What To Look For In A Multi-room Speaker
Sound lovers and audiophiles have long tried to get the very best sound set up. For a full experience, setting up multi-room speakers can be a great way to get immersive sound throughout your home.
But building a multi-room audio experience can be intimidating, not to mention expensive. While there are plenty of great speakers out there, creating or even just starting a connected system is a big task.
We've broken down some of the steps to take when setting up multi-room audio, and broken down the pros and cons of some of the best multi-room and wireless speakers out there, from your Bose to your Sonos.
How to start a multi-room audio system
Building a multi-room audio set up used to be a tangled affair of wires, but now with a proliferation of excellent wireless speakers you can quickly and easily build a multi-room audio system by picking up one or two speakers to link up the music in your home.
If you want a multi-room audio experience, it is important to start out on the right footing by investing in the sound system you plan to base your home audio around. This usually means buying speakers that come from the same brand, since they will be easiest to link together and control from the same remote or smartphone app.
Sonos, Bose, Samsung and GGMM are all big names in Hi-Fi and multi-room audio set ups, and are known for being a music-lover's choice for home speakers.
What to look for in a speaker
- Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity: Many home multi-room speakers now connect wirelessly through Wi-Fi. They do this by setting up their own mini wireless network which links up all your products, remotes and connected smartphones for ease of use. Some others also allow for Bluetooth connections, these can be a little shorter range, but can be quick to set up.
- Ease of use: Some speakers require the use of a smartphone app, such as GGMM. While some people find this handy, others may prefer a remote control or a touch panel to control their speakers.
- Sound: While we would recommend all these speakers based on sound quality, it helps to have a listen first if you are a true audiophile and want the best sound for your space. Some services like Sonos offer a 100 day returns policy if you are unhappy with the sound.
- Apps and sources: Check which sources your speaker will work with. Using Bluetooth, you can play pretty much any sound from your speaker. With the Wi-Fi app, it may be more limited to stored songs and music apps, such as Spotify Premium, Tidal and iTunes. Many can also play live radio. Make sure you know which services you want before you purchase.
- Smartspeakers: The rise of voice assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa has come to multi-room speakers. Now, these can be added to many speaker set ups to create a voice-controlled network, for example GGMM E2 portable bluetooth speakers.
