Category Archives: Multi-room

Multi-room

24-bit audio streaming with Bluesound

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Bluesound is a new streaming system that has something Sonos doesn’t, 24-bit audio steaming. Pair it with the new Wimp HiFi service and you have a system with millions of 24-bit tracks to fill your home with.

The Bluesound product family consists of the following products:

PULSE is a standalone speaker with a 35-bit/844kHz DAC and Bi-amplified Direct-Digital Amplifier by NAD Electronics.

pulse

POWERNODE is player with a built in Direct-Digital Amplifier by NAD Electronics with 80 watts total into 4 ohms. It has outputs to speakers and subwoofer. It also has a USB port for memory.

powernode

NODE is a player without amplifier. It has USB, Analog RCA stereo jack, TOSLINK digital optical output and trigger output.

node

VAULT is a player and a NAS in one unit. It has 1TB storage and a CD reader for ripping music in lossless formats or mp3 to the drive.

vault

All units support TuneIn Radio, WiMP and rdio. Formats MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, WMA-L, FLAC, ALAC, WAV and AIFF. Native Sampling Rates 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz. Bit Depths 16, 24.

The system is controlled by iOS and Android apps. You can play different songs and sources in different rooms at the same time.

Many of the people behind Bluesound has previously worked for NAD and has long experience of high end music systems.

It is nice to see a new multi-room audio system that can handle a comparison with Sonos well. Supporting 24-bit audio makes Bluesound more interesting than Sonos for hardcore music enthusiasts. The support for Wimps new HiFi 24-bit service makes a perfect combination. VAULT ripps and stores your existing CDs in lossless. Bluesound is a great option for music enthusiasts to consider.

Update: Support for Spotify Connect is added. Read more.

Multi-room

Samsung Shape

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Samsung is aiming at Sonos with the new multi-room music system, Shape. It consists of the M7 speaker and the hub which is required for connecting more than one speaker.

Samsung_shape

The system is controlled with a smart phone remote app for iOS and Android. It can play
locally stored music, stream from Pandora, Amazon Cloud Player, Rhapsody, TuneIn Radio and devices connected with Samsung AllShare. The app can control the volume with an on-screen slider or the phone’s volume button. You can play different music in different rooms.

The M7 speaker includes two mid-range speakers, two tweeters and a woofer.

Shape does not seem to support samsungs own online music service, http://www.eu.musichub.com/music/home at this time. It does not support Spotify either, nor AirPlay.

Samsung is a welcome player in the multi-room market but the system needs to support Spotify or other equal services to be a real contender. The market is flooded with systems that does not make it all the way to Sonos high standard. Samsung starts on that sub Sonos level and needs to deliver more services in order to make it all the way.

Multi-room

Google Chromecast

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Follow this link to read about the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio.

Maybe you remember the failed Nexus Q device and wonder how the redesign of it is going? Well, here is your answer, the Google Chromecast. It´s a device that is attached to an HDMI port and plays content from you android device or you PC. The price is 35$ which is 1/10 of the previous Nexus Q.

chromecast_big

It is capable of playing Youtube, Netflix, Google Play music and most content that can be played in a Chrome PC tab. The intended usage scenario is to attach it to a TV.

So how could this be used for playing music in a multiroom setting? Lets say that you have receivers in two rooms with HDMI input (and decoding). You could then attach the Chromecast to those ports and then send content to it that would be played through the receiver.

For now, the music sources are limited to Google Play Music, Google Play Music All Access, Youtube music videos and anything that could be played through Chrome on a PC, like Spotify web player.

From a music only perspective, it would have been better if Google also had a dedicated audio output like a toslink or a standard 3.5mm. But most TVs has audio out options that can be inserted into a receiver that can’t handle HDMI decoding. There are also a myriad of converters that can be used depending on the requirements. Like this HDMI to VGA & Audio Cable if you just want audio or have an old display without HDMI.

Chromecast has sold very well and that will probably make more third party providers want to incorporate support for it in their apps.

Google has the Google Cast API for developers that want to incorporate support in their existing apps or new software solutions. Google claims that in some cases it can be as little as 200 lines of code to get it working.

Google Chromecast is powered by the Marvell ARMADA 1500-mini chip that is capable of handling the following formats (Which does not mean they are activated in Chromecast):

-H.264 high profile @ Level 4.1, 4.2 and 5
-VC-1
-MPEG2/4
-WMV9 MP
-VP6/8 SD & HD
-DIVX-HD

-Dolby Digital (AC3)
-Dolby Digital Plus
-Dolby TrueHD
-DST HD-MA
-DTS digital surround
-DTS-HD
-AAC/AAC+
-WMA
-MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, MPEG2 Layer 2, AC3, E-AC3, HE-AAC v1L2 & v2L4, MPEG2-LC
-MP3, MPEG audio
-AC3 & DTS encode over SPDIF

Update Mars 2014
The Android app for the  music service Rdio now supports Chromecast. You can also play local network files on the Chromecast through the android apps AllCast and LocalCast.

