EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT multi-room
Central heating revolutionised the way we keep warm. Now, the world of multi-room music is really hotting up
I t’s easier than ever to fill your home with music, thanks to a variety of audio products that can combine to make feature-packed, voicecontrolled multi-room music systems.
In a short space of time, multi-room audio has gone from an expensive fantasy to an affordable reality. No longer do you need to trail wires or install complex control systems – now it’s possible to send your favourite tunes to every room in your home at the touch of a button, or even just the sound of your voice.
There are more wireless speakers at your disposal than ever, from multi-room specialists such as Bluesound and Sonos, to hi-fi brands that include the likes of Arcam and Audio Pro, plus big-hitters including Amazon, Google and Samsung.
What is multi-room audio?
Twenty years ago, a home multi-room system would have meant a lot of wires and a fair chunk of cash. High-end custom installers can still offer a top-notch no-stress system, but a more simple, wireless solution is now within the reach of most.
Whether you want to start a new music system from scratch or upgrade an existing hi-fi set-up, multi-room means adding one or more (more than one, really...) wireless speakers or wireless devices to your home. These devices communicate with each other, and can be controlled via an app on your phone, tablet or computer – and also now by your voice. You can then create different rooms of music and either play the same track in unison, or play different music in each room.
You can stream music from popular services such as Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal (provided you have a subscription to each), play your own music from a network-attached storage device (NAS) or computer, or stream straight from your phone.
Brands such as Sonos, Pure and Yamaha were among the first on the multi-room scene. They have since been joined by the likes of Bose, Denon, LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony – and, most recently, tech kingpins including Amazon, Apple and Google.
What do you need to get started?
It’s worth remembering most multi-room speakers can now function as standalone wireless speakers, so you don’t have to buy more than one to get started. Of course, it’s not multi-room until you do.
Multi-room ranges now include wireless speakers, smart speakers, soundbars, AV receivers, stereo amplifiers and network streamers. There are also components that can connect an existing hi-fi system to a multi-room one, such as the Sonos Connect. Brands such as Denon, Sony and Yamaha also bring their AV electronics into play, giving their
home cinema amplifiers multi-room smarts so they too can join in on the audio streaming action.
How does it work?
There are two main ways multi-room systems work: by creating their own mesh network or by using your wi-fi.
Sonos, one of the early pioneers of more affordable, user-friendly multiroom systems, forms its own mesh network. Having initially connected to your home internet, the speakers then form an internal network, which means you’re not using your home wi-fi when streaming music, making the system more robust.
Most other multi-room systems connect and communicate using your home’s wi-fi network. This means they are reliant on the strength and stability of your network and will have an impact on your network’s bandwidth.
In each case, you’ll need to download the dedicated app used by each brand to connect and control your music across your multi-room system. Sonos has its excellent Sonos Controller, Bluesound has its Bluos Controller app, Denon its HEOS app. Yamaha uses Musiccast, Sony uses Music Center, Bose has Soundtouch, B&O uses Beolink and so on.
In the majority of cases, you’re tied into a brand’s multi-room ecosystem – they want you to buy into their systems, after all – so you can’t mix a Sonos speaker with a Bluesound one, for instance, to create your system.
But you don’t have to stick to a single brand if you don’t want to. Want to mix and match your multi-room system? The options are to go through either the DTS Play-fi app (and its supported brands), or stream via Airplay 2 (when it becomes available later this year) or Chromecast.
What about the source?
There are two subtle variations of multi-room: ones where you can stream multiple sources to multiple devices and rooms (such as Sonos or DTS Play-fi), or single sources to multiple devices and rooms (Airplay 2 and Chromecast).
Instead of creating their own app and multi-room ecosystem, brands can sign up to use DTS Play-fi’s app. DTS Play-fi lets you stream music across selected products from manufacturers such as Arcam, Mcintosh, Klipsch, Onkyo, Polk, Pioneer, Martin Logan and Rotel. You can stream hi-res music using the app and mix brands – although DTS recommends a maximum of 32 connected devices before performance starts to suffer.
Airplay 2 is the long-awaited update to Apple’s proprietary streaming protocol, allowing you to stream music from your IOS device (iphone or ipad) to more than one product. There’s no separate app to download – the iphone or ipad will be the controller and you’ll be able to stream music as simply as using Bluetooth. Along with Apple’s Homepod smart speaker, Naim, B&W, B&O, Libratone and Dynaudio are just a handful of the brands that have confirmed Airplay 2 support – once the update becomes available later this year.
Google’s Chromecast is another way to stream music across multiple products from various manufacturers, thanks to a huge range of products supporting it – from big-brand TVS and soundbars to wireless speakers and Google’s own Home smart speakers. Its biggest strength over Airplay 2 is that it’s open to all OS platforms, whereas Airplay works only with Apple devices.
You can also link up Amazon’s Echo smart speakers (first-gen Echo, secondgen Echo and the Echo 2) to create a multi-room set up through its Alexa app.
Plenty of multi-room-enabled wireless speakers still come with the basic support for Bluetooth, Airplay or Chromecast that lets you send audio directly from your device to a speaker. This means you can send audio to your system from Youtube, web browsers, downloaded tracks, videos and more – just like a normal wireless speaker.
What about voice control?
A new feature since 2017 has been the addition of voice assistants into the wireless speaker world. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are both now available on some multi-room speakers and systems, with a whole host of brands partnering with one or the other.
The Sonos One speaker is the company’s first to work with Alexa – a great way of injecting voice control into your existing Sonos multi-room system. LG has moved away from its own Musicflow tech and adopted Google Assistant into its products, too.
Another way of implementing voice control is simply plugging in the pucksized Amazon Echo Dot or Google Home Mini (both just £50) into your existing hi-fi, AV or multi-room system (see p46).
What about audio quality?
Naturally, we think audio quality should be near the top of your list of priorities. Most multi-room systems support music up to CD quality (16-bit/44.1khz), but there are also systems (such as Bluesound, Denon, Yamaha and Harman Kardon) that support high-resolution audio streaming up to 24-bit/192khz.
We wouldn’t automatically equate hi-res support with the best sound quality, though, as these kinds of systems tend to lack the transparency to make the most of good-quality hi-res recordings.
Multi-room systems are as much about how easy they are to use and live with, and the features they support, as their audio performance. It’s why Sonos continues to offer the best overall multi-room experience. It has the slickest app, the widest range of integrated services, and is the best system to live with. It sounds good, too. And it has remained relevant and fresh over the years by constantly refining its multi-room features.
When it comes to the sound quality of the individual products, it’s simply a matter of comparing on a case-by-case basis in the same way you would stereo speakers or streamers. Of course, you can always rely on our expert reviews.
“Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are both now available on some systems”