Logitech Squeezebox Radio

This is the third and by far the best of the Squeezeboz products I have owned. Although all are top - notch in my opinion. Had the Squeezebox Radio been available from the outset, it would have been the only of their offerings I would have bought. This product is easy to set up and easy to use. I also have the Squeezebox Duo in my stereo system - the Duo has a remote control and lo and behold - the Duo remote also works on my Squeezeboz radio too. An added benefit. I can't recommend this item highly enough - every house should have one. I do have one element of it's operation that I am not 100% happy with - and that is the alarm clock functionality - setting the alarm does not persist from day to day, One is forced to set the alarm each night. Were it up to my - I would allow the alarm to remain set indefinitely. Perhaps this will be corrected in future software releases. That is the ONLY negative comment I can make regarding the Squeezebox Radio. As a;ways - I would like to have more pre-set buttons, but I can make do with the six that are available. As my title states - this one gets a rating of 10 stars out of a possible allocation of 5. It's a winner.

Over the years I've purchased several streaming music products, each of which had it's limitations, some were just junk. This gives you good sound, no major setup headaches, and there seem to be a wide array of optional plugins to allow you to customize and build your music sources. Setup was fairly simple although typing in any text whether it's your login credentials for a music service or your wireless network information is tedious on any device that doesn't have a keyboard so just deal with it, hopefully you won't have to enter this information more than once.

First, let me be a bit negative, this thing should really ship with a rechargable battery already installed. It should also ship with a remote control. I called customer support this mornng and I've been told that the accessory pack with the battery and remote will not be available until February 2010. It seems like they rushed to get the radio out before Christmas yet these accessories aren't available yet. When I first read about the radio and its battery backup functionality I'd assumed that the battery was already installed.

Secondly, I attempted several times to set this up using WEP encryption. While a 26 character passcode is a hassle to enter anytime it was a real pain to attempt to enter it four or five times only to be told that the password didn't work. I've entered it into enough other devices in my home (printers, laptops, PSP) that I know the code was correct. I've been needing to change over to WPA anyway as it's more secure, once I changed to WPA and entered the passphrase it connected to the network in just a few seconds.

Now the positives, the audio is above average considering the size of the radio, it found my music collection and scanned all of the titles into it's library, since it's just streaming the audio it only took a few minutes to scan about 4000 songs. There are some opportunities with the album art, many tracks just show some arbitrary image of a CD.

As far as the plugins, Pandora works very well. I may even upgrade my pandora account to a paid account since I can skip more than six tracks an hour (once I have a remote anyway). The XMOnline plugin works very well too although it doesn't seem to update the PAD data with the song names and artist info.

The Mediafly may or may not work, I created an account and linked it and picked a few podcasts out on Mediafly but they never appeared on my radio so it may just be me.

I'd buy this for anyone thinking about getting an XM Boombox or portable radio, just pay XM for an online account and this works as well as a boombox and given that a boombox has to have an antenna near a window all you need with this is access to your wireless network (or wired if you want to run a cable to it from your router).

I'm very happy with this product.

I was looking for a new clock radio after my old one gave up the ghost after 27 years. I could not find one that fit my needs til I started seeing ads for Internet radios. I had not paid much attention to internet streaming radio and just downloaded podcasts to my mp3 player. I bought this item just as a clock radio and what an eye opener. The variety of material in addition to the streaming of my local radio stations is amazing. It makes the selection on my old shortwave radio look so limited. It even picks up the audio from some streaming TV such as C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 in addition to C-SPAN radio.

The radio itself has only one speaker, but has a pleasant tone, not like the cheap dime store clock radios. Some of the quality is dependent on the quality of the stream. I listen mainly to talk so this is not a review of the full sprectrum of music sound.

You can set mutiple alarms for each day of the week and set each to wake you up to a different choice of radio stations, music or a variety of alarm sounds, not just whatever you were listening to when you went to bed. You can also set the alarm volume separately. It has a snooze knob which is easy to hit when you are still groggy and a sleep function up to 90 minutes. It has 6 presets and an additional favorites list and can access internet radio or your music collection on you computer. It also has a variety of apps that let you access various internet music and radio sources, such as Pandora and Rapsody, and podcast aggregators. It has a search function to let you find whatever you are looking for.

The reason I did not give it 5 stars is that sometimes there are little glitches in its connection with the internet (if there is a problem connection when the wake up alarm is activated, it will play an alarm tone instead so you won't miss work). Once in awhile you may find some bugginess, but Logitech updates the firmware periodically with downloads directly to the radio through the internet.

For some of the functions, the learning curve is steeper than it needs to be and the manual is not as helpful as it could be, but there are special online forums that can help if you get stuck. (I have not used the Logitech tech support yet so I can't report.)

Also, there is an accessory kit consisting of a rechargeable battery pack and a remote control which is supposed to be coming out soon. These should have been included in the price. If you like cool tech toys and are tolerant of minor teething troubles, you will like this.

I am already totally hooked (and staying up way too late listening). I am planning to get a Squeezebox Touch as soon as it comes out to plug into my ancient stereo.Logitech Squeezebox Touch

I've had the Squeezebox Radio for just over a week but that's long enough to decide what I like and what still needs some work. First, set-up was a snap. The radio found my wireless network instantly and I was able to enter the password and connect quickly. The radio them updated its own software so I was working with the newest release.
What do I like? The radio seems solid. It's heavy enough that you can press the buttons with the radio on a nightstand and not have it slide. The front is angled back which helps even more. I'd call the sound quality - though not stereo - excellent. There's no comparison between how this radio sounds and the Sony clock radio I replaced it with. It has a very clear, crisp sound.
What don't I like? I had the radio only three days when it lost all it's presets. I re-entered them and all has been well since. This is a well known bug. I am using [...] and NOT using my PC so the problem is likely there. Presets should be stored locally, not on a server. I saved all my presets as favorites so they MIGHT be there the next time this happens (then again, maybe the favorites list will be erased, too). I'd like to see an easier way to set the sleep timer. You have to use the menu and it should be a simple button press. Why not use the power button and cycle through sleep settings? i.e. ON ... 45 ... 30 ... 15 ... OFF? There also needs to be a simple way to snooze. Maybe the big button in the middle?
The auto-dimming setting gets awfully dark at night! I should be able to set a minimum brightness level that suits me.
And I'd love to see the apps include weather radar. Yes, this is a radio but it's got a great color display and being able to watch live weather radar on the screen would be super. A general weather app that makes use of this display would be a plus! Come on Logitech, get with it! This radio has more possibilities than, well, radio!
All that said, I'd buy the radio again. Amazon's price and service are exceptional. The Squeezebox Radio seems well made and the bugs can be addressed in future software updates.

Sound is decent though only at higher volumes. Very buggy when left on. If you leave the radio on or in standby and then turn your computer on or off the radio almost always crashes. At least logitech updates the software automatically. Due to this fact, I am still very pleased with this radio.