Squeezebox Wireless Media Player


Introduction

Without question, there is seemingly an endless number of music fans with a massive collection of songs and albums. Unfortunately, managing these impressive collections can be tedious at the very least, to downright appalling for larger compilations of music. Traditionally, music fans were forced to stockpile their collection of CD's in racks or protective folders. Although these methods served their purpose well, it was difficult to bring that collection of music with you. With the dawn of MP3's, the world soon began storing these accumulations of music on PC's. Armed with massive hard drives and competent ripping software, entire racks of CD's soon became neatly stockpiled on PC's.

Despite being an enormous step forward in terms of convenience and reliability, the electronic shackles between the music and the PC severely limited the accessibility of these files in any other room, besides the room the PC was stored in. Identifying the need for a system to serve these music files throughout the household, Slim Devices has created the Squeezebox. Equipped with a wireless connection to your network, the ingenious Squeezebox provides seamless access to your music files from any room in your house. Furthermore, the device can also stream Internet Radio and perform a host of other tasks ranging from reporting weather to stock quotes. Overall, Slim Devices appears to have produced a very simple and efficient means of providing music to the user wherever the person might be in the house.

Specifications of the Squeezebox Media Player
Wireless Music Nirvana
Chassis Dimension(mm): 7.6"W x 3.7"H x 3.1"D

Finish: High gloss white or black

Display: Vacuum Flourescent Display

Resolution: 320x32 greyscale pixels

Processor: 250MHz 8-way multithreaded RISC

Embedded Memory: 64MB RAM, 16MB Flash

Heatsink Assembly: passive

Wireless Support: 802.11g

Ethernet Support: 10/100

Power Supply: 5V Switching PSU

MSRP: $249 (wired ethernet), $299 (wireless)
Back Panel
Headphone Mini Jack,
Analog RCA Audio,
S/PDIF: Digital Optical Out,
Digital Coaxial Output
10/100 Ethernet
5V Power Input

Lossles Audio Formats:
Apple Lossless
FLAC
WMA Lossless

Uncompressed Formats:
AIFF
WAV
PCM

Compressed Formats
MP3
AAC
Ogg Vorbis
MP2
MusePack
WMA

These days, the web seems to be full of various devices that claim to revolutionize our daily tasks, simplify our lives, and enhance our entertainment experiences. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these gadgets and gizmos are nothing short of gimmicks and fail to provide the level of performance and functionality to actually live up to their claims. Fortunately, the Squeezebox is no such piece of hardware. Rather, this device seems to address the needs of even the most critical enthusiast looking for a convenient solution to accessing their library of music throughout the house. From top to bottom, the overall design and construction of the Squeezebox is clearly top notch with careful component selection and implementation.


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