Not too long ago, you could measure a person's love for music by the square footage of their CD shelf space. Today, however, an audiophile's passion may be hidden away on a hard drive. And though that drive may be physically less accessible than a shelf in your favorite listening room, its contents are actually more accessible for distribution.

Taking advantage of this new reality, Logitech has devised the Logitech Wireless DJ Music System. In contrast to fancier music streaming systems (three of which we tested in July; see “Shootout: Three Wireless Multiroom Music Systems” at soundandvisionmag.com), Logitech engineers went with a far simpler approach to hold the price down to an affordable $250. The question is: At a fraction of the cost of other systems, does the DJ get the job done?

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The DJ tackles the essential problem: getting music from your computer to your playback system without resorting to a wired connection. Without wires, your playback gear can be some distance from the computer — in another room, probably — so a streaming system has to also provide some way to remotely access a listing of what's in the computer's music library. The DJ's answer is a Bluetooth connection plus a handheld remote with an LCD screen for feedback that lets you browse and play your music collection on your stereo or home theater system on the other side of your home.

SETUP It's easy to run a wire from your PC to your stereo and set up a playlist on the PC. For the DJ to make sense as a product, its setup and operation have to be almost as straightforward. Fortunately, they are.

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