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Logitech Squeezebox Duet review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £245
inc VAT

Logitech’s Squeezebox Duet won a Best Buy award in last year’s group test of streaming audio players.

The Duet consists of a receiver with stereo phono, coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs and a remote control with a colour screen. The remote control allows you to browse tracks from your music collection and play them through the receiver and on any other Squeezebox device connected to your network. The remote can communicate with both the SqueezeCenter server software installed on your PC and the receiver.

Squeezebox products aren’t compatible with UPnP, iTunes or SMB shares, but the open-source SqueezeCenter server software works under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Setting it up on our wireless network was easy, and pointing the server software at our music collection was also straightforward. The controller’s iPod-style interface and scroll wheel make it easy to select tracks and connect to podcasts and internet radio stations. The Duet supports a wide range of online music services, most of which offer free trial subscriptions, while others such as Last.fm offer free as well as subscription services. The Duet can also access archive.org’s free Live Music Archive.

With both the controller and the receiver connected wirelessly, there was sometimes a delay of a couple of seconds between pressing a button on the handset to pause or skip tracks and the Squeezebox receiver responding. We found that controlling more than one receiver was unreliable when using an 802.11g wireless connection, and the Duet was nowhere near as easy to set up as the more expensive Sonos kit.

The intuitive user interface makes this receiver a joy to use, and its sound quality is excellent, but you’ll need to connect your own speakers. It’s more expensive than most streamers here, but the flexibility of the wireless remote control makes it a pleasure to use.

Basic Specifications

Rating*****
Media Streamer typestreaming audio receiver

Audio Compatibility

Audio MP3 playbackYes
Audio WMA playbackYes
Audio WMA-DRM playbackNo
Audio AAC playbackYes
Audio Protected AAC playbackNo
Audio OGG playbackYes
Audio WAV playbackYes
Audio Audible playbackNo
Other audio formatsAIFF, Apple Lossless, MP2, MusePack
Internet radio stream compatibMP3, OGG, WMA

Video Compatibility

Video MPEG-1 playbackNo
Video MPEG-2 playbackNo
Video MPEG-2 VOB playbackNo
Video MPEG-4 AVI playbackNo
Video MPEG-4 MP4 playbackNo
Video MPEG-4 DivX/XviD supportNo
Video H.264 supportNo
Video MPEG-4 MP3 audio supportNo
Video MPEG-4 AAC audio supportNo
Video WMV playbackNo
Video WMV-HD supportNo
Other video formatsnone
Internet video stream compatibnone

Image Compatibility

Image BMP supportNo
Image JPEG supportYes
Image TIFF supportNo

Network Interfaces

Wired network ports10/100
Wireless networking supportYes
128-bit WEPYes
256-bit WEPNo
WPAYes
WPA2Yes

AV Interfaces

Minijack line outputs0
Minijack headphone outputs0
Stereo phono outputs1
Coaxial S/PDIF outputs1
Optical S/PDIF outputs1
Total SCART sockets0
HDMI outputs0
Component outputs0
S-video output0
Composite outputs0
Other connectorsnone

Physical

Size35x165x115mm
Antennas0
Internal/external antennasinternal
Upgradeable antennaNo
Power consumption standby2W
Power consumption on3W

Server Compatibility

Software includedSqueezeCenter (download)
UPnPNo
iTunesNo
SlimServerYes
SMBNo

Buying Information

Price£245
Warrantyone year RTB
Supplierhttp://www.kikatek.com
Detailswww.slimdevices.com

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