Squeezebox MP3 Player

All my CDs have long been encoded as high quality MP3 files that I have been using while traveling and at work with my Creative Jukebox Zen NX. But other than through the crappy line out of my soundcard, no way to play them on my stereo at home, especialy not without having to turn my computer on. Enter the Squeezebox.

Why Squeezebox
After looking at other options, none seemed to have what I wanted. Some didn't have a display or remote, meaning you always need to use a web browser to select what you want to hear. Others only had Windows software and my always on server runs Linux. I almost resorted to a DIY solution before I stumbled across this device. It had everything I wanted: a box with remote control, display and open source server software and protocol so if it wasn't perfect, at some time I could do some hacking. In the mean time it doesn 99% of what I want out of the box. That made the choice rather easy.

Getting the box
This isn't a mainstream device you can pick up anywhere, but there is a good reseller list on the Slim Devices website, who make this box. In the UK dabs.com seems to have the best stock for the best prices and they delivered my wiresless version for £192 the next day. Time to install.

Installation
I already installed the free and open source Slim Server software on my Linux server so I was almost good to go for powering the unit up. The only thing I still needed to do was add the Squeezebox's MAC address to the access list of my wireless access point. They have clearly thought about this because in big, friendly letter on the bottom, they printed both the MAC for the wireless card and the ethernet interface. After turning it on it quickly found my wireless network, an IP over DHCP and the Slim Server and it was ready to use. Impressive, but you do need to know your networking and Linux to make it go this smooth. The software is supported on Windows too, but I did not test that.

Playing around
The Squeezebox very much has an iPod like way of organizing your music and you can browse by genre, artist, album or song. But on top of that it it can also browse your music folder, which I much prefer. Simply browse to anywhere you want, press play and you've got music. The box has volume control, but this is best left at maximum. You can also completely control the player from a web interface into the Slim Server, where you can also make some more advanced settings.

Sound quality is good, not great, just good. But that is enough. In case you are wondering: all my CDs were ripped using AudioGrabber and encoded in 256Kbit MP3 using the Fraunhofer Pro encoder in the Audioactive Production Studio. On a pro quality soundcard, I cannot hear the difference between this and a CD. The box has both optical and coaxial digital outputs but as I have nothing with a digital input, I have yet to test these. Dispite the fact that it goes to 11, the level of the line out is quite low, however. I get the feeling it is 1Vrms, as opposed to CD's 2Vrms, which is 6dB lower. I would prefer it to be in line with what you get out of your CD or DVD player.

Conclusion
I like it. It's not cheap, but instead of having only a small fraction of my collection available, I now have put all my CDs in the loft. With the Squeezebox I find myself listening to albums I rarely listened to and listen to albums in general a lot more and enjoy it, simply because it is so easy to access them.

I have had a few problems with the Slim Server software, though. Once when I unplugged the wireless access point and after turning it back on, the player wouldn't connect. And once when after one song finished, the player lost connection for no reason and I had to restart the server software before it would get going again.

Overall it get's two thumbs up, though. I wouldn't want to go back to having 150+ CDs in cases in my living room. This player has changed the way I listen to and enjoy music. Best of all, this is one gadget Kylie loves too!