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Multi-room

Multi-room news from CES 2016 part 1

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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Bose SoundTouch series III with the new entry level SoundTouch 10

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Bose has upgraded its SoundTouch series to version 3 and added the new entry level SoundTouch 10 to the existing 20 and 30. Bose has implemented a new dual band wifi platform with better performance and now supports b/g/n. Bluetooth has been added, which is fine but AirPlay has been removed for some strange reason. So this is obviously a potential deal breaker if you use AirPlay. The previous version of SoundTouch series will continue to have AirPlay support.

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The new SoundTouch 10 is a direct competitor to Sonos Play 1 and replaces the previous SoundTouch Portable. It has (like its bigger brothers) support for Spotify Connect and Bluetooth. Bose also has support for internet radio and Deezer through their own app. It also has USB and AUX inputs for external sources. SoundTouch 10 costs 199$/179£ and comes in white and black.

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3 Home theater receivers with multiroom and 4k under 499$

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The living room audio Receiver can be the most powerful part of your multiroom setup or its achilles heel. Any decent receiver connected to a pair of decent speakers can output higher quality music than most stand alone multiroom speakers. But what good will it do if they lack multiroom technology?

Im currently in the market for a new home theater receiver and multiroom support is a must. Along with support for 4K UHD, Audio return channel, 7.2 surround, HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and decoding of the usual HD audio formats. But without multiroom techniques, it would end up collecting dust for most part. Or i would have to buy an external streaming player and connect it to the receiver.

So let’s take a closer look at three receivers that supports the criterias above:

Denon AVR-X1200W
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AVR-X1200W is part of Denons 2015 lineup and has Spotify Connect, AirPlay, Bluetooth and DLNA 1.5. Denons own Heos system is not built in. X1200W can drive speakers in a second zone if not all 7 speakers are in use for your home theater setup.

The output is 80W at 8 ohm. It has basic support for DTS Atmos (5.2.2), which can bring 3D surround with ceiling speakers. DTS X will come in a firmware update later this year.

Sony STR-DN860

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The STR-DN860 has Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth and DLNA. The STR-DN860 is fully integrated with Sonys multiroom system so it can be grouped together with Sony stand alone speakers, in their Song pal link app, to play music in party mode.

The output is 95W at 8 ohm. It also has Miracast. STR-DN860 does not have Dolby Atmos.

Onkyo TX-NR545

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The TX-NR545 has Spotify Connect, AirPlay, DLNA and Bluetooth. Which are the same techniques that the AVR-X1200W supports.

The output is 65W at 8 ohm. TX-NR545 has basic Dolby Atmos support (5.2.2) in that two of its 7 speakers can be used for it. The TX-NR545 does not have DTS X.

Conclusion

From a multiroom perspective, the STR-DN860 is the strongest receiver with its support for Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth, DLNA and works well with Sonys other multiroom products. The other two supports the same, except Google Cast.

From a home theater perspective, the AVR-X1200W is the strongest receiver with both Dolby Atmos and DTS X support. The TX-NR545 comes second, due to its Dolby Atmos support and the STR-DN860 third. Even though they all support the usual HD formats.

So the AVR-X1200W from Denon seems like the best overall choice, when weighing in both multiroom and home theater aspects. With the STR-DN860 from Sony as close runner up due to its even stronger multiroom support. But maybe the better integration with the other Sony products (and Google Cast) makes me go in that direction. Its a hard choice.

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Bluesound Gen 2

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Bluesound has upgraded their multiroom system to generation 2 which brings new design and features. Bluesound has support for Spotify Connect built in and Airplay if you connect an Airport to the analog input. Existing CDs are ripped, stored and played from the VAULT 2. As before, Bluesound support 24-bit high resolution audio.

Changes includes:

  • ARM Cortex-A9 CPU running at 1GHz
  • Improved connectivity with both Analog and Optical Inputs
  • IR Sensor with TV Connect learning function
  • Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-fidelity codec support
  • Headphone Output with Dedicated Amplifier
  • Coax Digital Out (NODE 2 and VAULT 2)
  • Gigabit Ethernet speed
  • New advanced Wi-Fi design
  • Industrial design by David Farrage of DF-ID.

The system now consists of:

NODE2
NODE 2 Wireless streaming music player that you connect to your existing music system. ($499/549€)

POWERNODE2
POWERNODE 2 Amplified wireless streaming music player that you connect to speakers of choice. ($799/899€)

Vault2

VAULT 2 Streaming music player, 2TB storage and CD ripper. ($1199/1299€)

PULSE
PULSE 2 Full size all-in-one wireless streaming music player.($699/799€)

PULSEMINI
PULSE MINI all-in-one wireless streaming music player. ($499/599€)

PULSEFLEX
PULSE FLEX all-in-one wireless streaming music player with an optional battery pack that last for 8 hours of streaming. ($299/349€)

Supported cloud services and internet radio

WiMP, Rdio, Slacker Radio, Qobuz, HighResAudio, JUKE, Deezer, Murfie, HDTracks, Spotify, TIDAL, Napster, Rhapsody, TuneIn Radio and iHeartRadio.

