Logitech Squeezebox Boom Network Music System

Cool Yule Rating: 4.5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 4.5 stars

Price: $299.99

Product Web site

Description: The latest device in Logitech's Squeezebox line of network music players, the Boom includes a 30-watt digital amplifier and speakers, and the ability to connect to a home network via Ethernet or 802.11g wireless. Once connected to a network, the Boom can access music stored on a PC hard drive or over the Internet (through the SqueezeNetwork online music service). Internet radio and online music services (including Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius, Last.fm, Slacker, RadioTime, Radio IO and Live365) can also be accessed.

The Boom offers a nice all-in-one system (interface, 30-watt digital amplifier and speakers) that can still access tons of music over a home network. The portability of the Boom lets you place it in separate rooms (just unplug and move to a new location), and Logitech says that multiple Boom devices can be play different songs or synchronized together to create a multi-room system (we only received one Boom, so we couldn't test this claim). The system has an easy-to-use remote to access music, and a line-in port lets you connect an iPod or other music player. The access to lots of online music services is very impressive.

Setting up an account for SqueezeNetwork to access all of the digital music services is a hassle. The system can't access music stored on a networked hard drive, so to listen to locally stored music, you either need to leave your PC powered on, or upload your music to SqueezeNetwork (I'd rather just be able to access a NAS drive).

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