Jive, SB4, now DUET!

[Carlman]

There is a new device from Slim Devices called "Duet" that pairs a really nice wifi remote with a streaming player.  The streaming player in the 'Duet' looks to me like a Squeezebox with no display... which you wouldn't need if you're using the fancy remote.  The remote connects to your SlimServer which has controls to switch between your Duet's, SB3's and Transporters.  The official release is here: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/172/4180

I was fortunate enough to get in on the end of the beta program and recently received the "Jive" remote.  I don't have the new player, just the remote.  There is no 'SB4' from what I've read and the SB3 isn't going to change.

The remote is about as sexy as it gets... It's nicely backlit with crisp/clear indications for what each button does.  The screen is color and shows album art if you have it. 

Navigation is very similar to the menus you're used to with any Slim products... You go to 'Browse' then 'Artists' and find all your artists listed just like before... But now you have a wheel (similar to ipod's) that you turn to scroll through the list... It works well for me, I didn't need any instructions getting it setup or using it.  I haven't gotten deep into yet, though.. I'm just playing music.  The only downside is the number of albums I have makes scrolling a bit tedious.  I'm wondering if there's a way to scroll faster.. I'll bet there is... I'll report back when I know.

I had some friends over who quickly started adding songs to playlists and making more use of the remote.  You could then easily scroll through the playlist that had little album art icons next to each song... very cool.  It wasn't long till we were fighting over control of the remote.

Anyway, just wanted to post some initial impressions.. I'll add more later.

-C

[bpape]

How have you found the battery life?  Heard a couple things saying it's about 2 hours for the remote.  If that's the case, would be nice to have a cradle for recharging.

Bryan

[mdconnelly]

Here's a link to the specs and yes, it does include a charging cradle for the remote...

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/devices/3817&cl=us,en

Very slick but at $400, I wonder how it will compete against the SB3?  ($300 just for the remote controller).

 

[Carlman]

Yeah, battery life is short-ish so far for me... seems like 2 hours is about when it needs a recharge.
However, it does come with a base as noted by Mike... and I agree it is expensive at $300... but the pair at $400 is a very reasonable value proposition to me.  If you could buy an SB3 with the standard remote for 300, vs. 100 more to get the remote/player pair... I think it'd be an obvious choice to spend a little extra...

I've started using the 'search' feature to get to the music faster.. it's working for me... and I put the remote back in the base when I'm not using it so the battery life is a non-issue now.

-C

[bpape]

Schweet. 

Bryan

[richidoo]

In addition to the remote, it also has a new DAC from Wolfson, 6V output up from SB 2V, and no noisy flourescent display. It will be fun to hear it and compare. I am ready to order it right now!
Rich

[Phil]

I've never used a SB or similar device....   Is there a difference between the DUET and the Transporter if you simply use them to feed your DAC?

[Carlman]

You can use the Duet as a transport just like the Transporter, SB3 or SB2.
I'm not sure what the perceived sonic differences would be... but the Transporter probably uses a better clock than the SB3 or Duet... but I don't know for sure...
I know that a transport makes a difference to me.  The SB3 and Transporter sounded a little different when I compared them on the same DAC, even though they 'shouldn't have'... and a PC with a good sound card using XP and Foobar sounds different as well.  It's a splitting-hairs difference to some and a big deal to others...

-C

[bpape]

Well, that's the thing.  The transporter or the Duet/SB is not a transport - that's the PC.  The SB/transporter (if using digital out to external DAC) is really just a human/remote control interface and a FLAC decoder coupled to a network appliance with a buffer.

Bryan

[Carlman]

The PC stores the music and serves it to the client device so it is part of the tranport but not the whole transport... and in my opinion the PC is only a small part during real-time playback.
The PC makes the (music) data available to the device.  Once the device gets it, it controls how the bits are transported to the DAC. So, the SB3, TP, or Duet are functioning more as a transport than the PC.

I don't know how much is cached in the SB3/duet/TP device but if it's more than a few seconds, the PC becomes even less meaningful.

-C

[bpape]

Ya wanna see how much cache?  If you're running wired, pull your network cable while it's playing.  You'll get 15 seconds or more.

To me, the PC IS the transport because it serves the data.  That's a transport's job - feed the DAC.  The SB is nothing more than an interface allowing you to use the remote, strips off the network packetization, and feeds the data to the digital outputs.  Yes, it has a buffer, but that should do nothing but provide robustness for short periods of network instability.

A matter of semantics.

Bryan

[mdconnelly]

We're just in need of new semantics... in CD land, a 'transport' was both a server (extracting data from the CD) and a transport (transport the data to the DAC).    So I like Carl's thinking of the SB/Transporter as more of a transport where the PC is a server (serving data to the transport).

Either way, hard-disk based audio has invented a new set of capabilities in need of well defined terms.

[mdconnelly]

Carl,

If I remember right, you've got a bunch of SB3s floating around your home.   Does the new remote make it easy to control each of them individually and/or synced?    I do that via my laptop computer but even with the new SqueezeCenter v7, it's still not the most elegant user interface around (but better than v6.5).   I'm curious to see how well they've implemented the UI on the new Jive remote.

[Carlman]

Carl,

If I remember right, you've got a bunch of SB3s floating around your home.   Does the new remote make it easy to control each of them individually and/or synced?    I do that via my laptop computer but even with the new SqueezeCenter v7, it's still not the most elegant user interface around (but better than v6.5).   I'm curious to see how well they've implemented the UI on the new Jive remote.

I'm controlling all 3 very easily.  To switch SB3's, you just select "choose player" from the main menu.. then it lists them.  It takes about 3 seconds to change between players.  Right now I've got them all sync'd which you can also do from the remote.  It's clear which device you're controlling from the Jive remote also, which is nice.  For instance "Family Room" shows up at the top of the menus when I'm choosing music to play, etc.

Since I've gotten this remote I haven't looked at the Slimserver software at all... I guess I should.

edit... Oh, one other thing that's cool is when I change the channel with the regular SB remote, the Jive remote's 'now playing' updates with whatever I've changed it to and displays it.  You'll need to hit the 'home' button on the remote to get back to the controls if you want start changing things from there...

-C

[mdconnelly]

So don't you need to be running the SqueezeCenter 7 beta for the Jive remote to work or is it working against 6.5?

Sounds like the remote is something I'm definitely going to want once it's available...