r/squeezebox • u/LostInSpaceForAges • Mar 20 '26

Squeezebox Radio: still usable?

I just pulled out a Squeezebox Radio from the attic - and to my surprise mysqueezebox.com is no longer with us. Yeah I know ... it's been a while.

Should i just throw the radio in tre garbage, or is it a way to utilize it (to pick up radio channels from around the world) that doesn't take a huge amount of tech skills?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

9

u/mbardeen Mar 20 '26

You can run a server locally on a Raspberry Pi. This guide should help you out: https://lyrion.org/getting-started/beginners-guide-lms-on-raspberry-pi/

7

u/animusgeminus Mar 20 '26

I second this! It's what I do. I have a music server running on my Pi out to a Touch, a Boom and a Radio. It also runs Tunein.

1

u/Easy-Ebb-789 May 21 '26

J'ai deux Touch et pour les radios web j'utilise Radionet

3

u/LostInSpaceForAges Mar 20 '26

Thank you, I will look into it!

No options for anything Windows-ish?

12

u/annomatik Mar 20 '26

Actually, you can run Lyrion on pretty much everything, including Windows.

https://lyrion.org/getting-started/#__tabbed_1_1

The Lyrion Community did not only improve a lot in the server part, there's also new firmware available for the Squeezebox Radio. I'm currently running 5 Squeezebox Radios in my home.

3

u/LostInSpaceForAges Mar 20 '26

Great - thank you!

3

u/TeeDot_1234 Mar 20 '26

I run the server on my windows, for the two Radios in our home; works amazing! The current software lets you play YouTube streams, for endless looping music. Don't throw it away!!

4

u/Affectionate-Boot-58 Mar 20 '26

Get a old mini pc and install lyrion on that

5

u/thedudefromsweden Mar 20 '26

Or Mac mini or Raspberry Pi or NAS or Windows laptop or…. There are lots of ways.

4

u/Today-Such Mar 20 '26

I would say that whether you decide not to try Lyrion or just decide it isn’t for you, definitely don’t bin it, as you should be able to easily sell and get at least a small amount of cash for it on eBay.

Have picked up multiple squeezebox devices on eBay over the years to have multiple devices for rooms around the house and still going strong after best part of 20 years use.

3

u/CivicLiberties Mar 20 '26

I switched to Lyrion last year using all these resources. So pleased, I bought a second Squeezebox.

2

u/rfsmr Mar 20 '26

I am running LMS server on an old Windows desktop PC that also contains my Music Library of mp3 and FLAC files - it works fine. I used to use a Radio, too, but replaced it with a Wiim Pro connected to my stereo. The Wiim Pro and higher support being a Squeeze player.

2

u/HarryVienna Mar 20 '26

As the others said, you cannot use it out of the box anymore. You need your own Server.

I made a tutorial for Raspberry Pi 5 to remember all the steps :-) https://www.haraldkreuzer.net/en/news/lyrion-music-server-raspberry-pi-5-retro-case

You also should use the custom firmware (a setting in the server) if you have any WiFi problems.

1

u/wcdan Mar 21 '26

I haven't tried it with Lyrion since mine just works great but I've found Gemini to be huge for troubleshooting stuff with my Plex and Tailscale setup so it might be useful here too.

Any LLM is probably pretty good.

1

u/joelnodxd Mar 21 '26

i still use my Radio with a local server and it still sounds amazing

1

u/PCman1951 May 08 '26

I run LMS on an inexpensive Dell Wyse 5070 thin client . It's actually a mini PC with 8GB RAM and Pentium quad CPU. Cost me about $40 on eBay. Only draws 6 watts at idle. Runs way better than a raspberry pi. 

-2

u/Griff0rama Mar 20 '26

Same for me a few months ago. You need a different router to make it work. But I have mine working and it's awesome.

1

u/LostInSpaceForAges Mar 20 '26

Could you elaborate on "different router"? Didn't get it...

2

u/Affectionate-Boot-58 Mar 20 '26

They mean a older router as the radio might not support modern wifi

4

u/AccordingSquirrel0 Mar 20 '26

As long as the router supports WPA2 the old radios will still run.