Logitech Squeezebox Version 3
Surprisingly the installation process is extremely simple and you’ll be up and ready literally in no more than 5 minutes. Once you turn on the unit you’ll see the welcome screen as seen below.
The LCD display will guide you through the whole setup process and everything you need to do is controlled through the remote supplied. (So make sure you do not loose it 🙂 )
Since we were using the WiFi connection, it automatically detected all wireless networks within range. Simply select your SSID from the list and it’ll detect if you have encryption and request for the encryption key to connect to the network. That’s all there is to it, the Squeezebox will then show it’s obtaining an IP address from the router and connect to your wireless network.
Now if that’s not easy I don’t know what is. You can also opt to use static IP’s if you wish to do so, and would be a handy feature for advanced users.
If you require privacy the Squeezebox is equipped with a headphone jack as well, so if you couple it with a set of wireless headphones you have a great degree of freedom to move around the house and still enjoy music without disturbing anyone.
We connected a Logitech 5.1 Surround sound stereo system into the digital output of the Squeezebox and a Sennheiser wireless headphone set into the headphone port.
Believe it or not, that takes care of the whole installation process. At most it’ll take you 10 minutes to get things set and ready. Slim Devices have made everything so easy that even if you have no technical background setting up the Squeezebox will be a breeze.
The Software
The software provided with the Squeezebox is called SlimServer which allows the squeezebox to find media files on the PC that runs the SlimServer (The Software is a free download from Slim Devices Website). It installs a web server on the target machine where you can control a range of functions along with specifying the location of your music files. A good feature of this software is that even if you don’t have a Squeezebox it’ll allow you to stream music through a media player like WinAmp.
Ones the music folder is identified the SlimServer software will automatically categorize the songs based on the various categories available. Of course the song files themselves should already contain the Meta data for it to sort it based on these categories. One drawback with the software is that you can specify only one music folder, so you will need to have all your songs in one single folder for it to index them. Below we see the categories sorted according to the genre.
Creating play lists is very easy, you simply click on the (+) symbol to add it to the current play list or create your own. It’s very intuitive and easy to use I cannot find anything to complain about.
The internet radio section is quite similar to the top section as well and it’s much faster to find internet radio channels this way than going through the Squeezebox directly. There are well over 8000 channels to choose from so your options are literally very broad and I doubt one would ever find the time to go through all of them. One thing is for sure however, you will come across so many new genres out there as well as countless number of new artists you would have never heard of and will enjoy them a lot at the same time. There are a few channels I listen to almost daily and the songs they play are most certainly unheard of on commercial radio. You would be surprised to hear how many good artists are out there who you have never heard about. I have already purchased 3 new CD’s from artists I would have never even thought of listening to if not for the Squeezebox.
The software also allows you to control player settings such as changing the screen saver, changing the name for your player and a few other minor tweaks. These can also be changed directly off the player if you wish.
A cool feature I noticed recently is that if there are firmware updates for the Squeezebox the unit automatically connects to the server and downloads them and installs it to the latest stable version released by Slim Devices.
Below is some of the settings that can be accessed through the Slim Devices network once the player is registered on their system. To register each player comes with its unique PIN number, simply enter this and the player name can be anything at your discretion.
Once the player is registered you will have access to many of the functions of the system as shown below. MAC and IP address information will be displayed for your player when connected.
You also have the option to change the menu structure within the unit based on your individual requirements.
You also can use the Squeezebox as a Alarm. Unfortunately though there are only 8 melodies to choose from and you cannot set your favourite radio station as an alarm melody. I hope Slim Devices decide to change this in a firmware release in the near future.
