Logitech Squeezebox: what begins as an unguarded train of thoughts slowly can become an addition to slumber

Much to the hatred of those that attribute the whole idea of a portable personal music device solely to Apple's iPod invention, portability in music can been seen more now than any decade before it even though I have the distinct reoccurring memory of you wearing knee-high tube socks, roller skates, black wife-beater, and a TPS-L2 Walkman cassette player back when you dated that girl that only listened to ABBA.

Some things that have spawned from the last five years in portability and wireless capability with music players are nice gadgets such as these handy ones from Logitech. Named after that thing that your momma plays on when daddy comes home never letting him get no rest, the Squeezebox Duet and Boom are two great additions to those that have and love to play music all night in their homes.

Not focused on the idea of portability, these devices use wi-fi and ethernet connections to allow for an all-in-one listening station. If you are like me and have digital music contained within multiple devices or want to pull music from Internet based services such as Sirius, Rhapsody, Pandora, or podcasts and free Internet radio these babies can and willingly give in to your hearing desires. Along with these is one of the more unique services Live Music Archive which contains a lot of high bit rate recordings of various musicians. Both devices have some of the best compatibility around and also do not mess with default settings of any computer that they connect to (make this your default player?, guess the right answer to click to continue...).

The biggest difference between the two is that the Duet (below) hooks to your home stereo system to output the music where the Boom (Above) is well, a self contained stereo. The Boom and is great for someone that doesn't own an expensive home stereo unit but if you are one of the lucky ones that has come into owning a good system, the Duet is a better choice.


The Duet's biggest selling point is that it comes with a great remote that controls much like the iPod (there are you happy now that I used the iPod as a standard for comparative purposes?). Its display is as good as an iPod and can be used at quite a distance away from the receiver box.

Being one of the better external hardware companies that focuses on computer based products, Logitech offers this gadget at one of the most affordable prices coming in at $270-400 for either choice. It seems like a steep amount but the next step above it is Sono's at $1000 and things go upward from there in price. Well either that or some very cheap piece of technology that's more of a hassle than just putting your computer next to your TV and stereo on some cement bricks and old stacks of vinyl like the Trashmen.

A downside to these systems are that they are really only for people that wish play their music in a different room of their home than their music holding device is located. If you happen to have a good set of computer speakers within the same room that you do most of your entertaining then this is even more of a luxury than you'd want to admit.

Hey I know damn well you would love to hear Kate Perry blasting out of your $5000 speakers while you cook some creme brulle in the kitchen and then move into the bathroom for some more intimate grooming and need to switch it right away to Kellie Pickler for the occasion, so rally up some coin and buy yourself a squeezebox to Git R' Dun.

CNet's Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
PCWorld's Review:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Googled Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Logitech Squeezebox Boom

Oh and for those of you thinking about what to get your loved one for Christmas and the Logitech Squeezebox can't be found in your checkbook, then you might want to consider this instead.