi music player--all without a computer | | • | Start listening to free Internet radio stations, online music services, and your personal iTunes collection in minutes--connects easily to your home network via Wi-Fi | | • | Bring full, high-quality sound to any room with an ultra-compact design that fits easily on your night table or kitchen counter | | • | Just turn the dial to browse radio stations, music tracks and even album art, displayed on the full-color screen | | • | Recommend music to Facebook friends instantly right from your Squeezebox |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description Logitech Squeezebox Radio combines the power of the Internet with the simplicity of old-fashioned radio. You plug it in, turn it on, and pick a source - free Internet radio, or your personal digital music collection.s beyond your music collection, including thousands of internet radio stations, Pandora's personalized music service and Rhapsody's 2 million song collection. It's music, your way.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 163
Better than expected October 14, 2009 G-Radio 34 out of 41 found this review helpful
When the Boom came out, I wanted to purchase it right away, but the $300 price tag and the inability to truely make it wireless detered me. Now that the Radio is out with a lower price tag, battery capability and a color LCD, I was totally sold. I've had the Radio for about a week now, and I simply love it. Even the wife was jamming to it when I got home from work the day after I bought it.
So far I have only had one issue with it...I can not find a setting to set the Album Art size to full screen on the Now Playing screen. It says in the manual that it is under the Screensaver settings, but when I go there it doesn't exist. I sent an email to Logitech support, but have not heard back from them yet. [Updated] Logitech just released a new software version that will correct this issue.
Another cool feature that I didn't realize existed, was the ability to control the Radio from the web.
As far as sound quality goes, it is far better than expected. There is virtually no distortion even at maximum volume. I even plugged a set of Computer Speakers into the Headphone Jack and it didn't make that much of a difference. The Base levels aren't that deep, but they are there. I can put it in my livingroom and pump it up near max volume and hear it clearly throughout the house.
I haven't tested the Wireless strength extensively yet, but I was able to hook it up in the garage (1 Floor below and 50 feet from the router) and the signal strength was near full.
Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase and can't wait to get the battery pack so I can just carry this thing around anywhere.
Radio Ga Ga, some other features November 30, 2009 A. Dent (Minas Anor, GD) 19 out of 23 found this review helpful
The Squeezebox Radio is a first class, excellent Internet radio with clock/alarm functions. With the Flickr app installed, it will display photos stored under user's Flickr account. Other capabilities which are nice to have but not likely to be widely used include its ability to stream audio from a computer or double up as an iPod speaker.
PACKAGING, CONTENTS
As it's the case with most Logitech products, the Squeezebox Radio comes inside a box where everything is packed nicely and securely, with enough padding to ensure that rough treatment won't damage it. All shiny surfaces are protected by plastic film sheets. I experienced no problems or frustrations taking components out of the box.
The box contents include:
- the Radio
- power adapter with the US-standard 110V removable plug
- 3.5mm audio cord for iPod or other MP3 players
- folded poster with setup guide/manual/warranty statement
Logitech's warranty is for 2 years from date of purchase and they would expect you to have the purchase receipt and to pay for shipping unless local laws prohibit that.
INITIAL SETUP
The physical setup is as easy as attaching the removable plug to the power adapter, plugging the adapter into a power outlet and connecting it to the radio and turning the on the radio. An Ethernet port (cable not included) is available for wired connections. I did not attempt to perform a wired network setup.
Once the radio is on for the first time, a language is selected from those displayed on the screen and then the radio will attempt to find a wireless access point. In my case, it immediately found my Linksys router and connected to it.
The initial setup completed with me creating a Logitech account by providing an email address and a password. At that point it's possible to listen to the radio.
OPERATION
Radio
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Starting with 'radio', the array of options is almost overwhelming. The least intimidating way to get to listen to a station is by selecting 'Internet Radio'. This will open a multi-layered menu with everything from Staff Picks, Local, Music, Sports, Talk, World and Search. If you pick World, the next layer would include Find a City, Featured Cities, National Networks, World Music. Find a City would open a listing of continents. If you pick Antarctica, believe it or not, you can select between All Stations or By Genre. It turns out that the only genre in that continent was Folk and there was actually a Folk station broadcasting off Antarctica. This was just an example to show the breadth and depth of the Internet Radio menu option. Once you like a station, it can be easily assigned to one of the 6 preset buttons that flank the radio's color display.
