BOWERS & WILKINS ‘HOME’ GAINS ‘MUSIC’

Bowers & Wilkins Formation series of streaming and multiroom electronics now has signficantly expanded direct access to music. While the Formation series has been lauded for its sound quality and signal integrity (including several Sound+Image Awards), the control app called ‘Home’ had come in for criticism for such minimalism that the company itself was recommending the use of Roon (see p14) as a more feature-packed method of getting music playing. Now ‘Home’ will be used for set-up, while a new app, ‘Music’, offers support for Tidal, TuneIn, SoundCloud, Dash Radio (no-ad themed radio) abd NTS Radio (themed radio and mixtapes), with more to come. Formation products already support Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth with aptX HD streaming. We gather ‘Music’ will eventually take on set-up procedures as well, thereby replacing the Home app entirely.