Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Squeeze Box Boom

Look at this: SqueezeBox Boom white paper

With digital DSP crossovers and speaker equalization and a class D amp per driver (2-way design) with output for optional external subwoofer, this looks like an F80 lite, at least for those of us who were considering primarily using an F80 with a Squeezebox. No doubt the drivers and enclosures won't be quite as good, and it has no CD/DVD drive or video output - but at a tenth of the price ($299), with a Squeezebox built-in, it seems attractive to get music from the server to the dining room during dinner, or to move up to the bedroom or guest room.

Meridian style technology at 10% of the price. First Oppo, now Logitech. Makes you wonder. Anyone tried this out yet, or critically listened to one fed lossless music?

Sanjay

Sanjay,

I saw this unit yesterday. Listened to it playing redbook CD and internet radio. Not sure that it will equal a pair of DSP33s. I have not heard lossless on these though. The unit is really small and looks very functional. The remote attached magnatically is a neat touch. Hope this helps.

As I sit in my home office, listening to music on headphones (so as not to disturb the family in rooms on three sides) plugged into a headphone amp, which is plugged into a Bose Wave (don't laugh), which is being fed by a Sonos Zone Player, the Boom certainly makes for a very inexpensive, clean and simple installation. I would certainly consider the Boom for secondary applications like an office or garage.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, but the sound of the F80. If you lived with it for a while, you wouldnt want any less.
You dont get Meridian Passion and Quality at 10% of the price, unless its pre-owned.
A Rolex is a Rolex is a Rolex is a Rolex.........................

All IMHO Cheers, Chris

It's exactly what the many asked about last Feb at HH1 day when the F80 was unveiled.

I've been looking at these for a few weeks now. I have a 'need' for a wifi music serving alarm clock in my bedroom. Just can't justify the F80 cost when I still need to plug in an SB3 to get what I need.

At �199 the Boom is a very good option. Only problem is that everyone is out of stock and on pre-order still.

No doubt it won't sound like an F80 but at 0600 each morning that's not my biggest issue.

Is there any way of getting DAB (or better) bit-rates for radio? Admittedly, DAB bit-rates are getting lower all the time, but radio (in the kitchen for instance) is very important to both myself and Mrs VK.

what are the bit-rates for internet radio vs DAB ? I use the SB for radio fairly often.

Having done a bit of googling, it does depend on how you access the streams over the internet. For instance, clicking on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3.shtml gets you 64kbit(!), but the BBC is now trialling multicast with much higher rates. Unfortunately, my ISP doesn't support this yet. Do you know how to get R3 at higher bit rates over the internet?

Here are some useful links:

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/broadband_internet_radio.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/radio/

I have a Squeezebox Boom. A lovely little thing it is too, and while the sound is good it's not exceptional. A great little device for uncritical listening.

Mark

It seems a really good way of leveraging an existing Squeeze setup, but I do want reasonable bit rates for Radio2 and ClassicFM (yeah yeah, I know).

Mark_H - pls help calibrate "sound is good but not exceptional". I'm not expecting it to rival my G91/G57/N804 of course, or be at the F80 level. If you have heard an F80, then is this a night-and-day/order of magnitude difference or like, 30% better? (I know - assigning numbers to subjective sound quality is nearly futile, but I thought I'd ask anyway).

Regarding Internet radio bit rates - with SB3 into my G91 using SPDIF I have found 160 kbps and up very acceptable compared to FM and for the few stations at 256kbps they stand even up to critical listening vs. FM. But then I never had an external antenna on my G91 FM radio and whilst the NPR station probably rivals Radio 3 FM's quality (I lived in the UK until 2000 so know what this sounds like) our local FM classical station may not.

thanks, Sanjay

Nick

I've looked on the logitech site and they have them there in stock.
I have to say they look great and at the end of the day there is only so much you can get out of a one box system. I had an F80 last year and set it up in the kitchen in a back to back test against,

4 x Linn sweetspot speakers in the ceiling a Cyrus Smartpower amp and a squeeze box 3.
This replaced a Linn Klassic which did not sound quite as good as the SB setup

As much as I wanted the F80 to sound better, it just didn't.
My wife noticed it as soon as she came in and I ended up selling it withing a couple of weeks.
I gave it hours of listening with the squeezebox playing FLAC files and comparing the redbook CD with it back to back.
I had numerous friends both Meridian and non Meridian people and all of them felt the F80 was not as good.

Now this might have been that I had 4 speakers giving a better stereo image?

But no matter what, the kitchen system was half the price of the F80 and far more flexible.

Now onto the DAB...
Again the Linn/Cyrus/SB3 sounded better in a back to back Radio 2 session?

Now I like Meridian and at times have had some of their best kit sitting in my living room, but I have to say that I don't think the F80 can rival a seperate speaker system setup which is of good quality.
For the money the F80 is excellent and if you have no other choice then its your best bet. I used to have a Bose Wave in the bedroom and the F80 is in a different world but then its 3 times the price.
I now have a similar setup in the bedroom as I have in the kitchen and I feel it would be impossible to beat with any single box system.

Paul