Another way to get music off the Internet is through Apps. These are dowloadable setups that would let your radio channel some services, some of them free. There are 29 such Apps that Logitech allows you to download and use at the time this review was written, not all of them free and not all of them 'music'. Staying with the music, the easiest way you can get an App to work on your radio is from Logitech's site you access with your Logitech account - Logitech promises not to Spam you and so far I didn't get any Spam from them. My favorite FREE music App/service so far is Pandora. It lets me, among other things, create my own 'radio stations' by simply entering one or more artists and songs names. Then, Pandora will play music that is compatible with my input. For example, I entered Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix for one of my 'stations' and I get to listen to, besides theses three, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, some Cream.
The Settings menu is equally rich in options. It's another multi-layered menu tree that controls just about every aspect of your Squeeze and I'm not going to go into details because it may take several pages. The good news is that the options are pretty well organized and it shouldn't be difficult to customize the aspects of your Squeezebox behavior that you would like to modify. Thankfully, the 'Restore Factory Defaults' option exists, buried somewhere, 3 or 4 levels deep under Advanced.
Clock and Alarm
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By default, the Squeezebox will display the date and time when turned off. There's no need to do anything to set date/time since it seems to 'get' the correct location for the time zone off your IP address. It's possible to select a different zone through the Settings menu, of course.
The Alarm function is surprisingly rich. Any number of separate alarms can be set - don't know if there is a limit. You can set the time, whether it's a one-time or reoccurring and if it's a repeat alarm, the day of the week it will play. The volume can be selected and then you can dive into another one of Logitech's overwhelming menu trees that allows you to sound your alarm from the current playlist or play one of many Musical Sounds, Natural Sounds, or Sound Effects. Not much to complain other than you can't hear a sample of the sound you selected or maybe I didn't know how to play it.
Other Internet Apps
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Normally, the Squeezebox will display the logo of the station you are playing or, if you are listening to a service such as Pandora, you will see the album cover the song came from. But if you install the Flickr App, you can display your Flickr pics instead. It's pretty cool but it wears off quite quickly. The color screen is nice and bright but it's also small and I get a radio because I want to listen to it, not to stare at a 2-inch screen. Again, it's nice but I wouldn't miss this capability if it wasn't available.
There are other innovative apps that may have some limited use. The Amazon app for example, will allow you to buy your favorite music directly from the Squeezebox (wow!!!). The Facebook app will, according to the Logitech site, allow you to share your favorite music with family and friends, discover new friends with similar music interests or communicate with friends away from your computer. I didn't try it yet.
More Features
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As if this wasn't enough, the Squeezebox also allows you to stream music off your home computers after you install the Squeezebox Server on it - supports Windows (Vista/XP/2000), Mac, Ubuntu, Linux. Again, a nice thing to have but I simply can't see why I would want to stream music to a device equipped with a small, mono speaker. I'd rather listen to music off my laptop since it comes out in stereo there. I suspect it works well but I didn't think it was worth trying.
The Squeezebox also allows to connect and play an iPod or some other MP3 player - cable provided. And, again, it's good to have this but piping iPod music through a little mono speaker... not worth it.
Finally, you can listen to the Squeezebox with headphones. It's nice you can but I don't think too many users would care about this capability.
MY EXPERIENCE
I find the Squeezebox to be an extraordinarily great Internet Radio device. Or rather, an Alarm Clock/Internet Radio. While limited by the small, single speaker to 'mono' sound, the quality of the output is quite impressive. I suspect there's a large cache built in because, when listening to the same Pandora output on my computer and on the Squeeze, the Squeeze came pretty close to crystal-clear while my computer's output was below par.
It's impossible to say how many stations can be tuned to but the number should be in the thousands. It's not always easy to find what you are looking for but quick and dirty searches are possible by simply entering the station's call letters or you can go geographically by continent/country/city/genre.
