Philips BM6B
FOR Multi-room ability; sound avoids harshness and so ness AGAINST Narrow soundfield; leading rivals sound better
Are you reading this and, at the same time, thinking ‘is there a Bluetooth speaker system which, at the tap of a button, plays the same music in up to five different rooms?’ Well, the answer is ‘yes’ and this Philips BM6B is it. For those not looking for multi-room, no matter – the Philips stops at one, too.
Multi-room potential
The BM6B is part of Philips’ ‘izzylink’ multi-room series – can we please call it izzy from here on in? Users can start with just a single speaker. To create a super-simple multi-room system of up to five units, simply add further izzy speakers. To create your network, give the ‘Group’ button a long press. The izzy then forms its own network, without the need for a router, wi-fi password, or mobile app.
In each izzy set-up, any individual speaker can be the master, streaming music to the others. To take charge, hit your speaker’s Bluetooth button and, quicker than you can say ‘all for one and one for all’ you are running the show. Your izzy network now listens to the music on your device. If your choice of Metallica’s Hardwired doesn’t meet with general approval, other users can opt out of the multi-room chain, reverting to single-speaker use.
So far, so izzy whizzy. We do wonder, though, just how many users want to play the same music in five different zones, especially without the likes of intuitive apps and control systems. In reality, we’re imagining a ‘one in the kitchen, one in the living room’ scenario. (Oh for a home where the living room is far enough away from the kitchen to require a second speaker…)
Water resistance
In addition to its multi-room skills, the Philips doesn’t mind the odd splash of water. Rated IPX4, it isn’t going to join you in 20 lengths of the pool, but it will happily cope with a misty moor, or – more likely – a misty bathroom. It’s also fully portable – not so many multi-room systems can claim that – with up to eight hours’ Bluetooth and four hours’ multiroom play available from a fully fed izzy.
And there’s more – as the comic of the hat and the papal knighthood would say. For those listening with a buddy, it’s possible simultaneously to pair two music devices. The result is you can stream music from either device without the hassle of un-pairing and pairing. Handy for sharing sorts – though we always thought that the rule of the speaker was ‘he or she who owns the speaker plays the tunes’.
Diamond Dogs lack sparkle
Tested as a single unit, our Philips izzy, having impressed with its extensive list of multi-room and multi-user capability, lets the side down a little. Perhaps too much of the design budget has gone towards features, but the result is a speaker that lacks excitement.
Play Candidate from Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and the Philips is unable adequately to deliver the track’s rising tension and increasing pace.
One reason for the sonic shartfall is the Philips speaker’s cramped soundfield – a tune like this needs space to breathe, and the BM6B seems unable to relax and go with the flow. It does uncover detail – this is a busy track, and in this you should be able to identify individual strands – but it feels as though homing in on disparate sounds is too much like hard work for this speaker. Move from
Candidate into Sweet Thing and it becomes clear the treble can sometimes sound brittle. Keep on trucking into
Rebel Rebel and izzy leaves you wanting more get-up-and-go.
In the big league
Overall, the Philips doesn’t sound bad – far from it. But at this price it’s up against some seriously talented rivals – both the Audio Pro Addon T3 and the Cambridge Audio YOYO (S) show it clean pairs of audio heels. (Just what would audio heels look like? The mind boggles.) This all means that this speaker’s reasonably detailed, and controlled, sonics don’t really rock our world.
If sound performance is your be-all and end-all, you might wish to pass on the Philips BM6B. It’s also unlikely that its plain, upright looks will let your eyes overrule your ears. But – yes, there is always a but – if you are looking for an extremely straightforward multi-room system, one which also enables single-zone listening (and there aren’t that many), then stop and give this offering a closer look and listen.
“If your choice of Metallica doesn’t meet with approval, other users can opt out”