Sound and image: are we using multi-room setups the right way?
Web agency » Digital news » Sound and image: are we using multi-room setups the right way?

Sound and image: are we using multi-room setups the right way?

NOTICE: This week I attended an event on Denon Home that actually turned into an explainer for Denon's HEOS streaming service.

Anyone in the hi-fi business will have noticed the increasing convergence of devices via streaming apps. Arguably Sonos came first and set the standard to be achieved, its app is rightly the envy of its competitors because it just works.

And when something works as well as the app, it's like magic; and when others try to achieve the same thing and it doesn't work, it's uncomfortable like a sleight of hand gone wrong.

That was the problem with Denon's HEOS when it launched, a buggy attempt that didn't leave a good first impression. But that was years ago, and it is now, and HEOS is in much better shape joining BluOS, Google Home and AirPlay 2 as streaming options.

The main focus of the event was the effort to merge heritage, traditional hi-fi with lifestyle, casual audiences interested in wireless speakers and the like, and the fact that you could unite these two areas still somewhat disparate thanks to wireless connectivity. You would think this is an obvious thing that has already been achieved, but upon further reflection, this convergence has not quite taken place.

AirPlay focuses on Apple devices, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs, and then third-party stuff comes in like wireless speakers and TVs. BluOS is more for audiophiles: music streamers, high-end wireless speakers, speakers with Hi-Res Audio support. Sonos is basically wireless speakers and, more recently, soundbars. Google Home is a smart automation that also supports speakers.

Denon Home 350 speaker wall

Think about it and there's no one option that covers traditional and casual, hi-fi and smart; you need a mixture of the options mentioned above to create this type of interconnected system; maybe a combination of BluOS and AirPlay or HEOS and Google Home.

With a growing emphasis on connectivity in recent years, I would argue that the message sent has not been the right one. You always see these diagrams of cutaway houses, speakers scattered around the house with music playing, but I don't think I've ever come across a setup like this or someone who has this setup in their home. It would be tricky (and ultimately pointless) to do that in a London apartment, say.

These diagrams come across as an easy and simple way to explain the idea of ​​multiple rooms, but also make it come across as a wacky concept. Why would I want someone to randomly play their music on my bedroom speaker and vice versa? It might be good for house parties, but how often does it happen.

So the concept of multi-room or what it should be, which is the least sexy sounding interconnected devices, should be about connecting various products and unifying them into one whole. The turntables play on wireless speakers through a music streamer, a 5.1 movie system that can be reduced to a 2.0 music system as Denon HEOS explained. This seems to me a more acceptable idea.

I think what multi-room wants to push is the idea that we listen to music in different ways, when really we all listen to music in specific ways, on few devices and want just maintain that quality on everything we listen to. . Headphones and smartphones go together, laptops and hi-fi speakers, etc., and interconnected devices offer a way to extend this to one more device in the chain. The idea of ​​multiple devices around the house all talking to each other sounds great, but I'm not convinced that's how we listen to music.

So that's the direction I hope this interconnected era is heading. Less about the flashy numbers of many devices you might connect and more about the what type of devices you can connect. Although I'll admit that a wall of 16 Denon Home 350 speakers bunched together and screaming Billie Eilish is pretty impressive.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★