Some of the available Apps are fun to use - something like Pandora's customized radio stations should be close to one's dream of music listening. Other apps can go in the 'wow' category as in "I can't believe they can do this" but aren't likely to be used much. The beauty of the Apps concept is that the Squeezebox is infinitely expandable as more Apps doing things we can't imagine today can be added when available.
What impressed most about the Squeezebox were:
- extraordinary easy and quick setup on a Wi-Fi network
- the sheer volume of Internet radio stations available
- the availability of great Apps such as Pandora
- the Alarm/Clock function
- the color screen that displays interesting information such as album covers or stations logos and the name of the artists playing
- infinite expandability through new Apps
Some of the shortcomings include:
- ONLY 6 preset station buttons
- mono sound
- a simple remote control would make operation easier
- there's no information in the broadcast quality (kbps) displayed anywhere or rating the station based on the quality of their broadcast
- it's possible to get lost into some of the enormous menu trees
- completely dependent on Logitech for service - nothing other than maybe streaming music from one's own computer would work if Logitech went out of business or stopped supporting the Squeezebox.
MY RATING
I really, really love this device and Amazon's rating for "I love it" is 5 stars. Clearly, it's not perfect but, for the price, this is close to the best one can get when it comes to the ability to listen to distant radio stations without involving a computer.
All we hear is Radio Ga Ga
Radio Blah Blah
Radio what's new?
Someone still loves you!
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Note:
Please see the first comment to this review on the ability to expand the sound quality to 'stereo' and 'amplified'. I am not likely to try that because I have other options for listening to hi-fi, loud music but it's nice to know that it can be done.
Excellent new Internet radio. Compact, attractive design with good sound October 30, 2009 GizmoGal (Sherman, CT) 12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Having owned numerous Logitech (formerly Slim Devices) Squeezeboxes and a Duet, I can highly recommend this newest radio in the Squeezebox family. I purchased the bright red version and found it is relatively easy to setup (a protocol which does not have to be repeated)and the WiFi range is surprisingly strong and far-ranging. This little radio has its own good mono speaker, and it is perfect for those who want a standalone radio. For those who listen exclusively to Internet radio (there is no broadcast radio on this device)and do not want to add streaming to their larger music systems, this new radio is absolutely perfect for a kitchen, bathroom or bedroom nightstand. It also has six preset buttons on the front like a car radio.There are wake-up alarm and sleep features although I have not used them yet. For those who need a remote control, one is available for an additional purchase. You can use the Squeezebox Radio in conjunction with easily downloaded software. However, by setting up a free mysqueezebox account, you can program your own list of favorite stations, and browse for others throughout the world, all while your computer is turned off. This setup is also quite easy, especially for those with existing accounts who breeze through this process - the radio can login on its own. I have always been impressed with the excellent tech support provided by the company as well as the reassurance of a knowledgeable, loyal and highly active community forum for these devices. This is the best Internet radio I have seen in terms of design, ease of use and sound quality. Five stars!
I am connected to the world through Squeezebox Radio October 29, 2009 Christopher Abraham 9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am studying German and have been told that it helps if you listen to German radio so I ordered the Squeezebox Radio on the recommendation of my friend Scott. I find the Squeezebox Radio to be perfect for the night stand, where I will be listening to the radio before I got to bed.
I set the presets with Berlin radio stations and linked via Wi-Fi and it sounds great in both spoken word and also music.
PRO: The set up was so easy and it even made the WPA/WEP key entry for my Verizon FIOS Internet.
I was also able to easily find all the stations I listened to in Berlin when I lived there and I was also able to find local stations and I could easily "install" BBC and CBC and even a Facebook and a Flickr applet. I am very pleased. I got a red one.
The date and time is awesome because it is updated via Internet so I didn't even need to set the date or time -- so I also have myself an atomic clock, I guess.
There are multiple alarms and also a line in so I can run my iPod and my iPod shuffle through the device, too, which is great for my German homework (a CD I burnt to MP3).
CON: A little expensive but you get a lot more than just a radio. It doesn't come with a rechargeable battery pack or the remote -- an additional $50.
