Tag Archives: airplay

Sonos Era 100: Stereo Sound in a Compact Package

September 10, 2024 admin Leave a comment

The Sonos One set a standard in 2019 as a compact, versatile wireless speaker. Enter the Sonos Era 100, which aims to build on its predecessor with several key improvements.

Design and Build

The Era 100 introduces a new oval design, moving away from the Sonos One’s rounded square shape. It’s slightly taller and heavier but maintains a compact footprint. Available in matte black and white, the design is sleek with a wraparound grille. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by its substantial feel—indicative of its robust build quality.

Enhanced Sound and Connectivity

A major upgrade is the shift from mono to stereo sound. The Era 100 features two angled tweeters and a larger woofer, each powered by its own Class D amplifier, delivering improved bass and sound separation. The sound quality, with its signature Sonos richness and strong bass, is impressive for such a compact package. It surpasses the Sonos One Gen 2 and even rivals the older Play:3.

Bluetooth 5.0 has been added, enhancing connectivity alongside wi-fi capabilities, allowing for easier pairing and stable connections.

Features

The speaker works seamlessly with the Sonos S2 platform, supporting a wide range of music sources and settings. Voice control includes Sonos’s assistant and Amazon Alexa, though Google Assistant is not supported. Installation was straightforward, and Spotify Connect functions smoothly through the Spotify app.

Trueplay tuning, now available for Android users, optimizes sound based on room acoustics. The Era 100 can also pair with another unit for stereo sound or serve as rear speakers in a home theater setup.

Addressing Critiques

Sonos has faced criticism for the sound quality of the Roam and bugs in the new app. However, with the Era 100, they seem to have addressed these issues effectively. The sound quality is robust, and the app experience during setup and use has been smooth.

Pricing

The Sonos Era 100 launched at £249 / $249 / €279 / AU$399. This represents a modest increase from the Sonos One’s original price, reflecting the new features and enhancements.

Performance

The Era 100 offers a larger soundstage than the Sonos One, with more detailed bass and clarity. It provides a robust sound experience, though the Apple HomePod 2 may offer slightly more nuanced detail.

Position in the Sonos Lineup

Within the Sonos lineup, the Era 100 serves as a versatile, mid-range option, bridging the gap between more basic models and the advanced Era 300. While the Era 100 focuses on stereo sound and compact design, the Era 300 offers spatial audio capabilities for an immersive experience, catering to different audio preferences and room setups.

Conclusion

The Sonos Era 100 brings notable improvements over the Sonos One, focusing on enhanced sound and connectivity. Despite previous critiques, Sonos has effectively addressed these with the Era 100, making it a strong choice for those invested in the Sonos ecosystem or seeking a versatile wireless speaker.

Multi-room

Audio Pro Addon series

March 11, 2018 admin Leave a comment

Sweden’s acclaimed speaker manufacturer Audio Pro has an interesting range of Multi-room products called the addon series. It consists of the midsize speaker addon C5, the larger speaker addon C10, the wireless sub addon C-SUB and the Link 1 which is connected to an existing setup. The brand is known for their sound quality and has been around since the seventies.

All the speakers supports Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay and Bluetooth 4.0. They also support Tidal, TuneIn, Deezer and more through the Audio Pro multiroom app for iOS and Android. Up to five speakers can be grouped together in the app. Supported audio formats are MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC and Apple Lossless. They can be played from a local NAS.

Addon C5 is a mid range speaker with a 40W Digital class D amplifier, 2 x 3⁄4” textile dome tweeters and a 4” long throw woofer. Apart from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth it inputs RCA and 3.5 mm stereo. The speaker was awarded product of the year 2017 by what hifi in the category Best wireless speaker £200-£500.

Addon C10 is the larger speaker with a 80W Digital class D amplifier, 2 x 3⁄4” textile dome tweeters and a 5.25” long throw woofer. It has the same inputs and outputs as C5.

Link 1 is an adapter that attaches to an existing system through 3.5mm stereo or TOSlink optical. Thus enabling wireless music on that system. A cost effective upgrade if you already have invested in a system.

Addon C-SUB delivers even more bass to the system through Wi-Fi or RCA. It connects automatically to the closest speaker in the system. It has a 200W Digital class D amplifier, a 6.5” long throw woofer and 2 x 7.5″ passive radiators.

Conclusion

The Audio Pro system has broad support for the key protocols and services in the multi-room market, is award winning and competitively priced compared to Sonos. So it should be considered when going multi-room.

Multi-room

CES 2018

January 14, 2018 admin Leave a comment

This year’s main theme for multi-room products is embedded digital assistants with Google Assistant or Amazons Alexa.

