Filip Brož Imagine the situation: you have several rooms, a speaker is placed in each of them, and either the same song is playing from all of them, or a completely different song is playing from each of them. We are talking about the phenomenon of recent years, the so-called multiroom, which is an audio solution specifically for connecting multiple speakers and their simple operation from your mobile device. With a connection to various music streaming services or your local library, the multiroom is a very flexible audio setup.
Until relatively recently, it was quite unimaginable to build powerful equipment at home without having to worry about tens of meters of cabling and other unpleasant matters connected with it. However, the wireless "revolution" affects all technological segments, including audio, so today it is not a problem to equip your living room not only with a high-quality wireless home theater, but also with independent and freely portable speakers that are completely synchronized and controlled from one device.
Wireless speakers and audio technology of all kinds are now being offered or developed by all relevant players to keep up with the times. But the pioneer in this area is undoubtedly the American company Sonos, which continues to offer unrivaled solutions in the field of multirooms that require only a minimum of wires. However, in order to objectively evaluate the mentioned Sonos, we also tested a similar solution from competitor Bluesound.
We tried the best from both companies. From Sonos, it was the Playbar, the second-generation Play:1 and Play:5 speakers, and the SUB subwoofer. We included the Pulse 2, Pulse Mini and Pulse Flex from Bluesound, as well as the Vault 2 and Node 2 network players.
Sonos
I have to say, I've never been a big fan of complicated wiring solutions. I rather prefer the intuitive start-up and control along the lines of Apple products - that is, unpacking from the box and starting to use immediately. Sonos is not only very close to the Californian company in this respect. The most difficult part of the entire installation was probably finding a suitable location and a sufficient number of free electrical sockets.
The magic of speakers from Sonos lies in their completely automatic synchronization on their own network using home Wi-Fi. First, I unpacked the Sonos Playbar, connected it to my LCD TV using the included optical cable, plugged it into a power outlet, and off we go…
Playbar and decent bass for TV
The Playbar is certainly not small, and with its less than five and a half kilograms and dimensions of 85 x 900 x 140 millimeters, it needs to be placed in a suitable place next to the TV. It is also possible to mount it firmly on the wall or turn it on its side. Inside the well-designed product are six center and three tweeters, which are complemented by nine digital amplifiers, so there is no loss of quality.
Thanks to the optical cable, you can enjoy crystal clear sound, whether you are playing a movie or music. All Sonos speakers can be controlled using application of the same name, which is available for free for both iOS and Android (and versions for OS X and Windows are also available). After launching the app, just use a few simple steps to pair the Playbar with the iPhone and the music can start. No cables needed (just one for power), everything goes over the air.
With normal pairing and setup, communication between individual speakers runs on your home Wi-Fi network. However, if you are connecting three or more speakers, we recommend purchasing the Boost wireless transmitter from Sonos, which will create its own network for the complete Sonos system, the so-called SonosNet. Since it has a different coding, it does not overwhelm your home Wi-Fi network and nothing prevents synchronization and mutual communication between the speakers.
Once I had the Sonos Playbar set up, it was time for the massive and of course wireless Sonos SUB. Although the Playbar will provide a good sound experience when watching a movie, for example, it is still not quite the same without proper bass. The subwoofer from Sonos captivates with its design and processing, but the most important thing is its performance. This is taken care of by two high-quality speakers that are positioned opposite each other, which in turn enhances the deep sound, and two class D amplifiers, which noticeably support the musical performance of the other speakers.
The power of multiroom is showing
The Playbar + SUB duo is a great solution for the TV in the living room. You just plug both devices into the socket, connect the Playbar to the TV (but it is not necessary to use it only with the TV) and the rest is conveniently controlled from the mobile app.
I started to really appreciate its power only when I unpacked other speakers from the boxes. I first started with the smaller Play:1 speakers. Despite their small dimensions, they fit a tweeter and a mid-bass speaker as well as two digital amplifiers. By pairing, I simply connected them to the mobile application and could start using multiroom.
On the one hand, I tried to connect the Sonos Play:1 to the aforementioned home theater, composed of a Playbar and a SUB subwoofer, after which all the speakers played the same thing, but then I transferred one Play:1 to the kitchen, the other to the bedroom and set it to play everywhere in the mobile application something else. You will often be surprised at what sound such a small speaker can produce. They are absolutely ideal for smaller rooms. If you then connect two Play:1s together and place them next to each other, you suddenly have a well-functioning stereo.
