Paul Says the Logitech Squeezebox Internet Radio Isn't Ready for Prime Time

Some readers have praised the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but Paul has a different story for the smaller model:

Last Monday amazon had the Logitech Squeezebox Radio on sale for a few hours for $129.99. I had gift certificates for that amount + tax, and so I bought it. It arrived a couple of days later. Here are my first impressions. 1. Very easy setup (wireless or wired). 2. No printed user manual; no user manual on CD. There is a PDF file of features which goes for a user manual on Logitech's web site, and a useless printed quick start guide, but that's it. 3. In terms of looks, this is one good looking radio. 4. While selection of Internet radio stations requires some repeated pushing of buttons, overall selection of stations is easy. The user interface could be better, but overall for a techie guy/gal there are no issues. 5. So far I've listened to KPCC on it for a few hours (I'm in Seattle) and the stream has been reliable. 6. However, I have been unable to have the radio lock on to and stream a number of foreign language broadcasts from Asia. I get a cryptic error message, which even Logitech support doesn't know much about. I can listen to these stations just fine on radiotime.com (Logitech's audio stream database provider), but I can't listen to them on the radio itself. 7. Logitech tech support was initially responsive on this problem, but after 5 or 6 emails back and forth they just gave up and the issue is unresolved. 

My last question to them has gone unanswered. They passed me over to Radiotime, and no amount of explaining did them any good (why should Radiotime care, when I can listen to these stations on their site just fine!?). 8. Looking around the web for a solution to my problem was not helpful either. The error I am getting is apparently among the rare ones! I came across the Squeezebox community forums: http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20 

And if you want to read about unbelievable headaches with this radio, especially after the latest firmware release (version 7.5), please be my guest and peruse the Squeezebox Radio forums there: http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32 In summary, I am going to wait a few more days to see if I can find a solution or if Logitech comes through with an update that fixes this problem. Otherwise, it's going back. This radio does not appear to be ready for prime time, sorry.

Update:

The reason for the error I am getting has finally been pointed out by a good user on the Squeezebox Radio forums (and not by Logitech Tech Support!), namely, the Squeezebox radios do not support Microsoft's MMS streaming protocol. This is while a lot of radio stations, especially in Asia, use this protocol, and the Squeezebox Radio actually indexes them too (since Radiotime has the stations in its database and you can play them through Radiotime). But obviously nobody at Logitech wrote a simple script to go and automatically identify these stations and remove them from their radios' database! And Tech Support has no clue about the features (or lack thereof) of their product! Before I bought the radio I went to http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/products/squeezebox-radio.html and used the service they provide ("Check for your favorite station") to make sure some of these MMS streamed stations worked. Sure enough that service checks Radiotime and told me YES, you can listen to these stations! The radio is going back today. Between poor tech support, lack of an important feature (at least for me), and so many reports of bugs and problems on the radio's forums, I will look elsewhere.

Comments

[Ante]

How frustrating! I badly want to buy this radio, but I simply have no nerves to deal with so many issues it still has. How long do we have to wait before Logitech figures out a reliable and simple software? Lifetime?

[Paul]

Ante,

I really wanted to like this radio too. Being very good with computers and eletronic stuff (I am my entire family's one stop one man tech support shop!), I decided I could do better than all those people complaining and writing negative reviews on amazon!

Boy was I wrong! This radio is broken, plain and simple. Its forum is full of reports of really basic problems no reasonable person should put up with.

[Paul]

Interesting read:

http://www.dxer.ca/the-forum?func=view&catid=12&id=2756#2756

[Carlos]

After buying this radio, loving it at first, then losing enthusiasm and returning it, I came to the conclusion that these radios are marketed less towards radio listeners and more towards people who want to stream their digital music wirelessly from their computer (or uploaded to storage on the net).

I found the interface for locating and streaming radio broadcasts usable but cumbersome.

On the other hand the sound and looks of the radio are great. Just not that great for radio.

[Scooby214]

I have an mms stream that works with my radio through Radiotime. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but it does usually work. I guess I am lucky, as mine still is working well. I do find glitches in mine my use, but its not too bad.

If the Myine IRA offered all of the stations I listen to on my Squeezebox Radio, I would go for the IRA.

Brian