Logitech Squeezebox Duet Wi-Fi Internet Radio

Of all the negative reviews I've read so far seems to be with the dropped connections. I have not experienced any of the dropped connections, maybe because I prefer to listen to my own music collection stored on my PC. I rarely listen to online music & when I do, everything was fine.
I got really lucky & found a deal on the Logitech website where they were selling dented box units for only $187.00, that is over $200 off the retail price of $399. Actually the unit itself is brand new & the only thing that was damaged was the box itself.
I have to say, so far I love this unit. The ability to access my music files from anywhere in the house is awesome. Sure the SONOS is great, but you will need to drop at least $1000 to get started. Plus I trust the brand Logitech more than I do with Sonos.

I was able to download an app for my MOTO DROID where I was able to control the unit from my phone, so you Apple people are not the only one that can do that with your phones. For those that want to free your music from wires at a very reasonable price, I strongly recommend this...

I have owned the Squeezebox Duet for a couple of years now. I really wanted to love this device. But its inability to maintain a consistent connection to the Internet has finally forced me to write this negative review. After first purchasing the device, I was blown away. (This was before there were as many Internet-connected devices as there are now.) I loved being able to access my Rhapsody and Pandora accounts, and the availability of the Internet Music Archive. But connectivity problems cropped up immediately. Over the last few years, I've had probably 10 or 12 phone conversations with their tech support - who have all been good people trying to help. It even went back to the factory once for diagnosis. But the device just will not maintain a consistent connection. It used to be worse - I couldn't listen to more than about 10 continuous minutes of music. Now, with some recent firmware changes, and some tweaks to my router ports, I can get a few hours. But more often than not when I go back the next day, there is no connection again.

The shortcomings of the Squeezebox Duet became more obvious after I purchased a Roku video/audio streaming device, and starting accessing the Internet through my Wii game console. Both of those devices are rock-solid in connectivity. Every time I've used my Roku, the connection is immediately available, and it stays available, including to Pandora!
The other problems with the Duet have to do with usability. The click-wheel method of spelling out names of Artists and Albums, for example, can be quite tedious, and the software on the controller seems to require more clicks than necessary, and there are often lengthy delays in operation even when it is working correctly.

The sound quality is outstanding, though. It's a product that had great potential. It just hasn't delivered.

We moved into a 20+ year old house recently, and it had the original intercom/radio still in and working. I replaced all the old stations and master unit with newer, better sounding components, and the new system had an Aux In. I ordered a Duet to supply the system with all the internet sources. What attracted me was that I would have a remote control, so I could be anywhere in the house and control the content of the music and even the volume.

Installation was a breeze. I used an old laptop as a "music" Server, and put all 400 of our CDs there, as well as various MP3's purchased over the years. I popped the Duet's base unit into my intercom space (I had previously wired up a 110v socket in the wall for this purpose and connected it to the intercom system. Within a few minutes I was piping fresh content to the whole house.

One thing that was very nice was that the wireless base unit suffered no degradation in wireless signal - even though it was mounted in a metal box (3 sides).

This is my second unit within a month and I continue to have problems -- the replacement unit which also does not work and keeps trying to connect to the network but never does. The first unit would randomly shut off, the remote would not start even after removing the battery numerous times, and would stop playing music at will. Customer support acknowledges problems with many squeezebox units due to the latest software update -- they need to fix it!!

I would not recommend this product to anyone, its pricey, the software is buggy, the unit just doesnt work and customer support is ill equipped to address issues..

I recently got a Squeezebox Radio and was impressed with the possibilities of the Squeezebox server. I have experimented with a number of different ways to get my music integrated into my home theater/stereo, and hoped this would be the silver bullet. Short story...it isn't. Not quite yet. Reasons below.

1. Sound Quality - While it was nice having my music on the big boy speakers (Aperion w Onkyo amp at 140 w per channel) the music was noticeably compressed and "lossy" sounding. Bass lacked authority, highs and mids were muddled together, and the soundstage was quite narrow. I tried connections over coaxial digital and stereo RCA with similar results. By comparison, the Wadia 170i Transport sounded much much better.

2. User interface - The remote is very cool, however, its Wi-fi range is limited to about 20 feet if you have any obstruction whatsoever. Walking around the corner from the receiver was enough to drop signal. The click wheel is imprecise and clunky which makes selecting the desired song/option more difficult than it has to be. Many of my songs are in a foreign language and their Cyrillic alphabet titles were not recognized. Even after changing to Latin titles and they now showed up on my playlist, selecting them sent me to a seemingly inexplicable substitute. Sometimes it would be the first song in my library (usually beginning with the number 1 - e.g. 1979 Smashing Pumpkins) or to a random song I couldn't figure out. Also, it was rather annoying that your computer has to be on to access internet content like Pandora or internet radio. The unit ought to work through your wifi connection independently.

3. Reliability - Often, when listening over my stereo, the audio signal would drop out unexpectedly and then re-initiate. This happened both on coaxial and RCA on each occasion I played music. Plus, each time I turned the unit on, it acted as though I had just updated and had a new welcome screen. It also froze multiple times when I tried to enter my email account for the Squeezebox server, but somehow recognized the account without me entering the password on the 3rd try (?).

The Duet has some promising features, but overall it was a bit of a disappointment. For the money, I'd rather not have to sacrifice sound quality for convenience nor do I enjoy constantly troubleshooting a brand new item. I think Logitech needs to do some additional work before this is ready for the masses.