Tag Archives: airplay 2

Multi-room

Sonos for when you want to Roam the streets

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So Sonos will finally release a true mobile speaker, Sonos Roam. One key element to mobility is weight and Sonos Move is not that mobile, due to its size and weight, 6.61 lb / 3 kg. So even if Roam will not output quite the same sound quality, you can actually bring it with you. It weighs just 0.95 lb / 430 gram.

At home, Roam is a WiFi speaker, part of the ordinary Sonos speaker setup. Also using AirPlay 2. On the go, you will have to use Bluetooth (5.0) to play on it. It has 10h battery life, Drop resistant and IP67 Waterproof (Sonos Move is only IP56). Roam also has voice control.

Roam is a mono speaker, like Sonos One and can be paired with another Roam for stereo. It has Trueplay technology for adapting the sound to the surroundings.

Sonos Roam has, compared to Sonos other speakers, a lower price of 169$.

It comes with a charging cable and can be upgraded to a snap on wireless charger with an additional 59$ (Totals 218$ for the speaker and the wireless charger).

Sonos Roam starts to ship on 20th April.

Multi-room

Music on the go with Sonos Move

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Sonos has had a blind spot in their speaker lineup, a speaker with an integrated battery. This has finally been fixed with the new Move speaker.

Move charges wirelessly on the indoor charging base. It can then be moved around by its back handle.

At home, it works as any other Sonos unit with network streaming of music. Away from home, it can use Bluetooth instead. Move also supports Apple AirPlay 2. If you want to talk to it, do so with either alexa or google assistant.

Sonos Move is bigger than a Sonos One. It actually weighs a full 3kg. Because of its size and weight, the Move is not really optimal to take with you on trips. It is more suitable to move around the home and outside in the garden or balcony. As a comparison, JBL Charge 4 weighs just 1kg.

The Move has a low level of water resistance, ip56, which is worse than JBL Charge 4 with its IPX7 (can be dropped in water).

So you get a great sounding Sonos speaker that can be moved around the home and outside in the garden. But take it inside if it starts to rain and you will probably not take up half your backpack with it when you go camping. A smaller version with lower weight would be an interesting addition in the future.

The price is 399$ and it ships from september 24.

Multi-room

Apple HomePod with Airplay 2

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apple homepod

HomePod is Apple’s answer to home automation speakers like Google Home and Amazon Echo. With the updated Airplay 2, HomePod is also Apple’s answer to multiroom music systems like Sonos.

The speaker is packed with an A8 processor, which probably makes it the most processing powered speaker on the market. This allows HomePod to interpret speech even when music is played, to sync with other speakers and adapt the playback to the room. Place two in the same room and they detect and balance each other. Homepod will also detect how it is placed in the room and optimize the playback for that setting.

You can give commands to Siri, ask questions and get answers. Just say “Hey Siri, play Dr. Dre” to get going. A huge downside is that this only works for Apple Music and not Spotify and other. They have to be managed through Airplay 2 instead of voice commands, when they have implemented support for it.

You can also tap the top of HomePod to control the playback and volume. A LED waveform shows when siri is listening to commands.

homepod internals

The speaker build is interesting with seven tweeters places around it to allow the music to be played in every direction. The bass is facing up. So even though it is a small package, it really is packed with sound technology.

HomePod uses Airplay 2 and can work together with other Airplay 2 devices of different brands in a multiroom setup, including grouped together in zones that has more than one speaker in it.

iOS 11 required for setup

In order to setup the HomePod, you need to have a iOS device with at least iOS 11. Once it has been setup, it is ready for AirPlay streaming from older devices and AirPlay 2 from newer.