Slashdot reviews latest Squeezebox network music player

[Steve]

The nerdiest news portal on the planet (and one that I'm a proud member of) has reviewed the latest version of Slim Devices' Squeezebox mp3 player. For those of you not familiar with the delightful invention that is the Squeezebox, think of it as a networked MP3 player, that can pull music from your no doubt vast collection, or from streaming sources.

After a week of use, I was very pleased with the SqueezeBox. It sounds fantastic and even using my wireless and USB 1.1 external drive didn't deter the ease of use. However, I had my PowerBook returned to me, which is my main music library and iTunes host. I proceeded to set it up as the primary server for the device. The installation was fairly easy (finding the long forgotten firewall settings took the most time), but the performance was atrocious. I read in the forums on Slimdevice's site that the daily builds have some performance fixes. I downloaded the latest build and still had no luck getting it to reliably play for more than a song. I then switched off the AirPort and plugged in an Ethernet cable and since, have had no problems whatsoever. As it worked fine with my Windows laptop, I am inclined to think it a problem with the Mac.

[Slashdot]

[autopilot]

Rubbish review, TBH. The worst i have seen yet for the Squeezebox range. You would find a better review looking at the buyer feedback on Amazon.

There is so much more he should have touched on, such as the amazing format support, the Burr-Brown DAC, all the plug ins, RSS and native CUE support. As well as being able to to use modified versions of the Slim Server web interface on portable devices across your wireless network, such as a PDA, smart phone or even a PSP. That's right, you can control the playback, configure the box and server and edit playlists etc wirelessly from a PSP while you are in a completely different room.

Quite a few Hexus people, including myself have these on order. They are quite simply THE best music streaming device. In fact probably you would be an idiot if you bought anything else. Hopefully Scan will get them in stock soon so i can have it for my xmas/new year parties (it's a present from my girlfriend). There has been a delay in shipping from the states. The brilliant open source server software is the icing on the cake. It's very hard to fault the Squeezebox, it's just bang on.

[Funkstar]

dom, I've been following the threads on the Slimdevices forums regarding UK delivery. They are doing everything they can to make sure their international customers are not neglected over the next couple of weeks.

Demand is up 300% on this time last year, but they are also in a much better position to cope with this demand than they were a year ago.

The UK distributer was expecting another shipment in this afternoon. Might head over the the folums to see if there are any updates.