Verdict: Set your MP3s free and play them away from your PC.
Logitech's new Wireless DJ - not that DJs had wires in the first place - allows you to broadcast the MP3s stored on your PC to your hi-fi speakers. Unlike the devices we spotlighted in our previous 'Build your digital media network' feature, which stream media over a home network, the Wireless DJ is an all-in-one kit that doesn't require any pre-existing network infrastructure. It has its own transmitter and receiver, which use a proprietary wireless technology (although it uses the same 2.4GHz frequency range as 802.11b/g and Bluetooth).
There are three main hardware components to the Wireless DJ: a transmitter, a receiver and a large remote. The transmitter hooks up to the PC via a USB port, while the receiver takes power from the mains, and then connects to your speakers. It has dual RCA phono outputs and a single 3.5mm mini-jack, so it should be compatible with a wide range of speaker systems. The receiver is oddly shaped, since it doubles as a charging cradle for the long, thin remote control.
Setting up these components and getting them talking to each other is hardly an onerous task; the installer for the system's StreamPoint software tells you exactly when to plug in the USB transmitter and the receiver. Coloured LEDs hidden behind dark plastic visors on both the transmitter and receiver light up when a connection is made, and the setup process plays a test sound so you can hear that everything is working. StreamPoint then indexes your music, scanning any number of folders, and also your iTunes, Windows Media Player and MusicMatch libraries. However, when we tested, it wasn't compatible with the latest version of iTunes (7.1.1). This is a shame, because when iTunes integration works, the Wireless DJ can play iTunes Music Store tracks with DRM in addition to MP3 and WMA files, as well as any playlists you've made in iTunes. There's no support for open-source codecs such as OGG Vorbis.
As the Wireless DJ uses the 2.4GHz band, Logitech recommends moving the transmitter away from any other WiFi equipment, and it has a reasonably long lead to allow you to do this. Logitech claims the Wireless DJ can still spin tunes at a range of 50m, although of course obstacles such as walls, interference from other networks and people with bad vibes will have an impact on this.
During testing, the Wireless DJ coped well with the environment of our test location - with several thick brick walls and multiple WiFi networks, it presented a tough challenge, but we only experienced stuttering from the Wireless DJ once during several days of testing.
Logitech claims that the wireless transmissions are digital, and the excellent sound quality of the Wireless DJ system certainly bears this out. We connected the Wireless DJ to Logitech's superlative Z-5500s, and fed them a range of digital audio files, from vintage, Napster 1.0-era 128Kb/sec platters to 320Kb/sec files freshly ripped from CD, and they all sounded excellent. The Elite-listed Z-5500s are the perfect speakers for revealing the limits of substandard sources, and the same music files sounded better over the Wireless DJ than through the same speakers from an iPod.
The Wireless DJ's remote control is the star of the show. It's thin enough to count as sleek, but boasts enough heft for it to avoid feeling flimsy, and it has a large, built-in monochrome blue LCD screen. It can be a little slow at times and, as it lacks colour, there's no artwork display - just a simple text-based read-out of track information, along with signal strength and battery levels. There's also a scroll wheel for navigating your music library, which may be nicked wholesale from the iPod. However, the scroll wheel is easily the best method devised by humanity for navigating huge lists of MP3s, so kudos to Logitech for not being different just for the sake of it.
The folder indexing system allows you to sort your tracks by artist, album or genre, and separates the first two categories into alphabetical subcategories. Even with a fairly large music library, browsing to the track you want doesn't take too long, although you'll need to know which album it's on. Even though the StreamPoint software ably handles M3U, iTunes and WMP playlists, two dedicated buttons on the remote make it easy to create your own playlist using only the Wireless DJ and, as you'd expect, you can shuffle tracks or play them in order from the remote too.
Conclusion
Logitech has a well-deserved reputation for making quality peripherals - its mice are usually fantastic, for example. The company's expansion into music streaming, which requires mostly hardware design knowledge, with a little software mixed in, is both sensible and successful on the basis of the Wireless DJ. It's incredibly easy to set up and, although we were initially sceptical about its proprietary wireless technology, it works well and will be powerful enough for most people to enjoy trouble-free music streaming. Of course, the fact that it's a network in itself raises the cost, and it isn't without its annoyances - Logitech needs to fix the iTunes integration, for example (or maybe Apple just needs to stop breaking it?) Overall, however, this is a focused product that rocks at what it sets out to do.
