Like the Boom the NP2900 can also access Internet radio stations directly, but since it doesn't support Real Audio streams, a fair old chunk of the BBC on-line radio network is out of bounds. Searching for stations is straightforward enough and a touch of the 'Favourite' button on the remote will add a station to the NP2900's favourites folder for future reference. The NP2900 will also function as an alarm clock, waking you up to a buzzer, Internet radio or server based music.
Beats the Boom if the price is right
The NP2900 has a RRP of £249 – £40 more than Logitech's Boom. Is it worth the extra? Frankly, no. But if you can find the NP2900 for the same money as the Boom, it’s a tougher choice. The Logitech has a few more peripheral features and is better at keeping hold of a Wi-Fi signal at a distance from the router but the Philips is fully UPnP compliant, has a much better remote control and produces a marginally better sound.
Incidentally Philips tell us that a firmware update will soon allow the NP2900 to show still images on its screen but, as that's hardly a core competency for a music streamer, we didn't hang about waiting for the update. We also suspect that, at some point in the future, the NP2900 will be able to access other on-line services like MP3tunes, something the Logitech Boom can already do. The giveaway? A currently redundant button on the remote entitled Online Services.
Verdict
The NP2900 is a nice looking and very fine sounding box of tricks. Although a little less robust in use and not as feature rich as Logitech's Squeezebox Boom, it produces a marginally better sound and comes with a far superior screen and remote control. If you can't get the NP2900 for less than £250, buy the Boom. If you can get it for the same price – and don't plan on using it too far from your wireless router – then give the Philips player some serious consideration. ®
More Music Streamer Reviews...
Logitech Squeezebox Boom |
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi |
Group Test Four wireless music streamers |
Logitech Squeezebox Duet |
Philips Streamium NP2900
COMMENTS
@ (The other) Dave @Neil
The reason you can't find that research is probably because it is bunk.
The basic operation of a hard drive means that the disc spins, so your argument about static fields does not hold up, and basic physics says that a magnetic field in proximity to the right materials _temporarily_ changes their alignment, and _permanently_ changes it in other cases.
Gapless?
"We think Philips missed a trick by not enabling the NP2900 to access iTunes – or Squeezecentre - as a server in the way Roku's Soundbridge can. Doing so would not only have meant gapless playback for opera fans..."
Um, what's the connection there? Surely gapless playback is a client-side feature, not a server-side feature; if NP2900 can't do it against Twonky or other UPnP servers, what makes you think it could manage it against an Itunes or Squeezebox protocol server?
Peter
No future in this solution
This is a niche product with a declining future.
The coming trend will be for people to store all their music on their mobile phone and connect speakers wirelessly to the phone if they need to.
Current mobile memory cards can store 16GB, and 32GB is not far off.
@Neil
Neil, static magnets don't affect hard drives. They don't affect floppy disks either. There was some research done a while ago where magnets were left on disks for days and had no effect whatsoever. You have to move the magnetic feild to change the disk, that's how the drive writes to it, and is basic physics.
Unfortunately due to the popularity of the myth I've been unable to find the research on Google, which is just full of people stating blindly that because disk is magnetic, magnet breaks disk.
Sorry for the lack of proof, I thought it was a reg story from the early naughties but couldn't find it here either.
Dave
Does the Phillips remote kill your computer
I like my Squeezebox Boom a lot, but I placed the remote on the top of my new MacBook Pro and it destroyed the hard drive. While the MacBook was being repaired I fell back to my old Dell, and did the same thing. Only then did I read the users guide and find there is a tiny but powerful magnet in the remote for sticking the remote to refrigerators. It was powerful enough to ruin two hard drives when placed on the open front of . Does the Phillips have a magnet too?
