Speakers of the house

THERE'S NO SHORTAGE OF WIRELESS MUSIC SYSTEMS TO CHOOSE FROM - BUT WHICH SOUNDS THE BEST?

IF YOU WANT MUSIC STREAMED AROUND YOUR HOME , THERE ’S AN ABUNDANCE OF PRODUCTS TO CHOOSE FROM . THEY COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES , FROM DIMINUTIVE BLUETOOTH BEAN CANS TO LARGER , LOUDER LIVING-ROM PLAYERS .

The catch is that these proprietary systems are generally incompatible with one another, and not all play high-res audio. The hi-fi industry has effectively instigated a format war.

While inter-operability may be too much to ask, all multi-room systems tend to work in the same way. They connect wirelessly and are driven with a bespoke app. You can stream tunes from your service of choice, or play tracks direct from a local NAS or PC. Speakers in different rooms can be grouped so that they receive the same content simultaneously, or individually fed with different tracks.

For this sonic showdown, we’re auditioning three big-brand contenders, each loyal to its own ecosystem. HEOS by Denon is the original rival to market-leader SONOS, while MusicCast by Yamaha is stealing a lead through sheer system variety. Panasonic’s All Connected sits somewhere in the middle. We’ll compare three compact desktop active speakers from each, then a trio of larger living-room sound systems with comparable specs, ultimately pairing them together for a mini multi-room house party…