SqueezeNetwork
We mentioned that you could connect the unit to Slim Devices' own Linux-run servers, assuming you have a broadband connection. Music playback from your PC, well, requires it to be switched on at all times. However, connecting up to SD's own network bypasses the need for an intermediary and therefore can run without any additional hardware.
Obviously, when connected to the SqueezeNetwork the Squeezebox doesn't need to be connected to the SlimServer.
The SqueezeNetwork (login required) offers a multitude of standalone features, so let's cover the interesting ones.
Internet radio
The Squeezebox, as we know, offers more than just pure media playback. Scroll down the list of options and you can connect to its Internet Radio function that has a list of hundreds of radio stations around the world which can then streamed to the player. Listening to some god-awful Country music (flame me all you like) verified that it was working.
The internet's your musical oyster. The internet radio function can be run off either the SlimServer or SqueezeNetwork, although the feature-set is a little different on both. You can, however, also manually add and tune-in stations of your choice, via the SlimServer software on your PC, and save them under a list of favourites.
RSS news ticker
The network is also home to an RSS news ticker and the Squeezebox is configured with subscriptions to a number of sites that can be managed by the aforementioned SlimServer software.
Here we have a total of 34 stories from the BBC news website. Handy for keeping in touch with the day's happenings. Once again, the text highlights the quality of the display.
Pandora radio and Rhapsody network
Part of the SqueezeNetwork package is access to Pandora.com, a project that's designed to find music specific to your tastes. Once logged in to your SqueezeNetwork account, you can access the Pandora network and input songs that you like. Working with the Music Genome project, Pandora finds and presents similar music. It's really rather good. The SqueezBox is also configured to work with the Rhapsody Unlimited, whose database of 2-million songs can be accessed for $9.99 p/m.
Sound quality
We've demonstrated that the Slim Devices' Squeezebox is more than just a wireless digital music streaming device, but, as yet, we've made no comment on audio quality. Let's get to it now.To test the quality of the Squeezebox, we 'ripped' a number of CDs in Windows-readable, lossless WAV format (well, PCM) that duplicates the red-book quality on audio CDs. The Squeezebox's analogue patch cables were replaced by a quality Chord interconnect and we compared the sound quality from the Denon DM-35 DAB's own CD player to that from the Squeezebox's output.
The Squeezebox features a 24-bit Burr-Brown DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) similar to the Denon's so sound quality was always going to be impressive. Listening to Bob Dylan's Blood on the tracks CD highlighted little or no difference between the Denon's CD player and Squeezebox's output. Moving on to the Kaiser Chief's 'Employment' tracks also highlighted the quality of the produced audio, listened to both via floorstanding KEF speakers and studio-class Sony CD-1700 headphones.
Internet radio sounded a touch poorer, with the source at fault. Indeed, it was easy to discern between the audio produced by WAV files and their compressed internet-based counterparts, inferring the quality of the rendering device.
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the audio produced from a decent source.
