[MaxCast]

Do you think Logitech will ever make a new squeezebox after the touch?
I thought the duet was the way to go.  Box by the system, remote w/screen in the hand.  But, everyone said they didn't sound good.  Then came the touch with a screen...which had to be off to sound good...making it less than useful.   
Has anyone heard of a new music server on the horizon?

[saeyedoc]

Touch + ipeng app for ipad works great!

[gregcss]

Good question. I want to get mine modded but I know a week after I do there will be a new device out. I currently use the Enhanced Digital Output app instead toolbox 3.0 and don't have the screen turned off. It sounds good to me. I don't really use the screen because I control through android phone.

[Noseyears]

Has anyone heard of a new music server on the horizon?

Yeah, this one particularly
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/digital-media-servers/moon-180-mind-music

Dont know if logitech is planning to release something new yet.

[JEaton]

I thought the duet was the way to go.  Box by the system, remote w/screen in the hand.  But, everyone said they didn't sound good.  Then came the touch with a screen...which had to be off to sound good...making it less than useful.

The 'screen off' thing is a tweak. It sounds fine with the screen on.

And if you do use the tweak and turn the screen off, then you use some kind of remote in the hand - an app running on a smart phone or tablet or even a laptop computer with the web interface. And that's no less useful than the Duet, which required a remote.

[Philistine]

I have an exclusive Squeezebox household - Touch/Duet/2 Booms/Radio, and recently sold a Modwright Transporter.

Since the acquisition by Logitech my feelings are they've lost it with no innovation and lack of support for existing devices (the Boom has potential issues with speakers detaching and Transporter failures - Logitech is not supporting customers with these issues).  The cloth eared 1's and 0's guys on the Squeezebox forum helped chase away audiophiles and didn't help sales and the brand image also.  The acquisition by Logitech would be a good Harvard Business Review paper on how to mismanage an aquisition.

I'll continue with my Squeezebox systems, but see lack of support and new product innovation will lead to extinction unless they turnaround.  In the meantime I see Sonos systems being more robust (software is more consumer orientated and less nerdy than you have to be with Squeezebox), better marketed and rumors are that Sonos has new products in the pipeline.  On this basis Sonos is the brand to keep an eye on.

[JEaton]

Logitech purchased Slim Devices in 2006. I'd say that more than a few Squeezeboxes have been sold to audiophiles since then.

[andy_c]

I bought an SB2 a number of years ago, maybe 2005.  I had a lot of problems with SlimServer at that time.  For a while there, it seemed like each "upgrade" of SlimServer was buggier than the previous one.  I reported a bug for which SlimServer would display HTML source code in the browser.  They took about a year for a fix, and when I applied the "fix", the same problem still occurred.  The problem turned out to be having more than one internet radio station in a playlist, which worked fine in previous SlimServer versions.  The solution was to use the "My Picks" plugin, which had a horrible UI and no documentation of how to use it.

Then there was the problem with ogg streams crashing the firmware.  That was another year to fix.

Finally, my display died when it was just a few weeks out of warranty.  I was fed up, and tried several alternatives.  The only one that worked decently was building a dedicated silent HTPC, which I controlled from my laptop using Remote Desktop.  I used this for years, but the solution was a kludge.  I was using Foobar for FLAC playback because it had the most robust buffering and glitch-free playback.  I was also using WinAmp for internet radio, mainly Shoutcast integration.  To get free Pandora I was using Firefox.

So recently, I reevaluated the Logitech offering.  I tried out LMS with SqueezePlay, and it worked really well.  I decided to get a Touch.  It is excellent, no complaints whatsoever.  LMS is for me a huge improvement over SlimServer, and the Touch a huge improvement over the SB2.  The Touch screen is really nice, especially when you first set the system up.  Sound quality into an external DAC is as good as I can hope for, especially considering price.

[mdconnelly]

I've been using one form or another of Squeezeboxes for a long time.  I have to say that the Touch and LMS v7.7 are a hell of a bang for the buck.  LMS of late seems rock solid. 

But, I also feel there's cause for concern over the future of Squeezeboxes... There seems very little new development of late and very little comment from the devs on the Logitech SB forums.  That could indicate big, secret things are in the works.  Or it could mean just the opposite.   I would hate to see this die.  I have yet to see any competition in a similar price range that offers the flexibility and sound quality that the Touch and LMS currently do.

[JLM]

I had enough glitches with a SB3 years ago to bail out and return to CDPs.  But I'm on my last CDP.  When that one dies I'll be looking for a computer based solution again.  I like the cost/size/features of SB.  So many of the one piece servers lack streaming plus the hand held controller is the same cost as the entire SB (and it includes a DAC).  Cheaper than Sonus, yet still can serve multiple rooms.

As it uses standard file formats it shouldn't be seen as a closed/dead-end technology (unlike the bigger/more expensive Olive servers).

And with SB I can still use my clunky PC (don't have to buy expensive Apple).

[Philistine]

Unfortunately it looks like the recent announcements from Logitech signal the death of the Touch and the end of devices with outputs that can be used for audiophile purposes, they're going mass market:

http://ue.logitech.com/en-us

As I stated in an earlier post, it looks like Sonos is the next best option?  Empirical Audio has experience in squeezing out (pun intended) the best performance from Sonos devices...and represent an alternative option.