WIRELESS MULTIROOM AUDIO
So many ways to listen to music
Roll up, roll up, see the wonder of our age — streaming wireless multiroom audio systems, able to make music through your home under the control of a smartphone or tablet.
That’s the goal — results may vary, as they say. But on the whole the last 12 months has seen an impressive maturing in this sector of audio. Apps that were glitchy last year are now fixed and effective, new contenders have arrived with new ideas as to how these systems can all fit together, and the longer-term contenders have updated their software and hardware, notably Sonos in releasing a new version of its long-running Play:5 wireless speaker. We can’t tell you that everything went smoothly through our testing in set-up terms — almost any product that uses home Wi-Fi is prone to to the joys of networking issues, but nothing failed us entirely, and nearly all have got their connection procedures pretty well streamlined.
We’ve made a point (see the Editor’s foreword on page 8) of highlighting that nearly all these systems can add their abilities to an existing audio system in addition to providing wireless speaker solutions — you shouldn’t need to junk your existing hi-fi to enjoy the 21st-century joys of network playback and internet streaming. Just plug one of the little receiver units into your existing system, then you can expand into other rooms while keeping the best possible audio quality where you need it most. Throughout these articles we’ve included simple web links to some previous reviews so you can investigate further, and on on p74-75 we’ve noted some ongoing developments. But now, let’s push the play button...