Digital Trends

Logitech Wireless DJ January 24th, 2007 | by Ian Bell

Features and Design

Among first inspection, there is no doubt that the team responsible for the Wireless DJ Music System relied on the success of the Harmony remotes product line. The Wireless DJ remote is very stylish with its sleek lines, metallic body and blue LED display. The remote control has a hefty feel to it that resonates an impression of quality.

There are three sections of controls on the Wireless DJ remote. The top section features the skip backwards, play/pause and skip forward buttons, the middle section includes a jog dial and select button for scrolling through your playlist and songs in addition to four navigational controls which include back, home, and two playlist buttons. The third section of the remote is dedicated to the volume settings. Powering the remote control is an integrated lithium-ion battery which charges when the remote is plugged into the receiver base.

The Wireless DJ Music System uses the 2.4GHz frequency band to wirelessly transmit the audio signal from your PC and the included transmitter, to the base station receiver (which also doubles as the charger to remote control). You can install more than one receiver, in different rooms for example, and then label that room using the Streampoint software. The music system can then stream music to the desired room simply by selecting the zone you want with the remote control. Unfortunately you cannot stream music to different rooms/zones at the same time like you can with the Sonos Music System; you can only listen to one zone at a time. Additional wireless receivers cost a spendy $80 each, nearly 1/3rd of the systems total cost.

When it comes to music formats, the Wireless DJ definitely has its pros and cons. While the Wireless DJ can stream music from your iTunes, Music Match Jukebox 9.0 and Windows Media Player 9 (or higher) library, including DRM protected songs, it is limited to the audio formats that iTunes and WMP support such as WMA, AAC, and MP3. The good news is that if you have a plug-in for your music player to support other formats such as FLAC or Ogg Vorbis, then the Wireless DJ will play those as well; as long as you are in PC control mode. Remember, the Wireless DJ Music System is an audio bridge, not a media streamer. This means it is not controlling the music directly per say, rather it is relaying what your music player (such as iTunes) is already playing, only it’s outputting it through the Wireless DJ rather than your PCs sound card.

The Wireless DJ Music System is only compatible with Windows XP based PCs, and Logitech recommends that you have at least 1GB of memory in that system. There is no current support for Apple based operating systems.

Image Courtesy of Logitech