But I saved the best from Sonos for last, when I unpacked the large Play:5 of the second generation. For example, the Playbar under the TV already plays really well on its own, but it wasn't until the Play:5 was connected that the music really got going. The Play:5 is Sonos' flagship, and its popularity was confirmed by the second generation, in which Sonos took its speaker to a higher level.
Not only the design is very effective, but also the touch control, which is effective at the same time. Just slide your finger along the top edge of the speaker to switch between songs. Once I connected the Play:5 to the established SonosNet and paired with the rest of the setup, the fun could definitely begin. And really anywhere.
As with the Play:1, it is also true for the Play:5 that it can play completely independently, and due to its proportions, it is also much better than the "ones". Inside the Play:5 there are six speakers (three treble and three mid-bass) and each of them is powered by its own class D digital amplifier, and it also has six antennas for stable reception of the Wi-Fi network. The Sonos Play:5 thus maintains perfect sound even at high volume.
When you put the Play:5 in any room, you will be amazed by the sound. In addition, Sonos is very well prepared for these cases - when the speakers play by themselves. Every room has different acoustics, so if you put a speaker in a bathroom or a bedroom, it will sound a little different everywhere. Therefore, every more demanding user often plays with the equalizer for wireless speakers before finding the optimal performance. However, Sonos also offers an even easier way to tune the sound to perfection - using the Trueplay function.
With Trueplay, you can easily customize each Sonos speaker for each room. In the mobile app, all you have to do is follow a simple procedure, which is to walk around the room with your iPhone or iPad while moving it up and down and the speaker makes a specific sound. Thanks to this procedure, you can set the speaker directly for a specific space and its acoustics within a minute.
Everything is thus again carried out in the spirit of maximum simplicity and user-friendliness, which is what Sonos is strong at. I deliberately did not set the Trueplay function for the first few days and tried the sound delivery practically in the factory settings. As soon as I went around all the affected rooms with my iPhone in hand and Trueplay turned on, I couldn't help but wonder how the sound presentation is more pleasant to listen to, because it reverberated beautifully in the room.
blue sound
After a few weeks, I packed all the Sonos speakers back in the box and installed a competing solution from Bluesound in the apartment. It doesn't have as wide a range of speakers as Sonos, but it still has quite a few and is strikingly reminiscent of Sonos in many ways. I placed the massive Bluesound Pulse 2, its smaller sibling the Pulse Mini around the apartment and placed the compact Pulse Flex two-way speaker on the bedside table.
We also tested the Vault 2 and Node 2 wireless network players from Bluesound, which can of course be used with any brand's setup. Both players have very similar features, only Vault 2 has an additional two terabyte hard disk storage and can rip CDs. But we will come to the players later, the first thing we were interested in were the speakers.
The mighty Pulse 2
Bluesound Pulse 2 is a wireless, active two-way stereo speaker that you can place in virtually any room. The plug-in experience was similar to Sonos. I plugged the Pulse 2 into an outlet and paired it with an iPhone or iPad. The pairing process itself is not that simple, but it is also not difficult. Unfortunately, there is only a step with opening the browser and entering the address setup.bluesound.com, where pairing takes place.
It's not all in one mobile application, it is mainly used to control an already paired system or separate speakers. On the other hand, at least it is positive BluOS applications in Czech and also for Apple Watch. After pairing, the Bluesound speakers communicate via your home Wi-Fi network, so it should be expected that the flow on it will increase. The more speakers you have, the more demanding the system will be. Unlike Sonos, Bluesound doesn't offer anything like Boost.
Two 2mm wide-band drivers and one bass driver hide inside the bloated Pulse 70 speaker. The frequency range is more than decent 45 to 20 thousand hertz. Overall, I find the Pulse 2 more aggressive and harder than the Sonos Play:5 in terms of its musical expression, I was particularly impressed by the deep and expressive bass. But that's not so surprising when you see the Pulse 2 - it's no small thing: with dimensions of 20 x 198 x 192 millimeters, it weighs over six kilograms and has a power of 80 watts.
However, the better sound coming from the Bluesounds cannot be too much of a surprise. Technologically, this is an even higher class than what Sonos offers, which is especially confirmed by the support for audio in a higher resolution. Bluesound speakers can stream up to studio quality 24-bit 192 kHz, which is really noticeable.
