Dead, sort of.

Logitech have just announced a rebadged version of the Squeezebox Radio that is badged under the UE (Ultimate Ears) brand. It runs new dumbed down software and at launch only plays online content.

Later there will be an installable server for local music playback. However all the control stuff is in the Radio and the online service. The local server will just be a dumb thing for serving out media, not a full blown local server like Squeezebox Server/LMS.

They are planning to maintain LMS (used to be called Squeezebox Server) for a while, but the new products cannot talk to it.

Existing SB Radios will be able to be updated to the new dumbed down software.

I fully understand that this is the approach they need to take to actually make a profit on this stuff in the mainstream market, but it still sucks for us SB geeks

I've just bought up:

2 x Boom
1 x Radio
1 x Touch

before the prices for the remaining stock go through the roof

Oh, so sorry to read this.

Bummer!

Squeezebox has been dead since at least 2010 or earlier - it's been years since any kind of significant server software update or product launch. Unless you're an ardent consumer of MySB.com, I don't think anything changes.

Logitech had plenty of opportunity to make a decent product and decent profits. However, they thought they could simply add their supply chain to the acquisition costs of Slim Devices and that would be that.

Sonos operates in a much more niche segment of the market, but by all accounts they've flourished since Logitech bought Slim.

IMO, the issue is that Slim was always geek oriented and didn't do enough before nor after the acquisition to change that. I believe Slim lacked the design and engineering talent at the time of acquisition to take it to the next level, and Logitech didn't fill those gaps, while at the same time mismanaging the marketing.

I don't think I'll be buying any additional hardware unless I see a crazy fire sale. iOS devices connect to and play back from LMS well enough using 3rd party software like iPeng to replace dedicated hardware. As it stands I have two SB3 boxes, only one of which is connected at the moment.

Logitech are fooling themselves if they think they will do any better with the rebranded and dumbed down music players. As far as audio goes, they really should stick to accessories like speakers and headphones - where they're also an insignificant player, but the development and support costs will be significantly lower.

Fortunately the Squeezebox Server / LMS runs well on Windows Server 2008 R2, which means it will run smoothly on Windows Server 2012/Windows 8; up to a couple of releases ago, that was not the case.
For those who are using the server on Windows boxes like me, that's not too bad in terms of longevity (especially true if Logitech keeps the promise to keep supporting it for a while). Same goes, I think and hope, for Linux-based servers.

I am really sorry new Logitech clients (usually excellent hardware, in my experience) will not connect to LMS any longer. They lost me as a customer on that.

In my case, this makes the HTPC venue and even more attractive one.

To me lots has just changed. I was still hopeful that they would update the product range and keep makings SBs, that hope is now obviously gone.

But in the long run I think the product line was doomed whatever Logitech did. They had saturated the market of geeks who wanted to mess with their music servers and iOS is killing their potential consumer market,

The geek market saturation is the exact same problem that Empeg hit.

Unfortunately iOS + AirPlay is missing key features for me:

- syncing between players
- digitising and streaming my DAB radio

And Sonos lacks other feature I need, mainly BBC iPlayer.

I guess some combination of iOS and Sonos could do what I want (AirPort express plugged into a Sonos to give me iPlayer and my DAB radio plugged into another Sonos for my radio stream). But for the foreseeable future I'll be sticking with SB.

I just hope iPeng keeps getting updates for a long time

Server OS support is never going to be an issue for LMS, I already run mine in a virtual machine anyway

Added in a few small changes to my original post. I mentioned iOS specifically for its ability to run player software compatible with LMS, such as iPeng. Any iOS device of the past few years can serve as a decent replacement for a physical SB. Some issues of course notwithstanding, such as no direct IR remote support, waking the unit may not always work, etc...

True, I too did run it on a virtual machine when Win2K8-compatible (well, bug-free) version was not available yet. Still, I guess I'm happier w/o the need of a VM just for that

in all honesty, I too think that the whole Squeezebox product line was doomed. Not only iPhone+iTunes is a more appealing/known/accessible solution to most people, but also game consoles (XBox in particular) are eating up the market for many who do have a music collection they want to listen to remotely.

Remember that large music collections, like at any other time in history, are only possessed by a small insignificant portion of the general marketplace. I don't currently know anyone else personally, who has even a fraction of the amount of music I do - in any format. A large number of people will always be happy to listen to the "radio" (which includes FM, XM/Sirius, Pandora, Rdio, Spotify, etc.)

