Squeezebox Boom Replacement

Hoping the community can help me out. I am looking for a Squeezebox Boom reaplacement, similar quality and price point if possible. Any suggestion?

The only thing I know of that is remotely close to the Boom’s price point (and quality) is the Roon Ready Bluesound Pulse Flex. I’ve just bought one for my better half and she is very pleased with it. It’s rare in that it has preset buttons like the Boom.

If it had a display I’d buy more. Why is it that a display is so far down the list of required features for all these networked speaker devices?

http://www.bluesound.com/en-gb/products/pulse-flex/?cl

+1 for the Bluesound Pulse Flex. I bought one for my youngest for Christmas. He wanted a portable speaker but I went one better. Well worth it for the extra features and connectivity options.

It also has an optional battery pack for outside use.

Ditto. +1 for the Bluesound Pulse Flex.

I remember saying something similar many years ago. My son wanted a simple Scalextric set, but I went one better and bought the Le Man set! :smile:

I like my Pulse Flex a lot too. We still have our Squeezebox Radio. Wife prefers the screen… plus she’s a Pandora user.

Thank you everyone. Bluesound Pulse Flex seems like the answer. But that is a Mono unit right? Is there a way to get Stereo out of it?

Yes. Buy a second one.

You can use two Flex as a stereo pair using ROON?
Would the Pulse Mini make more sense instead of the Flex?

The Boom was an outlier even at the time it was launched. Looking back, it was incredible value for money. I dread he day the one in our kitchen dies.

Indeed! I have a Boom with Sean Adams’ signature! =)

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You can.

I’m guessing you’ll get better stereo separation from a pair of Flex speakers than a Mini, depending on their positioning.

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I see, thanks! But i guess the price doubles up.
What about a replacement for ther SB Duet? I have a legacy SB setup throughout my house. Easy to replace my Transporter (now using a DEQX with ROON), but the lower end endpoints are the difficult ones to replace.

The Duet was headless, wasn’t it? How about using RaspberryPis into whatever speakers you use the Duets with?

Yes Duet is headless, and is the one I have the most trouble with. Will look into Raspberry. What else do I need? It seems a little more DIY instead of a plug and play solution? I would love to play with these things, but I have about 9 SB endpoints I am trying to replace, and I really dont have the time…

I suspect doing 9 of them is going to take less time per unit than doing one. Others will chime in I’m sure on the merits of the RaspberryPi set up.

You should probably have a read of RoPieee to see what’s needed.

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Depends what you want. Was stereo ever important with your Boom?

If you’re tempted to spend in that territory, you should also consider the Pulse 2 and the ELAC Discovery Z3 (if it’s finally shipping).

I’m also heavily invested in the old Squeezebox eco system - seven or so endpoints of various flavours, including a boom and several duets. The seamless Roon integration means they’ll likely stay in the setup until the wheels fall off!! I built a RaspberryPi endpoint out of curiosity and found it remarkably easy, so for a headless setup to replace the duets that would work (plus they support higher res content) Mine’s DietPi, but the RoPieee looks equally appropriate as @dpstjp says. The Boom will be harder to replicate - why not simply keep using it with Roon until someone invents something equally brilliant?

I replaced my SB touch for a Raspberry Pi,7 inch screen and Hifi Berry Digi +, if you need analogue outs instead then they also offer a DAC. They are very easy to put together. If you still want them to run as Squeezeboxes so you can sync them to other sb devices you still have then use picoreplayer software. It’s free and relatively painless to setup . If you want better Roon sound then use Ropieee as the software it’s the easiest to setup up and the guy who writes it is a forum regular. You will need to find the write case that can house the screen pi and audio board. I can point you in the right direction if you want to go this route. If you don’t need a screen then things are simpler and cheaper and you can still use the same software.

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You could build your own boom if you like to by adding an amp.board instead of a DAC. I have one in my dining room. You can go through extra mile and resume that boom case I bet.

ELAC Discovery Z3 and Bluesound Pulse Mini are a bit more expensive than historical Boom pricing, but are more similar architecturally. Both sound better than the Boom by a fair margin, and I prefer their sound to the Pulse Flex quite a bit too.

I have both of those, as well as a Boom, deployed around the house and have spent time living with all of these. Boom was definitely a special level of value/$.