The smaller brother of the Pulse Mini and the even smaller Flex
The Pulse Mini speaker looks absolutely identical to its older brother Pulse 2, only it has 60 watts of power and weighs almost half as much. When you plug in a second speaker from Bluesound, you can choose, just like with Sonos, whether you want to group them to play the same thing or keep them separate for multiple rooms.
You can connect speakers to NAS storage, for example, but nowadays many users are interested in the possibility of direct connection to various music streaming services. Here, both solutions tested by us support Tidal or Spotify, but for Apple fans, Sonos also has a clear advantage in direct support of Apple Music. Although I am an Apple Music user myself, I have to say that it was only with similar audio systems that I realized why it is good to use the competitor Tidal. In short, the lossless FLAC format can be known or heard, all the more so with Bluesound.
Finally, I plugged in the Pulse Flex from Bluesound. It's a small two-way speaker, great for travel or as a bedroom companion, which is where I put it. The Pulse Flex has one mid-bass driver and one treble driver with a total output of 2 times 10 watts. Like his colleagues, he also needs an electrical outlet for his work, but there is an option to purchase an additional battery for listening to music on the go. It promises up to eight hours of operation on a single charge.
Incomplete Bluesound offer
The strength of Bluesound also lies in the interconnection of all speakers and the creation of a rather interesting multiroom solution. Using the optical/analog input, you can also easily connect speakers of other brands to Bluesound and complete everything with components missing from the Bluesound offer. External drives can also be connected via USB and an iPhone or other player via the 3,5mm jack.
The aforementioned Vault 2 and Node 2 network players also offer an interesting extension for all multirooms. Except for Vault 2, all Bluesound players can be connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. With Vault 2, a fixed Ethernet connection is required since it doubles as a NAS. You can then route the sound via optical or analogue input, USB or headphone output. An amplifier as well as active speakers or an active subwoofer can be connected to the Node 2 and Vault 2 via the line output. In addition to the Node 2 streamer, there is also the Powernode 2 variant with an amplifier, which has a powerful output of twice 60 watts for a pair of passive speakers and one output for an active subwoofer.
The Powernode 2 contains a built-in HybridDigital digital amplifier, which has a power of 2 times 60 watts, and thus significantly improves the music played, for example, from a streaming service, Internet radio or hard disk. Vault 2 is very similar in terms of parameters, but if you insert a music CD into the almost invisible slot, the player will automatically copy it and save it to the hard drive. If you have a large collection of old albums at home, you will certainly appreciate this function.
You can also connect both network players to the BluOS mobile application, available for iOS and Android, and you can control everything from OS X or Windows. So it's up to you how you want to use Powernode or Vault. They can only serve as amplifiers, but at the same time hide your complete music library.
Although the main thing revolves around Sonos and Bluesound around the iron, mobile applications complete the experience. Both competitors have very similar applications, with a similar control principle, and the differences are in the details. Leaving aside Sonos' lack of Czech, its application has, for example, faster playlist creation and also offers better search across streaming services, because when you search for a certain song, you can choose whether you want to play it from Tidal, Spotify or Apple Music. Bluesound has this separate, and it doesn't yet work with Apple Music, but otherwise the two apps are very similar. And equally, both would certainly deserve a little more care, but they work as they should.
Who to put in the living room?
After a few weeks of testing, when Sonos speakers and then Bluesound boxes echoed around the apartment, I have to say that I liked the first mentioned brand more. More or less, there is no similarly simple and intuitive solution if you want to buy a multiroom. Bluesound comes close to Sonos in all respects, but Sonos has been ahead of the game for many years. Everything is perfectly designed and there are practically no errors during pairing and overall system setup.
At the same time, it should be promptly added that we are talking about one of the most advanced multirooms on the market, which also corresponds to the price. If you want to buy an entire audio system from Sonos or Bluesound, it costs tens of thousands of crowns. With Sonos, more or less no product or speaker can get below 10 crowns, Bluesound is even more expensive, the price starts at least 15. Usually only network players or network boosters are cheaper.
However, in exchange for a substantial investment, you get virtually perfectly functioning wireless multiroom systems, where you don't have to worry about them stopping playing due to poor communication, either with each other or with, for example, a mobile application. All music experts understandably advise that it is best to connect the home theater with a cable, but "wireless" is simply trendy. In addition, not everyone has the opportunity to simply use wires, and finally, a wireless system provides you with the comfort of freely moving and "tearing" the entire system into individual speakers.