Update May 2014
Spotify is supported through the Android app Spoticast.

Multi-room

Stream music to existing Hi-Fi with the Pure Jongo A2

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JongoA2

The Pure Jongo system will soon consist of three devices. This, the previously launched Jongo S3 and the upcoming Jongo T6.

With the new streaming adapter, Jongo A2, you can play music on your existing Hi-Fi-system.

You connect the adapter to the Hi-Fi system with SPDIF (digital optical or coaxial) or analog left and right connector.

JongoA2Back

The adapter is controlled with the Pure connect app on either iPhone or Android where you select the output zone (adapter) and the music source (local mp3s, internet radio stations or the Pure Music service).

The music is then sent to the streaming adapter by Wi-Fi. Music can also be sent to the adapter through Bluetooth and in that case the sources are pretty much all music on the device but Bluetooth has it´s range limits.

From a hardware functionality perspective, the Pure Jongo A2 is comparable to Sonos Connect that is 2.5 times more expensive. But the Pure Jongo system can’t compete with Sonos when it comes to software functionality. Sonos has for instance support for Spotify and many other third party services where Pure Jongo has support for its own streaming service and internet radio stations.

So if the requirements are limited to playing local network mp3:s, internet radio stations and Pure Music, it´s great. Otherwise, look at the options.

Multi-room

Sonos PLAYBAR

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playbar

PLAYBAR´s main purpose is to deliver high quality HIFI sound for the TV, instead of the TV speakers. Either you connect the TV to the PLAYBAR with the included optical wire

It can also be used as a standard Sonos unit that plays the usual Sonos music sources.

PLAYBAR consists of 9 amplified speakers. Six mid woofers and three tweeters.

It has an accelerometer to detect orientation and adjust EQ. Thus will a wall mounted PLAYBAR have more bass so low-frequency tones are reduced.

PLAYBAR decodes formats like Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM. It does not decode HD formats which cannot even be transferred to it due to the lack of an HDMI contact.

PLAYBAR has 3.0 audio on it´s own. It has 3.1 audio when paired with a SUB and 5.1 audio when paired with two PLAY:3s and a SUB.

You control it with the standard Sonos app or with the TV remote (it´s compatible with most IR-remotes).

Multi-room

Multiroom goes crowd-funding with the Olive One

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Olive One

With the promise of delivering much of what a multiroom experience should be for a decent price, Olive One has hit the indiegogo.com crowd-funding site with the goal of raising at least $200 000 and ultimately going after $1000 000. With 16 days to go, they have raised $225 276, so hundreds of backers should receive a Olive One in July this year.

The Olive One has these stated features:
* Bluetooth 4
* WiFi, WiFi direct and WiFi Miracast
* UPnP/DLNA
* Optional harddrive
* Pandora
* Play Youtube music videos
* 7-inch LCD touchscreen
* 32-bit/384kHz Burr-Brown DAC
* 2 x 32 watt (8 Ohm) dual-mono amps
* MP3, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, and iTunes support
* App control via iPhone/iPad, Android and later windows phone 8
* They state support for cloud services like Amazon Locker, iTunes Match and Google Play.
* It will learn from your listening and probably adapts its gui. It don´t say in detail .
* Can be connected to Social networks where listening is tweeted and shared.
* Use the Olive Home Cloud Service to access all the music on your ONE, anywhere in the world. No monthly subscription fee.
* Add time-shifting to your internet radio. Play, pause, forward and rewind at any time. Or schedule recordings of your favorite show. Try this with your radio at home!
* Automatically sync ONE with your music libraries on your PC or Mac.
* Hand built in the USA.

The Olive One lacks these features for now:
* AirPlay.
* Native Spotify support.

The design and specs looks good and they state that working prototypes exist with the software almost done. So even if one cant help to wonder how all of this should be accomplished in such a short time and with such a small budget, it could probably be done. If these devices are shipped on time, with these features, it will be an impressive accomplishment.

Multi-room

Sonos plays local iOS music

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With their latest firmware, Sonos has enabled the streaming of music stored on  an iOS device to the Sonos system. Locally stored  iTunes music is now a source among others that can be played on Sonos. The supported file types are MP3, AAC, and Apple Loss-less (M4A). AIFF is not supported at this time. iOS 6 is required.

