The acquisition of SlimDevices by Logitech back in 2006 certainly seems to have been a successful one, allowing the consumer to benefit from the former's prowess in the wireless audio streaming market and the latter's ability to produce stylish and highly usable equipment.

The latest evidence for this comes in the form of the Squeezebox Duet, the successor to the popular Squeezebox 3. Logitech has obviously taken note of Sonos's success in this arena, and has used the design ethos of its own Wireless DJ remote to produce a device that's somewhere in between.

The Duet itself comprises a wireless 802.11b/g receiver with a built-in antenna and a 'controller' in the form of a remote control sporting a 2.4-inch colour display and 42-bit Wolfson DAC. The receiver offers composite ports and optical or coax digital, along with an Ethernet connection, and the remote comes with a stylish charging cradle to round off an attractive, compact setup that allows for a massive range of connectivity and features.

Setup is easy, but the first thing you'll need to do is create a Squeezebox account at www.squeezenetwork.com. This is free, and offers access to services such as Internet radio and audio downloads, along with online storage so that you can listen to your own tunes when your computer is switched off.

If you want to stream music from a computer you'll also need to download the SqueezeCenter software, and when all this is done you can start the setup proper by following the built-in wizard on the remote. You'll find firmware and software updates accessible directly from here and you can configure the device on a wireless network using either 64-bit or 128-bit WEP encryption. It sounds like a long-winded process, but in reality shouldn't take more than a few minutes; we found the step-by-step approach helpful in making sure everything is correctly configured.

Once you've selected some music folders or libraries to add to the system (manual folder selections or iTunes libraries are amongst the options available) the software will scan the relevant folders and populate a library of its own. At this point the menial stuff is over and you can settle down to enjoy music from anywhere in the home.

We were impressed by both the controls and the bright colour screen of the remote control; the main interface here allows you to choose from shared music folders, Internet radio and a range of music services such as Rhapsody and Pandora.

Most of the latter offer free trials, some of them require you to sign up through the SqueezeNetwork site, and some allow you to activate your free trial and get started straight away through the remote control. When you throw podcasts into the mix, there's an amazing amount of content available for you to enjoy, and with well designed controls and a responsive scroll-wheel the remote makes it all easily accessible.

We were particularly impressed by both the sound quality and streaming quality from the setup, which is better than Logitech's capable wireless DJ and on a par with Sonos's rival setup. There is also a wide range of handy little extras, such as a configurable alarm and, when the remote is placed in its cradle, a stylish clock display fading in on-screen.

You'll find full library and bookmark features to help filter the range of content available and the SqueezeNetwork account page allows you to further configure the setup by adding podcast feeds, configuring plug-ins and tweaking the behaviour of the remote's interface. Any issues we had with the Duet were minor; overall we were impressed by the performance, accessibility and usability of the device, and think it's fully deserving of the 'Best of CES' award it won for Home Audio in 2008.

The Squeezebox Duet is on a par with the excellent Sonos home streaming setup, which has arguably been the best around for some time. If you're happy to use your own home cinema equipment to output the audio, you'll save quite a bit by opting for the Squeezebox and should be equally pleased with the performance and features on offer.