Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas-New Year Holiday season!
On Christmas morn 2025, as I relaxed in the sitting room waiting for the rest of the family to get ready for some holiday festivities, listening to holiday music, I could not help but marvel at the fact that my little Logitech Squeezebox Radio sitting over the fireplace, released back in 2009 continues to go strong all these years later. The Squeezebox products including the Radio were some of the first devices I posted about with measurements in the early days of this blog.
I think it's an obvious reminder that even though time flies, music preferences and artists change, hardware gets upgraded and new technologies show up at our homes, the ability to enjoy music need not be tied into the hardware obsessionality that can consume audiophiles. We can derive much joy out of even a simple mono "radio" device like this.
Although Logitech got out of Squeezebox hardware production way back in 2012, they continued the official MySqueezebox.com servers until March 2024. I actually didn't even notice this change as I've been using my own Logitech Music Server (LMS) home system since something like 2008.
While LMS development has stopped, it's great to see that the good folks have continued to work on this venerable music streaming system as Lyrion Music Server.
If it were not for their ongoing work, I don't think I'd have that SB Radio still running in the sitting room. You see, one problem with this model is that the built-in WiFi, being of that age, has issues when connected to modern WiFi6 (802.11ax) and higher routers. If you've updated to a new router (as I did a few years back), disconnections were a constant issue. A restart would reconnect with the router but the device was basically impossible to use with disconnections usually within 15-30 minutes. So I stopped using it around 2021 until just recently as I wanted to get some music back into that room in preparation for the holidays.
I tried fixes like this, and this, but could not get it to work until finally, thanks to the Lyrion folks, I updated the firmware to their latest "community" version 9.0.1 r17050 which came out in July of this year.
See here for instructions. Basically, as a result of the WiFi issue, I plugged the Radio into the ethernet network and made sure the device is connected, went into LMS' Plugin tab, activated the "Community Firmware for Touch/Radio/Controller" plugin (it might be at the bottom under "3rd party plugins"):
And in a couple of minutes, on the SB Radio screen, I go into the Settings → Advanced → Update Firmware menu, and see an option to install the new firmware like this:
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| As you can see, I've installed the latest version already so no need to re-update. |
You'll know you have the community firmware installed on bootup when you see the Lyrion banner:
From there, reconnect to the WiFi router and already I can tell that the Radio is noticeably more stable than with the old Logitech OS without disconnections over 60 minutes. For extra insurance, go into Settings → Advanced → Networking → Wifi Robustness Options and turn on the "ARP watchdog":
If the Radio runs into a network disruption, the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) watchdog will reset the WiFi to get it reconnected.
Works like a charm! And now the Squeezebox Radio is back to normal stability, playing for hours without issue.
Another good thing about this the new firmware is an update to the SSH authentication method whenever there's a need to use the command line to log into the device. Default login is still 'root' and password '1234'.
I've since also updated my Squeezebox Touch to the Lyrion community firmware with no issues. I do not believe the WiFi disconnection issue affected the Touch. The VFD-based (vacuum fluorescent display) Squeezeboxes like the SB3, Transporter, and Boom (see the whole family) work without issues and sound great although the VFD on my Boom is visibly weaker than it was the day I bought it in early 2010!
I think it's so easy in audiophilia to focus on the hardware side of this hobby, becoming mesmerized by all the new toys we can buy that we forget to celebrate the hard work that goes into the software development behind the scenes for most audiophiles. I think it's usually better, and more responsible, to optimize the things we have rather than accumulate more stuff when possible.
Community efforts like Lyrion, ongoing development of piCorePlayer (version 11 just released Dec 6, 2025), all sorts of LMS plugins released over the years, are amazing examples of keeping the Slim Devices / Logitech / Lyrion ecosystem alive, also extending the lifespan of the hardware well beyond the manufacturer's presumed expectations!
Vivre le Squeezebox as we enter 2026 - 25 years since the release of the first Slim Devices SliMP3!
And on that note audiophile friends, I wish you health, joy, and love as we enter 2026.
Take it away, Ella Fitzgerald - "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" (1960).
Hej Arch,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that end of year wish. I have fond memories of my Squeezebox Touch with remote! It ran flawlessly until a power surge at home fried it. I had the server running on my NAS and it performed an admirable job playing the albums I had stored on it. My first streaming subscription was with WIMP which integrated nicely with the squeezebox. WIMP later became TIDAL where I was faithful until the MQA nonsense moved me over to Qobuz.
