Squeezeboxing

Let me start off by saying that I enjoy listening to music, I just don’t enjoy picking it out. I mean if I hear something I like great, but just don’t expect me to know loads about music/artist/etc. I’ve been told that I’m tone deaf and also can’t carry a tune so don’t expect me to sing at the next Karaoke night (I hate Karaoke BTW).

Back to the title of this post, Squeezeboxing. I recently purchased a Squeezebox Duet and Squeezebox Boom. If you’re not familiar with the Squeezebox line of audio equipment, it’s essentially a set of players that allows you to play music directly off the internet or MP3’s stored on your computer and control them from any room in your house. It’s somewhat similar to the SONOS system, but way, way cheaper. Even though I’ve only had the system setup for about 24 hours in my home I’m already in love with the control it gives me over listening to music. The other great thing about the Squeezebox system is that is has a pretty big support community through forums, wikis and even custom applications that have been written by people to extend the functionality of the system.

Squeezebox streams your favorite internet “stations” right to a receiver and plays them. In the case of the Squeezebox Boom it’s all self-contained, speakers included. With the Squeezebox Duet system there’s a controller and a receiver, the receiver requires an existing stereo system to plug into and then plays through that. The controller itself works with all Squeezebox products so once you have one (that comes with the Duet) then it can control the Boom and even a Java player running on a PC called SqueezePlay. The controller even has a standard headphone jack so you can listen to your music right from the controller, no receiver or Boom required (this feature is currently listed as beta).

Did I mention it’s all wireless? Yes, the entire Squeezebox system works over your existing home WiFi network. That means you can turn up the music in the living room, change the channel in the basement and pause the music on your computer all from the bedroom! The wireless is the part that makes the Squeezebox system so great in my opinion. The reason I started research into a wireless music system is that with our new patio, I needed to find a way to get the music outside. We previously had a Sirius Satellite receiver connected to an old stereo in the garage and crappy outdoor speakers. Since the Sirius receiver died, I wanted to get Sirius back outside but also wanted some additional listening options such as Pandora. I still need to purchase a new stereo system and good outdoor speakers for the patio but that’s a project for this spring.

Want to try out Squeezebox without spending any money? Visit SqueezeNetwork.com and create an account. Next, download Squeezeplay and install it on you computer and connect it up with your SqueezeNetwork account. Squeezeplay works just like the Squeezebox controller to help you get familiar with it. Of course Sirius and Pandora both require a subscription in order to connect them up so don’t be disappointed if they don’t work. NOTE: if you’re not comfortable installing and configuring software, ask your computer geek friend to help you out (don’t call me).