Steps to get started:

  1. Update your Sonos software and your Sonos Controller Apps via the App Store to Sonos System Software 3.8.3
  2. Ensure your iPhone is on the home wireless network, then launch the Sonos Controller App.
  3. Go to the main music menu. You’ll now see all of your iOS devices’ music, playlists and podcasts all available as a music source under “This iPhone/This iPad/This iPod.”
Multi-room

Hand on with Xbox Music

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Microsoft has recently launched Windows 8, Xbox Music (service and apps) and SmartGlass (app on Android/iOS/Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8). The Xbox software has also been updated. But how well do these building blocks work together to enable care free music playing in one or multiple rooms? To my help i have two Xboxes connected to receivers, a Windows 8 PC and a Samsung Galaxy S3 Android phone.

Register a Xbox Music account

I have a computer with windows 8 that i login on with my windows live account.
Press Music on the Windows 8 start screen to go to Xbox Music app. Once there, press the “Try Xbox Music pass” button and register your preferred account type. USA, UK and some more countries has a free streaming option besides the paid subscriptions.

Xbox Music start

Windows 8

The Windows 8 app has a fresh GUI and it is easy to browse genres for new music (bump Spotify). There is also a search artist function with auto complete. When you click on an artist, a random song start to play and you then have to click on that song and then scroll far to the right in order to see all albums for that artist. I wold prefer if the albums where shown directly. Anyway, connect your PC to a receiver and you will have a great audio experience.

Xbox Music search

Xbox

Start Xbox and sign in to live (a gold subscription is required). I use the same live account on both Windows 8 and Xbox, which enables Xbox to map my Music pass automatically. On the dashboard, go to the music main menu and then press Xbox Music. The app loads and you are ready to play music, which is pretty straight forward using the Xbox controller.
Xbox Dashboard

SmartGlass

Launch SmartGlass on your phone, login and then select Xbox music to get to the Xbox music start screen. I use a Galaxy S3.

If a song is playing, it shows directly on the Xbox SmartGlass home screen.
SmartGlass dashboard start

From a music playing perspective, SmartGlass does not compare well with controller apps for Sonos and Squeezebox. The GUI lacks logical trails and you can for instance tap a album and list its content without the ability to play the songs in it.
SmartGlass list album

The easiest way is probably to define playlists in Windows 8 and then consume them on the Xbox. The SmartGlass app does not work well for music browsing at this point.

The now playing mode does not show album art and is designed to work together with the LCD screen.
SmartGlass Controller

Multi-room

When i login to my second Xbox i immediately get logged out of the first Xbox thus eliminating any possibility of remoting more than one zone at a time. To switch zone you have to go and physically login on that Xbox/zone and then start to remote it. SmartGlass cant remote windows 8 so it is impossible to control Xbox Music on the computer remotely (No, remote desktop is not qualified in this setting..). So a true multi-room setup, like Sonos, is impossible.

Conclusion

Xbox Music has a good music catalog and works great as long as you do not want more than to play music through the Windows 8 app or on a single Xbox. A true multi-room setup is unfortunately impossible at this time.The SmartGlass app could be more logically built, just start the Sonos controller and compare, ouch. Granted, SmartGlass can do so much more than to just play music but that should not stop a more logical gui on the music section. A audio level control would be nice to have also.

Multi-room

Pure Jongo

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Jongo speakers

Pure has released the beginning of their new multi-room product line, Jongo. The first product out is the multi-room speaker S340B for 150£. Pure has a Sonos style approach where you use an iPhone or Android app to play music from online services, local network music and Internet radio. The online services part seems to be limited to their own Spotify style music service, Pure Music, which has a competitive price of 4.99£ per month. Pure Music seems to be limited to Europe and Australia for now. S340B has a built-in rechargeable battery pack that enables mobile use.

Jongo seems like a ambitions attempt to enter the multi-room arena. The basic building blocks is in place and it has a competitive price. Some things that would make it even better is:

  • Support for third party services like Pandora, Rdio and Spotify.
  • Pure Music in the USA.
  • A unit with digital out for integration with existing home audio systems.
Multi-room

Early look of Xbox Music, including pricing

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Pictures of the coming update to the Xbox Dashboard reveals many interesting things. Synchronized playlists will be stored in the Cloud. The service will offer a free 14 day trial period. The paid subscriptions can be paid per month (£8.99, probably $8.99 in the USA), or per year (£89.90, probably $89.90 in the USA). A subscription gives unlimited access to 30 millions of tracks, to stream and also download to the Microsoft platforms: Xbox, Windows PC, and Windows Phone. The system’s UI follows the looks of Windows Metro style. The on screen keyboard is navigable from a Xbox controller, which often is a rather painful experience compared to a keyboard. The launch will probably be around the Windows 8 launch next month.

Some key requirements that would help Xbox Music to be a success:

  • Streaming to multiple zones at the same time.
  • Controller apps for iPhone and Android.
  • Full player apps on iPhone and Android in order to compete with Spotify.