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Written by Milos Jevtic
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Saturday, 17 January 2009 |
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Page 1 of 2  Twenty first century is here and with it came new technologies like wireless connectivity that we will be focusing on in this review. Nowadays everything “must” be wireless and portable so folks from Logitech created one very unusual device. Name Squeezebox Boom doesn’t speak for itself too much. Actually Logitech Squeezebox Boom is speaker with two integrated wireless devices that allows it to be connected to your computer and internet at the same time. Which is nice.
Nicely designed with big display Squeezebox Boom has lot of buttons and looks very nice. Unfortunately after only few minutes upon unpacking the speaker, we noticed first minor flaw. Most of the surfaces on this speaker have piano finish. Don’t get us wrong, it looks very attractive, but this is portable device, so it is intended to be moved a lot and piano finish is famous for its magnetic properties when it comes to fingerprints. So you should keep the little cloth close to you all the times.
Display at the front side has light sensor that changes brightness of display according to lighting conditions of surroundings. This is very useful feature that allows user to easily read displayed info in every occasion. Aqua-blue colored display isn’t unpleasant to read from even in pitch dark room. On front panel are located usual controls: play, stop, next, previous, on/off and volume control. Volume control has “lag” so volume is actually changed few seconds after actual change was made. Beside these controls on front panel are also present 6 memory buttons – for your favorite internet radio stations. On back side are located Line In and Sub Out connectors along side with Ethernet port so you can connect Squeezebox Boom to internet/LAN even if you don’t have wireless network infrastructure.
This speaker is consisted of two 3/4inch tweeters and two 3inch woofers which resulted in 30W RMS. In package is also included remote controller, made out of quality plastics. Compared to size of speaker AC power adapter is enormous: slightly smaller than speaker. Why Logitech didn’t supply smaller power adapter is mystery to us, because it doesn’t seem logical to supply big power adapter with portable device: it kinda looses some of its portability properties.
After first power up you will need to go through simple setup that can be easily done, thanks to “wizard”, so even inexperienced users can do it. Functional internet connection is necessary for this step. Device will recognize network by itself, offer you to enter password if wireless network is protected. After internet connection is successfully established Squeezebox Boom will download and install all updates and you can get the party started. You will get 5 digit registration code that you must use during installation of software on your PC. This will allow you to have direct access to your device from PC. Nice! You can play music directly from your PC or you can choose internet radio station and it will start playing on Squeezebox Boom after no more than few seconds. Application interface is very user friendly. Squeezebox Boom has support for MP3, FLAC, WMA, AAC and other formats.
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Squeezebox Boom has support for XL Technology that allows this small speaker to achieve great results. Definition of Stereo XL technology is: it widens the sound stage beyond the physical boundaries of the speaker - according to Logitech. Truth is that it actually works very well and results are surprisingly good. Thanks to this technology Squeezebox Boom can nicely “fill” even large rooms with decent sound. When it comes to sound volume, that this speaker is capable to emit, we were surprised. Sound is loud and clear, rich in low and mid frequencies with tweeters doing their job as they were intended to. We didn’t expect this sound quality from a device of this kind. Sound distortion is noticeable only when volume reaches its highest values but that is normal and expected. Tweeters are working just fine without hissing or other unexpected sounds. We didn’t have any problems with wireless signal strength or application. Sometimes Squeezebox Boom got stuck to previous internet radio station when we tried to change it, but this occurred no more than few times during 3 weeks testing period.
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