Squeezebox Touch ships at long last
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 7th 2010 5:49PM
posted April 7th 2010 5:49PM
[Thanks, remd]
posted April 7th 2010 5:49PM
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Nice! We can touch it AND Squeeze it!
@abedinthehouse
....wait no cant squeeze it, too hard
@abedinthehouse That's what she said.
Nope. Not proud. But did it anyway.
@abedinthehouse
wawawee look at the bezel on that thing!
"squeezebox touch" sounds like japanese p0rn.
Wait... "A Chumby app"? Isn't Chumby a hub for different apps that you can put on it, not an actual "app"?
@Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar Well, yes and no. I guess you could call it a Chumby VM -- Sony's Dash is running Chumby windowed.
@Chris Ziegler
What's the appeal of these, Chris? $299 seems awfully expensive for what it is. Am I missing something?
@Mr Oos
I have the older version. It's great. I have 200 gigs of music on my NAS locked away in a cabinet serving up music wirelessly to my squeezebox which sits on a shelf in my living room.
Eventually this new one may take its place and the old one will go in my bedroom.
@Mr Oos
It's a music player for digital music libraries, and can be placed remotely, i.e., not next to any computer. It can also play music from an SD card, a directly attached USB drive, or any networked source (it has both ethernet and wifi). Can be the brains of a multi room Logitech music playback system.
Additionally, it natively plays files in 24/96 format (hi-resolution sound, better than CD). Early reports are the sound quality is very good, even audiophile quality. Not for everyone, but certainly a good value for those that are interested in this type of device.
Not bad for $299, especially since you can get it discounted to about $230 on line.
How does it sound?
@crawdad689 that really depends on what system you hook up to it. It doesn't have built in speakers as I recall.
@crawdad689
I have one that has speakers (not this model) and the sound is pretty decent, but I use it in my bedroom. Otherwise, as was said, you hook it up to an existing sound system.
and daddy never sleeps at night
@hated one
What does you family do when you leave the house?
no mention of the Sony Dash which is $100 cheaper and as open as the Chumby?
@Nicnac But the Dash doesn't have a digital audio out -- it's not designed to serve the same niche as the Squeezebox series.
Also, Dash runs Chumby.
@Chris Ziegler
Digital and high quality analog are indistinguishable for a home theater.
@bleep OK, dash doesn't have a remote and doesn't seem to play local files, only internet streaming.
@bleep Then you're not working with much of a home theater. Besides, the Dash doesn't even have RCA analog -- it's just a 3.5mm jack, and it doesn't connect to any sort of music server without going through the Chumby widget, as far as I know. Seriously, apples and oranges here.
@Chris Ziegler
RCA != 3.5 mm jack. Anyways I know nothing of the dash but I do know that digital simply allows you to use lower quality cables. With analog you have to have good quality. If you do it's indistinguishable.
@Nicnac For a moment there, I thought you were saying the $199 Sony Dash was cheaper than the $120 Chumby One.
I tried the Chumby Squeexzebox client months ago but stopped when it didn't look like it did what I wanted. It seemed to just play what was streaming from the slimserver not control it.
So this thing costs as much as a PS3? hmmmmm....no thanks.
And people complained about the iPad's bezel! ;)
Signed up to give a big F.U. to Logitech over Canadian ($399) vs. American ($299) pricing. Our dollars are at par you idiots.
Have used a Squeezebox for about 3 years and was contemplating upgrading to the touch upstairs and moving the SB3 downstairs.
@Steven W
So come on over and buy one. Or pick one up on Ebay.
RIP slimdevices
Just wanted to point out something that never gets mentioned about the Sonos. Sonos has a hard file limit of 65,000 files. The limit is even lower if your files have extensive tagging or long filenames, the limit can be as low as 40,000 files. The Squeezebox on the other hand has no limits whatsoever and does everything the Sonos can do for a fraction of the price.
Touch me and then squeeze me til you can get your satisfaction!
But you can actually SQUEEZE a Chumby! And control it by squeeze! Try squeezing this thing, and it'll crack...
What I want to know is if I have multiple squeezeboxes, can I synchronize the audio output between them? I ask because it'd be nice to have the speakers in the living room, kitchen, bedroom and garage all playing the same thing at reasonable volumes, rather than have to crank the living room speakers to hear the same music throughout the house. Anyone know or have any experience?
@Grahambo910
Yes you can sychronize all audio on all your squeezebox devices.
@Grahambo910
yes like walkietalkie said... although what you want is kinda backwards from what these and other systems are supposed to do for you where people in different zones can be listening to different music at the same time...
@Grahambo910
Just connect the squeezebox to a multiroom home theater system. ...
@Grahambo910
Yes, I do this at home. Works well. That's exactly one of the points of the system
@ecobranon I appreciate the thought, but I'd rather like to keep my discreet preamp/amp setup instead of going with a multiroom unit. They're hand me downs from my old man, but tubes sound better than anything from Best Buy. And $300 even 2 or 3 times over isn't too bad compared to a decent amp capable of running multiple zones. Add in the hassle of running all those wires (~300 ft in my case,) and it's a no brainer.
@hated one
Isn't an iPhone kind of shitty without a cellular plan?
Beloved? That's the wrong Beloved, though. This is the good one, since all good music is metal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_(band)
A true beauty, such an innovative, bold and sexy design.
Squeezebox rocks, I have one of the earlier models and I love it. I had a Roku before, which isn't bad either, but Squeezebox is even better, great hardware, great software (and 100% open source to boot).
Squeezebox rocks, I have one of the earlier models and I love it. I had a Roku before, which isn't bad either, but Squeezebox is even better, great hardware, great software (and 100% open source to boot).
@drange
Oops, now I said it twice, first time around my comment wasn't there, what's up with that?
$300 = refurb netbook + vnc app for my iphone/android = much more control and options
@buhusky
your netbook has a remote control? speakers? a touch screen? a multi day, multi playlist alarm clock, multi funtion photo display slideshows?
COOL.
@buhusky
Oh, I ain't done.
Your netbook can sit on a corner of a small nightstand and not look ghetto with wires sticking out of it all ways?
Is it wife/girlfriend friendly?
If something goes wrong with it, can it simply be rebooted?
If a more substantial problem, can be reset to factory specs and rebooted to no problem in a minute?
Will the screen auto dim during the night so it's not a blinding clock. Does it even have a full screen clock function?
What about simple controls to do major functions: Yes, no to pandora, cover flow scroll through songs/albums...
Suddenly, the dedicated item is so much superior to the banded together thing...