SlimDevices have recently released a new version of their network audio player – Squeezebox. I have one of the original Squeezeboxes, and I just got hold of the new SB2 as well. For those who aren’t familiar with these devices, basically they sit on your home network (wireless or regular ethernet) and let you play your digital music (mp3, FLAC, Vorbis, etc) through your regular hifi. They come with a remote control, and a nice bright VFD display which is easily visible from a distance. The supplied software (SlimServer) runs on your PC and handles any format transcoding required. You also get a cool web interface, and the ability to listen to streaming internet radio as easily as any other file.
Whilst the SB1 was a very cool unit, it did suffer from some problems. It had a fairly small buffer, which combined with support for only the slowest wireless standard (802.11b) led to occasional drop-outs in the audio.
The improvements for SB2 are pretty impressive:
- 802.11g support
- Considerably larger buffer
- Able to decode FLAC on the unit itself – reducing bandwidth requirements
- New hi-res matrix display replaces the old character based one
- Fun new visualisations (such as a spectrum analyser, VU meters, etc)
If you have a lot of music on your computer and wish you didn’t have to listen to it through crappy speakers – I recommend you check it out!
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