Seemingly every household has now converted to wireless internet: what a lot of people don’t realise, is that in doing so, they’ve actually created their own home network. Networks can do an awful lot more than provide you with the internet, most people don’t have a central music source and resort to plugging an iPod into their Hi-Fi or even moving their laptops around. Seems like an awful lot of effort to me… Fear not, though, as help is at hand people: Ben will show you the way!

You’ve no idea how much I hate wires, so when searching for an elegant solution to my music dispensing needs, keeping them to a minimum was an absolute must. Enter [Stage Right]: the Logitech Squeezebox Duet, originally created by Slimdevices who were subsequently bought out by Logitech. The Squeezebox Duet unsurprisingly comes in two parts; a wireless remote and the Squeezebox itself. Both connect directly to your wireless router and then stream your music from a program you have to install on either a NAS device or computer to your Hi-Fi of choice. The true beauty of the system is that the Squeezeboxes are available separately and any number of them can be controlled from the one remote, allowing you to slowly expand your system – rather than having to fork out a mountain of cash on day one. You can even stream the music to the remote allowing it to be used as a mp3 player around the house!

Now, even cooler than being able to wirelessly stream your MP3′s, is my real reason for buying the Duet: its ability to stream FLAC files. I was recently fortunate enough to be given a fantastic set of speakers (Spendor BC1‘s for anyone who’s interested) and was looking for a decent source to drive them. FLAC, if you haven’t heard of it, stands for “Free Lossless Audio Codec”; it is basically as perfect a digital representation of a CD (for your computer) you can get – unlike mp3s which are ‘lossy‘. Using a decent FLAC ripper (such as EAC) has allowed me to create a fantastic source at a fraction of the price of a similar level CD player, all with the added benefit of never having to get up and change CDs. Even then I still have options to improve the quality, e.g the most obvious move would be to use a different DAC, though I have to say I think the inbuilt one by Wolfson is pretty amazing.

So far all I’ve done is waxed lyrical over this piece of hardware and you’d be forgiven (not by me mind!) for thinking I was getting a bit of a backhander to hype it up. As with all amazing hardware there’s always something there which niggles away at you, I for instance don’t like the fact that you always have to have a computer running the software, a problem that isn’t present in its more expensive rival from Sonos. Also, the screen on the remote isn’t fantastic, even compared to that of a decent mobile (Thought: does it need to be? No, but as with all things better is always cooler!).

In the end, the decision’s up to you; but personally I don’t think anyone would be unhappy with it as a solution. Just do make sure you check out other solutions first (everyone’s different!) such as the one from Sonos. What set up do you have for streaming your music? Or are you someone that’s more than happy to carry an MP3 player around? Let us know in the comments.