The one and the three from Klipsch will be released with Google assistant.

Altech lansing releases three speakers with Google assistant built-in, GVA1, GVA3 and GVA4.

Bang & Olufsen will launch devices this year with Google Assistant. They will also support other voice assistants when they become available to third parties (Siri) or support multiroom for third-party devices (Alexa).

B&O also announced that 10 of their devices will get AirPlay 2 support, including the Beoplay M3, M5, A9 mk2 and the Beosound range. There will be a software update shortly after the official AirPlay 2 launch.

Smart displays are a new type of products that in some cases could be part of a multi-room music setup through built-in Chromecast support. They do not however have powerful speakers due to their slim design, so a compliment in a kitchen maybe, but not as the main music source in the living room.

JBL Link View is an interesting example with two front-facing 10W speakers and a rear-facing passive radiator for more bass. It also has support for 24-bit HD audio streaming and built-in Chromecast.

Vifas new version of their Copenhagen speaker has Bluetooth, Qualcomm aptX HD audio and Apple AirPlay. It also has a rechargeable battery. With their app Vifa Home, you can play music from Spotify, QQ Music and TuneIn.

Multi-room

New Marshall speakers with AirPlay, Spotify Connect and Chromecast

October 3, 2017 admin Leave a comment

With over 50 years in the speaker and amplifier market, Marshall is a well known brand that now enters the multi-room market. They do so with a three-speaker lineup packed with wireless technology. They all have Chromecast built-in, AirPlay, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth. You can also use the (old school) 3.5 mm socket and RCA input.

Marshall multiroom

Acton multi-room is the smallest one. It has one 30 Watt Class D amplifier for the woofer and two 10 Watt Class D amplifiers for the tweeters.

Stanmore multi-room is the middle speaker and has one 50 Watt Class D amplifier for the woofer and two 15 Watt Class D amplifiers for the tweeters.

Woburn multi-room is the beast of the lineup. It has two 15 Watt Class D amplifiers for the tweeters and two 40 Watt Class D amplifiers for the woofer.

Marshall app You can control the speakers with the App for iOS and Android, directly from casting apps like Spotify and with the on board sound controls. Apart from volume and balance, the on board control also includes a switch with sevens presets for playlists on Spotify and Internet radio stations.

So quite cool speakers from Marshall that are worth considering when adding multi-room to you home.

Multi-room

Urbanears Baggen and Stammen

March 30, 2017 admin Leave a comment

Baggen Stammen

The Stockholm based headphone company is entering the multi-room speaker market with the two colorful speakers Stammen and Baggen. Depending on the color they can be a design piece in your home or a discrete sound system.

Both speakers handle Spotify Connect, AirPlay, Chromecast, Bluetooth, 3.5mm and aux input. Baggen is the bigger one with two 2.5˝ full-range drivers and one 5.25˝ woofer. It costs $450. Stammen is smaller one with two 3/4˝ neodymium dome tweeters and one 4˝ woofer. and costs $350. They both have 3 Class-D amplifiers.

Urbanears Connected app for iOS and android lets you flip through presets, browse internet radio stations, manage multi-room settings and tweak the equalizer.

You can combine up to 5 devices in a multi-room setup. Playing different music or combined in multi mode, which is Urbanears name for party mode.

Urbanears combination of design, good sound and support for both Spotify Connect and AirPlay makes them an interesting newcomer in the market.

Multi-room

Yamaha MusicCast multi-room

April 14, 2016 admin Leave a comment

Yamaha is going all-in with it´s MusicCast wireless multi-room system. Supported devices keeps growing and so does the functionality. So it is time to take a closer look at what it has to offer.

Let’s start with the basics: MusicCast devices has support for AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Internet Radio, Bluetooth and DLNA. They support 24-bit high resolution audio, can be linked to play in party mode and are controlled by an iOS or Android app. The system includes receivers, amplifiers, stand alone speakers, soundbars and Hi-Fi systems. They connect to each other through your wireless router and can also use wired ethernet.

MusicCast system

Streaming services

MusicCast supports Spotify Connect, Pandora, Rhapsody and SiriusXM Internet Radio streaming services.

AirPlay

You can AirPlay from your iOS device or Mac to all MusicCast devices. You can not AirPlay to multiple devices using the Link function. Use a Bluetooth for that instead.

Bluetooth

All MusicCast devices has Bluetooth. If you play with Bluetooth to a device, that device can in turn link with your other MusicCast devices to play synchronized music in multiple rooms, which is usually called party mode. You can use the app for volume, play/pause and track skip control.

Bluetooth has some latency between for example the phone sending the signal and the input device, but the linked devices will play in sync with each other.