BOTTOM-LINE: Small and deceptively powerful -- it is basically a little Linux box in a small boom box/Internet clock radio -- and it is the most modern of the Squeezebox line so you can do very cool stuff with the device. Easy to set up and to start using.
It can work as simply as a clock radio with presets or you can get all geeky and install apps and podcasts and you can connect to SIRIUS and all those other paid streaming services. I love it. It is my new favorite thing.
Not Your Daddy's Squeezebox! December 1, 2009 B. Colonna (Somewhere in NJ) 9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am the owner of A Logitech Squeezebox Boom and I simply love it, so when this product became available I grabbed it up. The Squeezbox Radio is somewhat smaller than the Squeezebox Boom, the main difference in size being that this unit has one speaker area on the front as opposed to two on the larger Boom.
Like its big brother, the Radio is black and sleek looking and will work with just about any décor. It is small enough to fit nicely on any counter, table, etc. As of the time of this review, the Radio is also available with a red body and same black face.
The only things the Radio lacks that the Boom has are a two-speaker configuration and a remote control. But what the Radio has is a nice little color display. A few weeks back, my Boom got a firmware upgrade pushed to it, which loaded a Facebook option. I thought this odd, as I couldn't see using Facebook on the Boom, as it is a one color (blue) display and doesn't load photos, etc. It's somewhat useful because you can read posting, and you can even scroll your Facebook wall, etc. across the display, even when not listening to music. Well, after getting the Radio, I now understand why they added a facebook app! The Radio displays your Facebook Wall, Photos, etc. The Squeezebox Radio rocks!!
I use my primary Squeezebox in our kitchen, where it provides exceptional sound which fills the whole room (28' x 21' with a 14' ceiling) and flows into adjacent rooms. I have set up the Radio in our Family Room.
The Squeezebox radio is well designed and simple to use, plus multiple Squeezeboxes will synchronize, so you can have your favorite stations and settings update on both devices without doing any reprogramming. You can also shut off synchronization if you want to keep separate settings for stations and so on.
Sound quality is excellent, with strong bass and clean highs. For a small radio, this packs a punch.
Here's what was in the box:
* Squeezebox, approximately 9" long by 5" high and deep.
* AC Adapter (Squeezebox does not accept batteries)
* Quickstart Guide
Set up:
Setting up the Squeezebox is fairly simple. Take it out of the box, plug it in, and begin configuring it. This should take less than 15 minutes, depending on your computer literacy. It is a wireless device and also has an Ethernet jack just in case you want to hard-wire it to your router, cable-modem, etc. IMPORTANT: the Squeezebox is an IP-addressable device, so if you have a secure home network (WEP, etc.), you will need to configure the device and/or your router by inputting your network password, security key and/or the Squeezebox's MAC address, using the same address as you would to add a wireless laptop or printer to your home network.
Keep in mind if you are behind a firewall at work or internet filtering is in place, you may or may not be able to use Squeezebox there. A simple test is to try to visit some internet radio websites or music service websites from your office. If they are blocked, you will probably have limited use of Squeezebox at work.
So, where does the music come from? The Squeezebox can use numerous sources....internet radio, free music services like Pandora and Slacker, and subscription services like Rhapsody. Keep in mind whatever you need to typically access these services (accounts, passwords, payment plans) will apply for your Squeezebox. You can create favorite "stations" either on the Squeezebox, in Pandora, etc, or on the Squeezebox website. You can also control the Radio from your PC using the website.
About the only con for the Squeezebox (and it's a very small one) is you need to input data, such as account names, etc. via the main rotary control knob. Logitech has made the interface extremely simple to use, but its still a 1 character at a time "scroll and press" sort of thing, so it takes a few minutes.
And if the myriad of internet stations, local stations, and services aren't enough, the Radio also comes with sound effects (want a babbling brook as your alarm?), and you can plug in your iPod to it. It does not have an iPod cradle, just an RCA-style cable. The Radio can also search other devices on your network for music (your iTunes folder on your PC, etc.). There is also a headphone jack.
The Squeezebox is an incredible product. If you want nice sound and fantastic features, try the Radio. If you want really powerful sound and volume, go for the Boom. I suggest both, in different places in your home and/or office.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 163
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