Logitech Squeezebox Duet

Pros: Price, flexibility, open source nature

Cons: stability, expandability

Summary: In short summary:
I purchased, setup and lived with the Duet for two weeks. I then returned it.

I had three zones total (upstairs, downstairs, outside)

Duet. Two. As in two faced, when it worked, it was fine. And when it didnt it was frustrating.

I work in IT. I consider myself more than just "Tech Savvy". Even still, setup on this device was maddening. The Logitech tech support folk were very helpful and patient and after four hours we got it to work. When applying the multiple firmware upgrades / patches it kept losing settings and having to be reconfigured. Each reconfigure required a reboot of my router (D-link). Wireless setup is not so easy to do. Wired setup was only a little better.

The original plan was to have this setup over the wireless network. Whelp, that didnt work so well. 15 feet away from the router the signal would drop and the device would stutter / drop out. Is this the fault of the router? Perhaps. But on more than three occasions the Duet would need to be reboot to synch back into the network (or the router would need a reboot to allow it back in). So that plan was nixed for a wired solution. Purchased a network switch to reuse the network cable going to the Tivo.

Once it was up and running on a wire it was much more stable (the same could not be said for the two other zones). However, access over the remote had similar range issues. I could not sit outside and control the unit (25 - 30 feet away). And performance was intermittently slow (a consistent 15 -20 second delay was the deal breaker. Up to three minute delays did happen)

Lets talk synchronized music for a moment. Yes, the Duet did synch the playback - and it came very close to doing so well. But either network issues or something else got in the way (about once an hour a song would un-synch then re-synch). On a few occasions my local network was overwhelmed by the demand and crashed.

Lets talk NAS (Network Attached Storage). This is in place of having to leave your computer on all the time. For whatever reason the NAS would shutdown in the middle of a track or the Duet would not be able to access the NAS and throw an error (this happened three times, once requiring a reboot of the Duet). In all cases I was able to access my NAS from any of the computers in the network.

Performance. When the remote what in the same room as the router and network speeds were not in question, to scroll through my media library was not as easy as I would like. Not enough screen space (or perhaps poorly managed screen space). Then there was some lag time for the remote to catch up with my key entry. On several occasions I had keyed ahead too far and had to backtrack. In any case I was not able to navigate as well as I would have liked. The remote did fit very well in the hand and was physically well designed. Performance on the Duet was adequate. There were some audio artifacts (noise) in my FLAC files and MP3 files that did not return on repeat playback. Kind of like a juice harp being introduced to Led Zeppelin (along with cow bell). It was often enough to be noticed, but Logitech support could not explain it.

In the end I was not happy with the device. I fully support open source, but never felt comfortable with the basics of the machine to see what was developed by the community at large.

Hence I returned the Duet.

I next purchased, setup and am living with the Sonos system. The Sonos proprietary network has not given me any trouble. I had it setup and running within an hour of opening the box. The Sonos unit that is wired has an extra port and acts as a network switch so I did not have to run an extra line or buy additional hardware. Synchronized playback has yet to even hint at a problem. And while the remote is big (not quite clunky) it responds beautifully and was easier to operate. I am now looking for some GPL stuff for the Sonos as the manufacture does put some of their code out to the community.
Is the Sonos more expensive? Yes. Do you get what you pay for? In the case of the Sonos yes. But I sure do hope they come down in price and add some to the feature set now that there is another game in town!

Bottom Line: If you are using a wired system and just need one “zone” to liberate your music, the Duet may just be the right answer for you. If you plan to fill your house with sound, don’t plan to do it with Duet.