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).
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