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New Sony devices with Airplay and Spotify Connect

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Sony multiroom

Sony has released three new wireless multiroom speakers that makes them a serious market contender. They are SRS-X77, SRS-X88 and SRS-X99. All three has support for all major streaming technologies: AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth, NFC and DLNA. SRS-X88 and SRS-X99 also supports Hi-Resolution audio. They can be used one at a time or grouped together in the Song pal link app for iOS and Android. The HT-ST9 and HT-NT3 sound bars and STR-DN1060 and STR-DN860 A/V receivers also has the same functionality.

SRS-X88 and SRS-X99 support playback of a wide variety of Hi-Resolution audio including MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC and DSD. You can also attach an external hard drive to the speakers through USB. SRS-X77 has a battery so it is mobile.

The SRS-X99 has 154 Watts and seven speakers: Two super tweeters, two front tweeters, two mid-range drivers and a single subwoofer.

The SRS-X88 has 90 Watts and five speakers: Two front tweeters, two mid-range drivers and a single subwoofer.

The SRS-X77 has 40 Watts and three speakers: Two front tweeters, a subwoofer and dual passive radiators.

The HT-ST9 and HT-NT3 sound bars and STR-DN1060 and STR-DN860 A/V receivers supports the same techniques and audio formats as the three new speakers and all seven units can be used together in the app.

So how do we compare this with Sonos? Sony has stronger hardware with support for hi res audio and all major streaming technologies. Sonys app is limited to grouping the speakers. The market leader Sonos has moderate hardware, that lacks hi res audio and manny technologies that Sony supports but instead has strong software that can handle almost any streaming service and scenario out there in a refined manner, with different songs playing in different zones from the same controller. So which of those two are best for a customer that wants to play multiroom music in the easiest and most powerful way? The boring answer is that it depends on how you want to use it. Both will handle the most scenarios but in different ways.

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Odin brings big sound

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Odin

Multi-room speakers have a tendency to favour small form factor over the (possibility of) extra sound quality that bigger form factors enable. The Danish company Cint has addressed that issue with their new Odin speaker, which is part of their Asgard multi-room system. They also have the smaller speaker Freya.

Odin is a 6.9 kg floor speaker that can play Spotify Connect, AirPlay and DLNA. It also has AUX-input for older sources. It has on device controls for basic operations and is also controlled with Cints own app for iOS and Android. Odin is reasonably priced for it’s size around 265£.

Freya

Freya comes in a multi-room version that has the same functionality as Odin. And one version with only Bluetooth. All in one would have been even better. The multi-room version is priced around 160£.

The Asgard line seems promising and covers most peoples needs with both Spotify Connect and AirPlay.

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Ruark Audio R2

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Ruark R2

Ruark Audio has released the third version of their R2 model, which now has Multi-room functionality. The brand has been around for 35 years and the R2 mk3 shows that they know what they are doing. The functionality list is long and includes playing music from the local network through DLNA, Spotify Connect, DAB+ and internet radio.

R2 is controlled in three ways, from your smart phones native Spotify app and for playing Bluetooth, the on device buttons called RotoDial and a small remote. The display shows song information and also helps when interacting with the system. For now, there is no dedicated Ruark app for controlling the unit/s, but a release is planned this year.

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R2 has Bluetooth with aptX support, for maximum quality over Bluetooth.

You can play your local music from Sources that supports DLNA or by simply attached a hard drive or USB memory to the R2. The music can be in a variety of audio codec’s including WMA, AAC, FLAC, MP3, MP2 and Real Audio. R2 supports up to CD quality, 44.1KHz/16-bit.

You can also enhance your TV sound by connecting it to the R2 through its phono sockets. The sound will then play through the R2 which has better sound quality than a TV. A bulkier sound bar if you will.

If you are a Spotify user, or don’t use online services except radio, R2 will suit your needs really good. But if you prefer some other online service, like Google Play Music, Wimp, Rdio, then you are restricted to use them through Bluetooth, which is ok as a compliment now and then, but perhaps not for everyday core usage.

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CES Multi-room News part 3

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Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

intel-compute-stick
Intel Compute Stick seems like the multi-room DIY dream. Put it in a receiver and you get digital audio (and video) from a full fledged computer with the size of a (large) usb stick and the power footprint of a smartphone charger. Put spotify on it to enable Spotify Connect functionality and AirServer for AirPlay functionality. Pick your software choice for playing music from the device and your network. I will get back to this type of DIY setup in more detail in the future.

Bluetooth 4.0 is built in. It has a quad-core Atom processor, Windows 8.1, 32 GB of eMMC storage, 2 GB of RAM, HDMI, USB, a microSD slot and wireless 802.11b/g/n. All this for 149$. There is also a 1GB RAM/8GB memory Linux version priced at $89. Both arrive in march.