You can also send music from MusicCast devices using Bluetooth to enabled speaker or headphones. But you can’t receive and transmit Bluetooth at the same time. So either as input or output.

DLNA

All MusicCast devices can access DLNA-compatible sources like computers and NAS devices.

Hi-res 24-bit

MusicCast supports true high-resolution audio formats like Apple Lossless (ALAC) up to 96 kHz / 24-bit, AIFF, FLAC and WAV files up to 192 kHz / 24-bit. Most MusicCast devices also support playback of DSD streams up to 5.6 MHz.

MusicCast app

The app is available on iOS and Android. It provides browsing and playback of music libraries on the network and the device itself. It can also access sources connected to MusicCast products like gaming consoles, CD and Blu-ray players, turntables, and more, which can be played in any room with a linked MusicCast device. Up to 10 MusicCast devices can be controlled by the app.

MusicCast devices

WX-030WH

The MusicCast Wireless Speaker WX-030WH features a large passive radiator combined with Yamaha’s digital sound processing. It comes in black or white with a silver accent. It can be wall mounted using a threaded mounting hole. It is possible to pair two MusicCast Wireless Speakers in stereo mode.

NX-500 powered speakers

NX-N500 is a stereo pair of Hi-Fi network speakers with a built in amplifier and MusicCast. They can be used by themselves via Wi-Fi, ethernet or Bluetooth. Or connected to any music output device you like through optical or analog input.

ISX-80

ISX-80 is a more design oriented wireless speaker in the MusicCast family that can be placed on the wall.

Soundbars: YSP-5600, YSP-1600 and SRT-1500.

AV Receivers / Amplifiers: RX-V779, RX-V679
,RX-V579, RX-V479, RX-S601, RX-S601D, CX-A5100, RX-A3050, RX-A2050, RX-A1050, RX-A850, RX-A750, RX-A550 and RX-AS710D,

HiFi Components: R-N602, CD-NT670 and CD-NT670D,

HiFi Systems: MCR-N870, MCR-N870D, MCR-N670 and MCR-N670D.

Summary

Yamaha’s MusicCast offering is huge and the combinations and ways to use the devices seems almost endless. You get products that has support for the highest audio quality and you will always have Bluetooth to fall back on. Compared to Sonos, it is a more open system with broader technical functionality even though Sonos is best in their niche, in app control of the most streaming services.

Multi-room

Naim Mu-so Qb with AirPlay and Spotify Connect

March 29, 2016 admin Leave a comment

Naim Mu-so Qb

Naim has followed up its existing Mu-so monster speaker with the new cube formed speaker named Mu-so Qb. Even if the mu-so Qb is smaller than its big brother, it still has an impressive size compared to the competition. It can play music through AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth/aptX, UPNP, Internet Radio, USB as well as analog and optical digital inputs.

You can connect multiple Mu-so units and play synced music in up to five rooms (party mode).

The speaker consists of two microfibre dome tweeters, two mid drivers, two pistonic passive bass radiators and a woofer. The tweeters and mid drives are driven by 50W amplifiers and the woofter by a 100W amplifier. The combined Mu-so Qb amplification can generate a massive 300 watts. The Mu-so Qb is driven by the same 32-bit digital signal processor used in the original Mu-so system. The standard grill comes in black with optional colors like blue.

The system is controlled with an app for iOS and Android. You can also control the basics on the device itself.

Multi-room

Raspberry Pi 3 with WiFi and Bluetooth

March 1, 2016 admin Leave a comment

Raspberry Pi 3 has arrived with the important additions of integrated WiFi and Bluetooth which makes it an even greater multi-room media renderer than the Pi 2. The CPU power has increased 65%. The idle power consumption has dropped to only 2.5W and stays at 3.8W under load. The price stays at 35$.

if you want easy setup of AirPlay, DLNA, digital output of audio, map to network shares, equalizer and more, Max to play has an beta image that supports the Pi 3. You can read more on Max to play on the previous Pi 2 here.

The Raspbian OS and the NOOBS image are updated to support the Pi 3. You can then install Shairport for AirPlay functionality.

Full specs:

A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
802.11n Wireless LAN
Bluetooth 4.0
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
4 USB ports
40 GPIO pins
Full HDMI port
Ethernet port
Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
Camera interface (CSI)
Display interface (DSI)
Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than push-push)
VideoCore IV 3D graphics core

Multi-room

Multi-room news from ces 2016 part 2

January 6, 2016 admin Leave a comment

Read part 1 here.

srs-zr7

Sony has announced two new wireless speakers. The SRS-ZR7 with four built-in speakers, Hi-Res audio playback, support for Google Cast, Spotify Connect and Multi-room capability through the SongPal app. SRS-ZR7 also has HDMI with ARC so it can be connected to a TV to play Dolby Digital/DTS audio.

