I would like to share with you my experiences of streaming music wirelessly around my home.
I recently decided to get into the 22nd century and start streaming music wirelessly around my home as both my CD players were broken. I did a bit of research and found that the Squeezebox Duet would be perfect for my budget and wireless setup.
(Intro)
The Squeezebox Duet comprises of a wireless
Controller (Very similar to the first iPods) that lets you browse, select and play your personal music collection and tune to thousands of Internet radio stations. Also included is a wireless/wired
Receiver that delivers the music on your computer or the Internet to your stereo.
(Installing)
1) Setup a
SqueezeNetwork Account. This will allow you to connect to Internet radio stations and online music services.
2) Download the free
SqueezeCenter for your type of computer. This is a music server that connects your
Receivers and
Controllers to your local music files and third-party plug-ins.
3) I’m only going to discuss my setup which is “all-wireless”. First off you will need the wireless Network name (SSID) and security key. Turn on your
Controller and follow the instructions until you see the wireless network screen, listing the available wireless networks. Select your network (SSID) and enter the security key. The
Controller will now connect to your network and if successful display the “Connected screen”.
5) Once the
Controller has successfully connected to your network, you will be able to setup your
Receiver. Select your
Receiver from the list. It will appear on the display as “Squeezebox XXXXXX” where XXXXXX is the last six digits of the
Receiver’s MAC address. The
Controller will connect to the
Receiver and begin programming it for your network. Once the
Receiver button LED turns blue, the
Controller will ask you to select a music source. This will be either the
SqueezeCenter installed on your computer or
MySqueezebox.com. Once the
Receiver is successfully connected to the chosen music source the
Receiver button LED turns white. You are now ready to Rock ‘n Roll
Note - I used the RCA connectors to link to my stereo. There is also a choice of Digital Coax and optical.
The installation above probably took me approx 30 minutes to complete before I was able to start streaming music wirelessly. So far, I am very impressed but you must have VERY good wireless coverage in your home, then you will never look back? I have been so impressed, that I have also purchased another
Receiver for a different room where you can have a separate music stream or sync to the first
Receiver. I also recently found that there was a
Controller ‘app’ called iPeng for my 4th Gen iPod. I much prefer iPeng to the
Controller as it is much more user friendly and more responsive.
CheerZ