Yes, true in general terms, I would think; but iTunes and other music services allowed for considerable music collections to exist where they did not exist before, I would guess. I've had quite a few friends who asked me how to access their iTunes collection form other computers in their homes.
Indeed SBS/LMS will not be the answer for most of them, and of course even less not that it is officially doomed.

Wow, they STILL want $180 for the re-released radio? WTF. Maybe they need to look at their market again. That device has always been a $149 value, removing features (but including the batteries) doesn't change that.

I never recommended SBS/LMS to non-techie friends because I didn't feel the solution was polished enough and certainly a maintenance nightmare for someone who would not or could not spend the time to baby it.

It made a fine way to play any iTunes content and could even access the iTunes library. At least with iTunes-bought media you could be assured that the tracks contained the proper tags and album artwork.

But again, everything I've read online plus going by everyone else I know, these people don't necessarily collect complete albums. LMS will still work, but if random play is going to be what's used most often, it's significant overkill and a lot more time consuming to set up that feature compared to iTunes directly or via iOS' default music app.

I only buy complete releases. Primarily albums, but also some singles which will invariably contain B-sides. Everything is tagged perfectly from the source or by other means if I'm converting the media myself. I know plenty of people online that have collections much larger than my own. But personally (friends and neighbors) none that come anywhere close. And I've grown my collection slowly over the past few years, maybe averaging only 2 releases per month.

I agree. I was just pointing out the general growing need to play from a central growing music collection, which I also agree will be addressed in other simpler ways than SBS for most people.

Yes, I too still convert manually my music from the original CD into whatever format I prefer. I've been using WMA Lossless for a while, which SBS/LMS plays successfully (and my Phone and my car Stereo).

For people who are just as hard-core as us about their local collections, but who would more easily part with larger sums of money, there remain a number of alternatives of course. Olive and Sooloos (now Meridian?) being two of them.

Actually, not having looked much into those solutions (which means I may be wrong in this), they seem to me way too expensive. A PC (+ a good Onkyo Amp!) would seem to offer comparable/better audio quality at a fraction of a price. Sooloos, if I remember correctly, costed over $ 2000, and above. Maybe I don't have current enough info, though. And, admittedly, a PC + Amp seems a more difficult to operate solution, not to mention possibly less stylish one.

Take a look at how expensive a Kaleidescape movie server is sometime.

These things are for people who spend $100000-$5000000 (yes, that's 5 million) on their home theater setups.

Besides, even if you got all the hardware for free, you'd still have to pay one or more people $100000-$500000+ to write the software to even attempt to duplicate some of these solutions. And if you're going to do that, you might as well start making boxes by the hundreds/thousands and selling them.

That's all stuff that would work great with some "top-quality" audiophile USB cable, I would say.

Some back-story on Logitech's long-winding downward spiral: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread...ll=1#post714488

Where from/how much?

Touch and Radio from Amazon.co.uk, Booms from a buy it now on ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOGITECH-SQUEE...#ht_2791wt_1180

Boom sounds so good, I'd never stop recommending it. IMVHO.

I have a classic in my living room connected to my amp via Optic cable. I've been considering a Touch to upgrade it for a while. I guess it's now or never, so to speak, but a touch here is 265 Euros on Amazon.it .

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't ready to buy yet but I've ordered 2 x touch and a boom now.

A proper shame though

It always amazes me how good the Boom sounds. The guy Caleb who designed the audio hardware is clearly a genius. Shame he got dumped onto the Google TV team like most of the other engineers

It has been very odd today unpacking the Radio and Touch, testing them and them packing them back up again. But then I guess I did the same with empegs...

The Touch I bought yesterday from Amazon was £165. Unsurprisingly the cheapest one there now is £205 (Amazon themselves don't have any, it is all marketplace sellers).

My Touches were £175 on eBay

And they don't ship outside the UK as it happens when the seller is not Amazon itself. eBay still has some touch at 215 Euros, which is not bad. I am really tempted.

Edit: Ok, got it.

I'm tempted, and will probably try,
http://www.airserverapp.com/

to see if it can solve those. I only care about 1, but, yeah.

I just go my Squeezebox Touch. Very nicely built, as expected. The display is particularly clear from the distance, too.

Given the real estate available on it, I would have liked more customization options, but still, a very very nice device.

If I can scoop up a SB Touch for under $150 or a radio for less than $100, I'll probably bite, but don't know if there will be any left long enough for prices to dip that low.

Prices locally are CAD $330 and $200 respectively at the moment. If the margins on these are at all similar to those of other Logitech products, there's certainly room, if not hope, for selling them at my target prices without them taking a loss.