To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Logitech Squeezebox Boom review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £190
inc VAT

The Squeezebox Boom is a well-built audio streamer with front-panel controls and a small remote.

We liked the chunky rubberised dial, which made it easy to enter our wireless password and scroll through lists of content. The large mono display is big enough to read from a couple of metres away. The remote is well designed but rather small and easy to lose.

We were slightly disappointed by the Boom’s audio quality. Its stereo speakers are adequate, but mid-range tones weren’t clearly defined and the sound lacked power, especially compared with Philips’ Streamium NP2900. The mini-jack line out can be configured to output to headphones or a subwoofer but we’d have preferred a wider selection of outputs.

While most of the streamers here use UPnP or SMB to play media stored elsewhere on your network, Logitech’s receivers work only with its own SqueezeCenter software, which is free from www.squeezenetwork.com. Configuring the software and the Squeezebox itself is made reasonably hassle-free by a quick-start guide. The Boom has loads of menu options but they’re easy to navigate after a few minutes of familiarising yourself with the layout. It prompted us to enter our network settings and gave us a PIN to register it on the SqueezeNetwork site. This isn’t much more awkward than setting up your PC to serve media via SMB or UPnP for the first time.

The benefit of registration is that it allows you to manage and play content from a much wider range of streaming audio services than are available to most of the players here, including Last.fm, Live365 and Napster. The SqueezeCenter interface on your PC also lets you add internet radio streams and OPML podcast feeds. It can play a wide variety of file formats, including Ogg, FLAC and AAC.

Despite a great range of features, the Boom falls short of a Best Buy award. Its audio quality is adequate for a kitchen but can’t hold a candle to the stunning sound produced by Philips’ Streamium NP2900, which doesn’t cost much more.

Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Media Streamer type streaming audio receiver

Audio Compatibility

Audio MP3 playback Yes
Audio WMA playback Yes
Audio WMA-DRM playback No
Audio AAC playback Yes
Audio Protected AAC playback No
Audio OGG playback Yes
Audio WAV playback Yes
Audio Audible playback No
Other audio formats AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC, MPC
Internet radio stream compatib MP3, Ogg, AAC, WMA

Video Compatibility

Video MPEG-1 playback No
Video MPEG-2 playback No
Video MPEG-2 VOB playback No
Video MPEG-4 AVI playback No
Video MPEG-4 MP4 playback No
Video MPEG-4 DivX/XviD support No
Video H.264 support No
Video MPEG-4 MP3 audio support No
Video MPEG-4 AAC audio support No
Video WMV playback No
Video WMV-HD support No
Other video formats none
Internet video stream compatib none

Image Compatibility

Image BMP support No
Image JPEG support No
Image TIFF support No

Network Interfaces

Wired network ports 10/100
Wireless networking support Yes
128-bit WEP Yes
256-bit WEP No
WPA Yes
WPA2 Yes

AV Interfaces

Minijack line outputs 0
Minijack headphone outputs 1
Stereo phono outputs 0
Coaxial S/PDIF outputs 0
Optical S/PDIF outputs 0
Total SCART sockets 0
HDMI outputs 0
Component outputs 0
S-video output 0
Composite outputs 0
Other connectors none

Physical

Size 130x340x100mm
Antennas 2
Internal/external antennas internal
Upgradeable antenna No
Power consumption standby 6W
Power consumption on 7W

Server Compatibility

Software included SqueezeCenter (download)
UPnP No
iTunes No
SlimServer No
SMB No

Buying Information

Price £190
Warranty two years RTB
Supplier http://www.ebuyer.com
Details www.slimdevices.com

Read more

Reviews