The breadth of its offer speaks for Sonos, from which you can comfortably assemble an entire home theater. At Bluesound, you will still find a very powerful Duo subwoofer, supplied with a pair of smaller speakers, but no longer a playbar, which is very suitable for the TV. And if you would like to buy the speakers separately, the Trueplay function speaks for Sonos, which sets each speaker ideally for a given room. The Sonos menu also includes a network player similar to the one offered by Bluesound in the form of Connect.
On the other hand, Bluesound is in a higher class in terms of sound, which is also indicated by the higher prices. True audiophiles will recognize this, so they are often happy to pay extra for Bluesound. The key here is the support for higher resolution audio, which for many ends up being more than Trueplay. Although Sonos does not offer the highest sound quality, it does represent a perfectly tuned and, above all, complete multiroom solution, which is still number one even in the face of constantly growing competition.
In the end, it is important to consider whether a multiroom solution is really for you and whether it is worth investing tens of thousands in Sonos or Bluesound (and of course there are other brands on the market). To fulfill the meaning of multiroom, you must plan to sound several rooms and at the same time want to be comfortable in the subsequent control, which Sonos and Bluesound fulfill with their mobile applications.
Although, for example, you can easily build a home theater from Sonos, that is not the main purpose of a multiroom. This is mainly in the simple manipulation (moving) of all speakers and their mutual connection and uncoupling depending on where, what and how you play.
We thank the company for the loan of Sonos and Bluesound products Ketos.
I confirm, I have been choosing speakers for about half a year and I chose Sonos. I have two Play:1 and one Play:5. I expected a lot from them, but they exceeded everything, be it packaging, appearance, nice weight, speed of operation, sound or practical use. I must say that for me they mean another level in discovering and listening to music. Everything is much better and easier now, and because of that I listen a lot more today, even though I used to listen a lot. I have a small complaint about the current form of the application, which does not have the possibility to evaluate the music played from Apple Music as I am used to from the Music application (in iOS) or iTunes (in OS X). If I'm not at my computer and I'm not playing music from Apple Music, I don't have a chance to like the music so that Apple recommends new similar music. However, this is hopefully a matter of app updates and Apple being open enough to allow XNUMXrd party apps. Otherwise, I am delighted with the speakers, I recommend them!
Sonos is a sub-par speaker in terms of sound. No hifi player will ever buy this. It's the difference between CD and Mp3.
I probably don't agree with you most of the time, but here I have to agree. In terms of sound, they are of course much worse, but if they are relatively "quality" and wireless, then JBL Authentics or B&O - if necessary, Bose or HK for the highest ranges.
The function is probably good, but in terms of sound, it is very very weak compared to the two mentioned.
I borrowed the aforementioned speakers that I tested at home with the primary goal of testing a complete multiroom audio system. Above all, Sonos. By that I mean that of course there are speakers that are different in terms of performance, but they don't offer what Sonos or Bluesound do. Sonos is among the pioneers of wireless playback, including multiroom. I don't know what you tested, but only the Play:5 of the second generation was enough for me to sound the whole house, which was only when I added X additional speakers to it, as I write in the review. In any case, feel free to give tips, we will be happy to find and test a competitive solution.
Yes, multiroom does not offer the speaker mentioned above, but if I already invest, let's say, "more" money in a speaker (from Hi-Fista's point of view, the price is absolutely ridiculous), then it is first and foremost about the sound. And the sound of the JBL Authentics L16 is quite different from that of the Play 5 – the entire construction of the speakers is completely different.
The L16 can be said to be a classic Hi-Fi wooden speaker fitted with an amplifier in a massive design, including cooling, weighing 16 kg, which has some electronics for connecting everything possible - whereas the Sonos is simply a "plastic toy", sonically in a completely different category, which corresponds to the entire construction weighing 4 kg.
If you want to test the best thing for an iPhone at an affordable price, test the L16 - but you also need to "feed" it.
Thanks for the tip, we'll see who offers it and possibly borrow something and I'll be happy to write. Otherwise, the point and main goal of this article (review) was to highlight a multiroom solution, so I didn't even consider comparing Sonos or other speakers...it's clear that there can always be a better alternative :-)
Yes, I understood that from the review that it was about this solution. I responded to a colleague above who wrote that Sonos is not much.
In theory, you could get JBL Authentics L16 from an early HK representative, since JBL belongs to HK.
Otherwise, a specialized review about this speaker was also published in the Czech Republic - however, I would like to read yours as well.
The speaker is wonderful in Germany, I tried it for about half an hour.