Tag Archives: allplay

CES Multi-room News Part 4

Read previous parts here: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Bang-Olufsen-BeoSound-Moment

Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Moment is a device with a minimalist wooden panel that lets you start playing music with just a tap somewhere on the circular part of the wood that is touch sensitive.

Bang-Olufsen-BeoSound-Moment wheel

The other side of the device has a metallic face and touchscreen where you control music stored on your local network or outside sources.

The system supports Deezer for music streaming, TuneIn for Internet radio and from your local iTunes library. Bluetooth is also integrated.

The Moment learns your music habits during different times of the day and week.

You can then access different music types based on that learning from the MoodWheel, that is a colorful circular interface where you can tap around the display spectrum to play music different mood music. The blue side plays something with a slower tempo, like jazz. The opposite side plays more aggressive or fast paced music. The center plays more familiar music and the edges gets music that is further away from your usual.

It will be in B&O stores in January 30, costing $2,795 in the US, £1795 in the UK and €2195 in the rest of Europe.

Moshi-Spatia-image-001

Moshi has revealed its new AirPlay speaker Spatia that is focused on design with metallic, wood and fabric accents for a modern look.

The Spatia also supports playing music through Wi-Fi Direct.

The Spatia has an app in AppStore to set it up, adjust its equalizer, save sound profiles and playing ambient sounds for sleeping and relaxation.

On the inside there are two 2.75-inch drivers, a four-inch subwoofer and twin one-inch tweeters driven by two digital signal processing chips.

monster soundstage
Monster showed their upcoming SoundStage speaker system that is based on Qualcomm’s AllPlay technology.

The SoundStage line will include three speakers, the S1, S2, and S3. Music can be streamed from your mobile device using supported apps like Spotify to the speakers ower Wi-Fi. The speakers also supports Bluetooth. After the initial command to the speaker what to play, Qualcomm AllPlay uses direct streaming from the cloud to the speakers, not passing through your mobile device which is good for battery usage and you being able to do what you want with your mobile without disturbing the steaming.

The system has its own SoundStage app, that lets you stream music to one, some, or all speakers. You can also access media connected to your home Wi-Fi network, and have different speakers play music from different sources. Or, the same, in party mode.

The SoundStage line arrives in stores this spring. The price tags for S1, S2, and S3 are $250, $300, and $400.

Devailent Silver Phantom
French audio firm Devialet has demonstrated their upcoming speakers Phantom and Silver Phantom. According to Devialet they both sound the same, it’s only how loud they can play that differs.

Phantom can receive sound signals over WiFi, Ethernet, Power Ethernet and usual audio input formats. You can pair several Phantom units to build a stereo pair or place them in different rooms.

Since they have no lights to indicate the on/off state, very light music plays when the speaker is turned on. When the remote control pairs with one or more Phantoms the woofers flex a few times.

Devialet has a program for streaming to their different speakers from a computer called Air and an app for managing the speakers. Other than that, the system is lacking support for mayor online services as Spotify and Deezer.

They are priced at around $2390 (3000W Phantom Silver) and $1990 (750W Phantom). Harrods sells them in England from 1 February. They will probably launch at the same time in the US.

CES Multi-room News Part 2

More Multi-room news is coming in from CES. Read part 1 here.

Raumfeld stereo M
The German company Raumfeld is launching its multi-room system in the US in 2015. Previously launched in Europe. The speakers use your existing Wi-Fi, uses 24-bit FLAC and WAV decoding, services like Spotify and Wimp HiFi, and DLNA. The system is controlled with the free Raumfeld app for iOS and Android.

The system has stereo speakers, stand alone speakers and a connector box for connecting to an existing stereo. Prices start at $299 for the stand alone speaker One S.

capsule-mat
The French company Voxtok launches its Audio Capsule that is both a multi-room music player and server. It incorporates local storage and access to Cloud services (backup of library. Streaming of library). Based on dual Wolfson WM8741 DAC chipsets, it supports audio quality up to 24-bit/192kHz. The server can transcode to formats that is supported by the client in real time. You can also connect an external CD player and rip music to the server, which then can add the right cover art. It can handle most audio formats and is both AirPlay and Bluetooth compatible. The Audio Capsule is controlled by an app available for iOS, Connected TVs, computers and soon for Android and some smartwatches.

Audio Capsule had a failed kickstarter campaign before funding the work in other ways (or maybe the campaign was marketing). I think its an interesting product and good for them to make it a reality even though the campaign failed. They will probably need to add support for the most common services like Spotify and Google Music to succeed.

Musaic

A kickstarter project that succeeded in reaching its goal is Musaic. They are now showing their new system at CES. The system has two stand alone speakers. The big brother Musaic MP10 Music Player, with integrated subwoofer, and the smaller Musaic MP5 Music Player. They support up to 24 Bit /192kHz quality in the usual formats (MP3, AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV). Both units has preset button on them so you do not always need the app. Musaic also supports Bluetooth and UPnP/DLNA.


Musaic is based on Qualcomm AllPlay. They currently have partnerships with services like Rhapsody, Napster, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, DAR.fm and Grooveshark. Musaic is also in the certification process for Spotify.

DISH
The satellite and internet TV company Dish is powering their existing and new set top boxes with multi-room functionality that supports Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn Radio from the start. An upcoming Dish Music app will control the system. Worth trying out for people that already has Dish set top boxes in their home, probably connected to sound systems.

EMTEC Air Music Streamer - 3_4

EMTEC has announced the Music Cube Air Music Streamer and the Sound Unity Multi-Room Speakers. EMTEC will probably not win any design awards for their products, but its the inside that counts, right?

The Music Cube Air Music Streamer can be connected via analog or digital audio input to an existing audio system. It supports AirPlay, Miracast Audio, DLNA and Bluetooth. The Music Cube Air Music Streamer will be in stores in summer 2015 with an estimated price of $129.

EMTEC Sound Unity speaker - small package
The Sound Unity Multi-Room Speakers will be available in a variety of sizes and configurations, including portable, bookshelf, medium, large, soundbar and subwoofer. They can also be configured into a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. It is unclear whether they have the same functionality as The Music Cube. But it would be a bit strange if they were not interoperable. The Sound Unity wireless speaker line will be in stores Summer 2015, with estimated prices from $99 to $299.