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It’s time to give your stereo speakers a new lease of life by partnering them with a just-add-speakers integrated streaming amplifier, which puts a whole world of music at your fingertips

Harness the power of spare speakers with these superb streaming amps

There’s never been a better time for dragging out that pair of neglected speakers you long ago banished to the corner of a spare room, dusting them off and reviving your love for them. Hear us out. You may well have your music duties covered by an Amazon Echo wireless speaker in your living room or a JBL Bluetooth speaker in your kitchen, but no single-speaker wonder, no matter how wondrous, will compare to the performance of a good stereo speaker system. A true stereo soundfield that’s wide-open and filled with generous detail really is the reserve of a hi-fi speaker-led set-up.

Like the hardy Honda Civic, hi-fi speakers are built to last and often refuse to die (unless their drivers are poked by handsy kiddiewinks); they’ll outlast you if you (and your little ones) let them.

So whether you have floorstanders or bookshelf speakers that are a few years old or as mature as you, it’s not too late to make amends and savour them. Because it’s never been easier or as appealing to transform them into a versatile, well-equipped and streaming-savvy audio system to make your musicplaying dreams come true. Yes, streaming has well and truly arrived in the hi-fi community. And all you need to be a part of it is an integrated streaming amp.

ONE BOX TO RULE THEM ALL

Creating a system around an existing set of speakers needn’t cost the earth, clutter your floor with cables or require the accommodation of multiple boxes, either. It can, of course, if you opt to build a system of separates to cover amplification and music sources. But what if we told you it was as easy as connecting them to one – yes, just the one – does-it-all box?

These days, a relatively modern creation referred to as an ‘integrated streaming amplifier’ can plunge a pair of speakers into a fruitfully furnished set-up that is domestically practical and compact, easily app-controlled from a phone, and first and foremost opens doors to a world of music streaming services (it can also accommodate other audio sources you may have lying around). Essentially it’s a music streamer and both pre and power amplifiers combined, requiring just a pair of speakers to make it sing.

Plug your speakers into it, connect it to your home network (over Wi-Fi or Ethernet; the latter is the stablest method) and, providing you have a subscription to a music streaming service such as Spotify, Tidal or Amazon Music or music files that are either stored on your network or locally on your phone, you’re well on your way to audio nirvana. It really is that simple.

Such machines can sit at the heart of a primary home audio system, either working solo or in conjunction with a second system (or even just a wireless speaker) in another room. After all, the beauty of today’s streaming world is the ubiquity of wireless multi-room support, with Apple AirPlay, Google Chromecast, Amazon Alexa and other brands’ own software platforms (like Sonos’) all creating harmonious ecosystems

that allow for group playback and control. Streaming amps adopt one or more of these platforms, and these really are the bedrock of a streaming experience.

A DIFFERENT TUNE

So which product and platform should you and your streaming ambitions subscribe to? Like a lot of things in life, we’re faced with too much choice. The ever-evolving nature of streaming and consequential snowballing of features means choosing a streaming amplifier could be a long and laborious box-ticking exercise. Does it have AirPlay? Will it play songs stored on my network? Is there support for Spotify Connect? Can I plug my old CD player into it? Thankfully, the answer to these questions nowadays is typically ‘yes’, as these popular headline features become increasingly adopted.

Discrepancies predominantly lie in the physical connections on offer: some will have a phono input for hooking up a turntable, others will prioritise TV connectivity and provide an HDMI input. Bluetooth – handy if your Wi-Fi goes down or you want a quick blast from your phone – isn’t always a given, while playback control is either centralised in a dedicated app or simply at the disposal of the service’s native apps or third-party ones. Then there’s outlying factors, such as Sonos’ infamous omission of hi-res music playback support. If you have proudly built a library of hi-res music, subscribe to a hi-res streaming service, or have grand plans to do either, it would be a waste to go down the Sonos route. Most streamers will support 24-bit PCM files like WAVs and FLACs, with some going beyond that to include DSD and MQA compatibility as well. Ultimately, streaming newbs should identify what is important to them and go from there.

Of course, if you’re already invested in one ecosystem – perhaps you have a Sonos One wireless speaker, several AirPlay-2compatible devices, or even another audio system in the home founded on a particular platform – you may understandably want your newly transformed set-up to coordinate with it, for interconnectivity or even just to reduce the number of apps you need to regularly use. Such platforms naturally encourage product expansion, after all. Narrowing yourself down to a must-have platform or feature could naturally shorten your shortlist.

The same goes for your budget. You’ll want to think not only about your bank balance but also the calibre of your speakers here. System matching is hugely important, even in the partnering of just two products. There’s little point pairing a top-of-the-line streaming amplifier with an entry-level set of speakers, and vice versa; they won’t get the best out of each other and could even emphasise the other’s limitations. Likewise, you want to take your speakers’ characteristics into account to achieve sonic affinity. If they sit on the bright side of neutral, for example, they shouldn’t be partnered with something of a similar character.

While you could well be satisfied with only connecting a physical source or two to an integrated streaming amp, you won’t

System matching is important, even in the partnering of just two products

Expenditure doesn’t necessarily start and end with buying your amp

make the most of it by ignoring its streaming talents; in that case, you might as well buy an integrated amplifier instead. Most current streaming amps will have either Bluetooth or AirPlay for streaming music to it from your phone, and they may well have a streaming platform from which you can access internet radio for free – TuneIn Radio is supported by Google Chromecast, for example. But to really capitalise on your new ownership of an all-singing-all-dancing machine such as this, you’ll want to either subscribe to a music streaming service, or have a well-stocked NAS (network-attached storage) drive – think a hard-drive full of music, but one that can be accessed by every online device connected to the same network. Or both.

STREAM AWAY

This is where you’ll realise that your streaming expenditure doesn’t necessarily start and end with buying your amp, and it’s worth thinking about what extra costs there will be to keep up your streaming habit. Whether you choose to subscribe to Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, Apple Music or Deezer and the like, you’ll be parting with at least a tenner a month. Or more if you want a membership to CD-quality or high-res playback tiers, which we’d recommend considering the increasing support of hi-res files and hi-res music service tiers in streaming amps, not to mention the significant boost in audio quality – but they are often twice the price of lower-quality ‘standard’ tiers. It isn’t bad value when you think you’re getting unlimited access to millions of songs each month for the equivalent price of one new-release CD – albeit of course you don’t own any of it.

If ownership is important to you, you might want to invest in a NAS drive instead, or as well as. That way you can load up the hard-drive with downloaded music you’ve purchased or the CD collection you’ve ripped to digital files via a PC or dedicated CD ripper. The cost is upfront rather than ongoing, and you’ll bask in the satisfaction that your digital library is filled with your music. You’ll be able to see and play it directly from a streaming amp’s app, too, although if it doesn’t have its own dedicated control app, there are several server apps on the App Store and Google Play Store that you can download for free, such as BubbleUPnP.