Digital audio is great -- especially if you've got a multigigabyte music collection sitting on your computer. The problem, for a lot of people, is that they're stuck listening to all that great music on the tinny speakers of their computer -- or perhaps patching the laptop into their living room stereo system.

Dedicated audio streamers have helped somewhat, but they have tiny little screens, which -- like docked iPods -- aren't very useful if you're sitting on a sofa across the room. Enter Logitech's new Squeezebox Duet: the AU$600 network digital audio streamer employs a winning handheld remote with a brilliant colour screen (not unlike an iPod) that lets you navigate your entire music collection -- including several online services and the majority of free Internet radio stations -- from the palm of your hand, while you hear the music from the big speakers of your home stereo.

The hardware
The Duet is so named because it's a two-part system: the Squeezebox Receiver base station and the Squeezebox Controller remote. The base station is a nondescript black brick that pulls audio from a networked PC (Windows, Mac, or Linux) or the Internet via your Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet home network. The single button on the front of the base station is used to sync it to manually sync it to the network during setup.

In addition to the Ethernet jack, the rear panel boasts both analog stereo (red and white RCA jacks) and digital (coaxial or optical) jacks. That means you can output your music to pretty much anything you want -- be it a high-end AV receiver, a lowly boombox, or a pair of PC speakers -- so long as it has an auxiliary input jack. There's no power button, but you can shut it off via your computer (more on that later) or the remote.

Speaking of the remote -- the "Squeezebox Controller," that is -- it's the real innovation here. Beyond the 10 buttons controlling standard functions (volume, play/pause, track forward/reverse), it features an iPod-like scroll wheel and a brilliant 2.4-inch colour LCD screen (240x320 resolution, 256,000 colours). That puts the song navigation where it belongs: in your hand, instead of a small LCD readout halfway across the room.

Features
The Squeezebox Duet can draw audio from two main sources: the Internet or a networked PC -- Windows, Mac, or Linux. The breadth of the online sources is impressive and varied: online music services, Internet radio and podcasts make up the trinity.

Of course, many of us have a multigigabyte library of music sitting on our computer's hard drive -- and the Squeezebox can access that as well. Download and install the latest version of the SqueezeCenter software (7.0 or later). During installation, just point the software to the directories holding your music files and playlists, and the SqueezeCenter will make them available to your Squeezebox.

A few things we liked about the software: like the SqueezeNetwork site, the controls are all browser-based, and it's very noninvasive -- it doesn't change any of your file preferences or make itself the default music player. In other words, it works in concert with your existing music management software -- namely, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp -- so any DRM-free music and playlists you add in those programs will be instantly available to the Squeezebox as well. As a result, iPod users can continue to use iTunes for their music management, and let SqueezeCenter do its thing in the background.

Note that we specified "DRM-free music." If the Squeezebox has one caveat, that's it -- by default, it can't stream any files purchased from the iTunes Store, or any service that uses the Windows Plays For Sure DRM scheme. The DRM issue notwithstanding, the Squeezebox's file compatibility is otherwise stellar: MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, and Ogg Vorbis files can all be streamed without issue. In other words, if your music files are free of DRM restrictions, there's a good chance the Squeezebox will play them.

Performance
Setting up the Logitech Squeezebox Duet wasn't quite as smooth as our best-case scenario -- the Apple TV -- but it was still remarkably straightforward compared to a lot of network devices. Connect the Squeezebox Receiver to an amplifier, stereo, boombox, or anything with speakers (we used a direct hookup to a set of M-Audio AV40 powered speakers). Fire up the Squeezebox Controller remote, and log in to your home's Wi-Fi network (WEP and WPA security is supported -- just dial up the password on the remote scroll wheel). Then select "Setup receiver," and which links the Receiver to the Controller, and links that to the network as well.

Once the hardware is setup, you need to provide the Squeezebox with a music source. To do so, either setup the online account at SqueezeNetwork (for online music providers, Internet radio, or podcasts) or download and run the SqueezeCenter software on your computer (to access music on your hard drive). Switch between the two by accessing the "music sources" menu option. In fact, that dichotomy is the only real annoyance when using the Squeezebox Duet. Toggle to your computer, and you lose access to the online bookmarks (radio station and podcast favourites) you've setup; choose the SqueezeCenter online account, and you can't get to your local music. It's easy enough to go back and forth, but it would be even better if the Squeezebox could "see" the totality of your local and online music options simultaneously.

By and large, there's little not to like about the operation of the Squeezebox Duet. Wireless performance was largely flawless, whether streaming from online services or locally networked PCs -- that's compared to other wireless music systems, which occasionally have dropouts. Another great thing about the Duet was the ability to create an "on-the-fly" playlist, using pretty much any source available.