The SRS-ZR5 is smaller than its big brother but has the same features except that it lacks Hi-Res audio support and instead has Bluetooth with LDAC and NFC support.

They are both available in spring 2016.

ht-nt53-large

Sony also has two new sound bars that both has Multi-room support in the same way as their wireless speakers. The HT-NT5 sound bar with a wireless subwoofer has Hi-Res Audio playback, support for 4K content,HDR via HDMI HDCP 2.2. The HT-CT790 has similar specs and a few more HDMI inputs.

str-dn1070front-mid

Finally Sony upgrades its A/V receiver line with the STR-DN1070 A/V receiver. It has a new DAC with support for DSD native playback of High-res Audio files. It has 8 HDMI ports (6 in/2 out) with HDCP 2.2 for 4K/60p thus supporting 4K and HDR content. It has support for Sony’s other multi-room speakers, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Google Cast and Spotify Connect. So they all play nice together through the SongPal app.

In all, impressive upgrades across the multi-room product line by Sony.

Libratone

libratone_zipp_cph_edition

Libratone Zipp now comes in an updated design, the Copenhagen edition. The wireless multi-room speakers technology was updated a few months ago and has 360 audio, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth (APTX) and DLNA. The new covers comes in Salty Grey, Pepper Black, Raspberry Red and Steel Blue.

Samsung

Samsung_radiant

Samsung has its Radiant wireless multi-room audio speakers and will launch four new sound bars that will be a part of Samsung’s wireless multiroom-audio system. No mention of their product names yet, exempt for the HW-K950 mentioned in yesterday’s post. They have also added support for the streaming services SiriusXM and Tidal.

All multi-room products will become part of Samsung’s home-automation network controlled by their new line of TVs, that will be home automation hubs.

Intel Compute Stick

If you want to build your own multi-room device based on windows 10, then the new Intel Compute stick line is something to look closer at. The entry level atom has twice the power of last years top device and they have also added the m3 and m5 with even better cpus paired with 4 gig ram and 64 gig on board storage. So with HDMI output and two real USB ports, you can easily play Hi-res audio, stream Spotify and AirPlay, with the right software of course.

Multi-room

Multi-room news from CES 2016 part 1

January 5, 2016 admin Leave a comment

CES 2016, in Las Vegas, has started and multi-room audio is, just like last year, one of the bigger areas. So let’s go through the hottest news so far.

Harman Kardon Omni+

harmonkardon_omni_plus

Harman Kardon revealed its new Omni+ multi-room system. It includes the Omni 10+, Omni 20+, OmniBar+, Adapt+, and the Omni 50+. Four speakers, a soundbar and a streamer that connects to existing systems.

They all handle high-definition audio streaming with 24-bit/192KHz quality. The system supports both Spotify Connect, Google Cast, Deezer and Tidal. In the controller app, you can group a pair of Omni+ speakers with the OmniBar+ to build a 3.1 or 5.1 wireless surround system. It has 5G WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth, Ethernet and an aux input.

The Adapt+ will cost 129$, The Omni 10+ $199 and the OmniBar+ $999. The Omni+ system arrives in stores in the spring.

Prizm

prizm_music

The Social music player Prizm is getting ready to launch after a successful kickstarter campaign. It is said to be able to sense the mood in the room and choose music type accordingly. If you hear a song in the room that you like, click on its heart icon, and the song will be added to your connected account.

Prizm will have support for Spotify, Deezer and Soundcloud at launch. It will also support AirPlay, UPnP, DLNA and Bluetooth. Prizm does not have integrated speakers and should be connected to an existing sound system through optical or 3.5mm audio output. The price will be 169$.

MQA hi-res audio

The new hi-res audio technology MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), that consumes less bandwidth without sacrificing quality, is a hot topic at CES 2016.

BLS_Gen2_Family_Wifi-600px

Bluesound has announced that all of their products, both 1st-gen and 2nd-gen, will be MQA compatible through a free firmware update later this year.

The music service Tidal showcased its coming MQA support that also will come later this year.

Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar

Audio_CES2016_Main_2

Samsung’s new HW-K950 soundbar supports Dolby Atmos surround. It has three forward-facing front-channel drivers and two upward-firing Atmos height drivers that reflect sound off the ceiling to deliver height channels. The system also includes a wireless subwoofer and a pair of wireless surround speakers with upward-firing drivers, enabling the system to deliver a 5.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos sound field.

More info will come later this week about pricing and compatibility with the other Samsung audio products.