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Philips adds the Spotify Multiroom Adapter SW100M to its existing Spotify Connect lineup.

The adapter can be connected to existing audio systems through analog (RCA) or digital (coaxial, optical). Then you’ll be able to send music from your Spotify app on your smartphone to the adapter or send it to more than one Philips speaker/adapter in party mode.
It launches in Spring 2015.

omni-bar
Harman Kardon has a new addition to its Omni family of wireless audio products. The Omni Bar is a 2.1 soundbar and has its own wireless subwoofer. The system will cost $800 and arives in April 2015.

The Omni Bar connects to a TV through digital optical or HDMI, and connects to your home wi-fi network. It’s controlled with Harman Kardon’s Controller App. You can stream the same audio (including TV audio) to the rest of the Omni speakers in your system. As the rest of the Omni family, it supports playback of 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution audio.

The Omni system also gets more compatible services including Tidal, Qobuz, Tunein, Rhapsody and Juke, made available in April 2015.

Sony-SRS-X99
Sony announces multiple speakers, support for Google Cast and a new Song Link app to control them with in a multi-room environment, up to 10 wireless speakers/devices.

Among them, the new Sony SRS-X99 wireless speaker that has Hi-Res audio, 154 Watts, supports Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth and NFC. The SRS-X99 also supports Hi-Res audio up to 24bit/192kHz.

Sony uses a new LDAC codec that, they claim, transmits data three times more efficiently than Bluetooth.

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Bose SoundTouch Series II

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03_Performance

Read about the new SoundTouch series III instead

Bose is emerging as a major player in the multi-room market with its upgraded SoundTouch series II systems.

The upgrade to series II includes: More music sources, like Spotify Connect and Deezer, streaming from a PC/Mac music library (non-copyprotected iTunes files), improved control apps with new search and bass control, removed requirement for PC plugin during setup and both a black and a white color option.

Music Sources
SoundTouch supports both AirPlay and Spotify Connect. Can play 20,000 Internet radio stations, music on the local network, and music services including Deezer, Pandora, and iHeartRadio. Local network includes from a NAS and various music libraries on a PC (one library per PC) like iTunes and Windows Media Player.

The supported audio formats are: MP3, WMA, AAC and Apple Lossless.

You can control the system with an app, ir-remote and on unit controls. Apps exist for iOS, Android and PC.

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SoundTouch 20 is for small to medium sized rooms. SoundTouch Portable is for small to medium sized rooms and portable through its rechargeable battery. SoundTouch 30 is for medim sized to big rooms.

Each unit has an OLED display that provides source and song/station info. They have Aux input that enables audio connections from other sources. They also have an Ethernet port for wired connection to the home network.

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SoundTouch Wave is device that is compatible with SoundTouch but with different design and features. It has a CD player, AM/FM radio, Aux in jack and a headphone jack. It is also designed to work as a bedside alarm clock with alarm and snooze.

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SoundTouch Stereo JC Series II is a stereo system with two Jewel Cube Series II speakers and a powered Acoustimass module that is targeted at the living room. It has a designed remote control that handles the standard tasks of skip, pause, play and so on.

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SoundTouch™ SA-4 amplifier can be connected to speakers of your choosing which in essence makes it a competitor to Sonos Connect AMP. The designed round remote is included in the package.

amplifier

SoundTouch outdoor speaker system is a package with amplifier and two speakers for outdoor usage.

Conclusion: Bose has a broad offering that matches top rival Sonos well. The SoundTouch system has one of the better source supports out there. Both AirPlay and Spotify Connect is impressive. Maybee Sonos should be a little worried.

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Mu-so with AirPlay and Spotify Connect

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mu-so_05_0
Mu-so is the first wireless music system from well known hi-fi manufacturer Naim. Mu-so is a standalone system that pack a lot of punch. With 450W it literally blows the competitors smaller stand alone speakers away, for a higher price.

Mu-so supports both AirPlay and Spotify Connect. And it dont stop there because Mu-so also supports Bluetooth, UPnP, USB, Optical input and internet radio stations. Which adds up to one of the broader platforms in the multi-room market.

mu-so_03_customisation_nogrilleSix 75 watt digital amplifiers deliver a total of 450 watts of power and a porting system moves large volumes of air with low turbulence for the bass. the audio brain of the system is a 32-bit digital signal processor. The touch panel control interface is illuminated around for feedback.

The system has an iPhone and an Android app that you can control volume, light settings, room modes, create playlists and activate multi-room with. AirPlay and Spotify Connect are used in their ordinary way.

It is interesting to compare Mu-so with Sonos because the two systems are each others opposites, in a good way, for both. Sonos has gone for massive support of services with their own software and Naim has instead broad support for standards like AirPlay, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth. So two different approaches to multi-rooming.

Naims offering would obviously be even better if they complemented the Mu-so with a smaller version and a dedicated non speaker player (like Sonos ZonePlayer). And Naim probably will. The price is around £895.