Last week ASR published a scathing review of the Arylic LP10 streamer; probably one of the worst performing products he has tested. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/arylic-lp10-budget-streamer-review.68331/
If you search for other reviews of this streamer, you will find that almost all reviews are very positive. See:
https://hometheaterhifi.com/blogs/arylic-lp10-airplay-2-and-google-cast-music-streamer-review/
Subsequently the only conclusion seems to be that these “reviews” are nothing more than efforts to stimulate sales. This is of course not unique to HiFi and in age where information is so readily available on so many platforms, it is disheartening that very little can be trusted. Especially product reviews.
Seeing as you seem to be quite taken with audio visualizers than this product might whet your appetite 😉 https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/douk-audio-vu360-review.68479/
https://doukaudio.com/products/douk-audio-vu360-retro-analog-vu-meter-music-spectrum-for-home-office-gift
Finally, I found Christina Aguileras album Xmas in Paris surprisingly enjoyable. The jazzy take on My favorite things was especially good fun.
https://open.qobuz.com/album/x48yhyseju4w2
https://youtu.be/0dmxYMsQFyk?si=ZDtN5uopvx0-TE1t
Take Care
Cheers
Mike
Hey there Mike,
DeleteCheers and hope you had a great New Years as well!
It's amazing how more than 20 years ago, we had the family of Squeezebox devices that just worked well and looked great. I think I still have my old Squeezebox 3 somewhere and I remember just how unique that little device was. The design harkened a new era of streamed digital clearly different from the CD boxes that came before.
The results from the Arylic LP10 are simply tragic for what could be a decent bit-perfect digital streamer. Looks like it does nothing right! Not digital streaming nor DAC duties; maybe they used the CheapDAC inside. 🤣
Yeah, I think I'm good with the "bling" at this point! Sadly, that VU360 looks interesting, but adds too much distortion. 😱
Have a great 2026!
Good post !
ReplyDeleteI'm still using the complete family of Squeezebox, from SB2-3, Duet,Transporter, Radio, Boom and SB Touch.
I got also RPI with Picoreplayer.
Lately I replaced the two woofer in the Boom.
It's quite amazing that this ecosystem is still usable and update since 2005.
The list of plugin and support for various codec is top notch.
Nice man, the whole "family" plus modern Pi and piCorePlayers! Yeah, I'm frankly amazed with the plugins over the years from EDO (192kHz samplerate), to those plugins for DSD and the various streaming services from radio stations to Soundcloud to Qobuz and Tidal.
DeleteHi Arch, the Squeezebox brings back a flood of memories. I bought a SB 2 and ripped every single CD I had to Flac files, and then attached the 4TB Western Electric Drive (which set me back about $400) to my router/modem. Then I used the spdif out to my Benchmark DAC 2, and put my entire digital collection on a server. Did that in 2003. Frankly I was amazed. I just selected what Album I wanted to play on Squeezeserved in my bedroom, and it would tell the drive on the opposite side of the house to play it in my listening room in the my listening room over the garage, and sound would come out of my Aerial 10t's. That was before there was a Napster, Spotify, or a Tidal. Just a local home network consiting of a router modem. a hard drive, a couple of laptops, and the SB 2.
ReplyDeleteGreat fun.
Nice man!
DeleteBack in 2003, I didn't have enough storage so just ripped most of my CDs as LAME VBR averaging somewhere around 220kbps I believe. In retrospect, I should not have cheapened out on the storage and done as you did with FLAC. Good memories and great fun indeed!
I wish there was a community firmware update for my Roku Soundbridge Radio that also has difficulty staying on the modern wifi network. My other Soundgridge devices can use wired ethernet. I can't find a better alarm clock that plays local media than the Soundbridge Radio.
ReplyDeleteI remember those Rokus, Frank!
DeleteI think Squeezebox did it right within the community with open-sourcing the server software and attracting development. Don't know if Roku did anything like that. Hope you'll find something that might fix the issue.
Wonderful to see this great post about LMS and the community. I started with this platform in the Slim Devices days, pre-Logitech. Currently the fleet is 4 SB3’s, 4 SBT’s, 1 Radio, 1 Transporter, and a couple of pCP’s. I encourage anyone interested who is not aware to visit the Lyrion community forums at https://forums.lyrion.org/
ReplyDeleteThanks Arch!
Nice Phantom,
DeleteThanks for the link of the Lyrion Forums. Great to see ongoing activity and general discussions on there! Happy New Year. 🙂
HNY Arch,
ReplyDeleteGlad you had not thrown over these Slim Devices.
Many ignorants try to resell them on eBay and else, probably because they "don't work anymore".
Have a check !
I still own a Radio and a Duet and enjoy them with Lyrion MS.
I had a SB3, with the well-known blown capacitors on the (only) analog output : should have kept it.
Had also a Transporter, victim of a thunderstorm surge on the wired input. WiFi was OK but in these times I did not use it :-(
Enjoy !
Very nice Propanidid,
DeleteI see keeping my SB stuff for life. 🙂