Wireless multi room speaker system

Wireless speakers have come far in
the past few years. Bluetooth is now
the go-to technology to take a
speaker anywhere and listen to your
music without plugging in an audio
cable, while AirPlay has replaced the
30-pin connector for many Apple
fans. Bluetooth is the handiest and
most broadly compatible wireless
standard, but if you want to stream
music to multiple speakers and
multiple rooms, you need a Wi-Fi-
based solution. Wi-Fi speakers aren't
portable like most Bluetooth
speakers, since they need to be in
range of a hotspot. But they offer
their own advantages, such as higher
bit rate audio and better speaker
support.
For iOS Users: AirPlay
On Apple devices, any AirPlay
speakers connected to your Wi-Fi
network show up automatically in
nearly any app that plays audio, just
as if they were Bluetooth speakers.
You can mix and match different
brands of AirPlay speakers on the
same system, and you can
individually control them through
Apple's Remote app.
AirPlay speakers tend to be
expensive, though. They're also iOS-
only, so unless they have a backup
Bluetooth feature, you can't use
them with your Android device. And
even if they do have Bluetooth, if
you're not going to use AirPlay, you
might as well save money and get a
comparable Bluetooth-only speaker
for two-thirds the price; read The 10
Best Bluetooth Speakers for our top
picks there.
For Android Users: App-Based Wi-Fi
Systems
Android users can enjoy their own
multi-room audio, and often for
much less than AirPlay-equipped
alternatives. For example, the Sonos
Play:1 and Pure Jongo T2 speakers
are available for $200 each or less,
so you can set up sound in multiple
rooms for the same price as a single
$500 AirPlay speaker. You can still
use your iOS device with these
speakers as well, since their apps
are available on both Android and
iOS.
Unfortunately, these speakers have
their own limitations. Because
Android doesn't have Wi-Fi audio
built into its operating system like
iOS and AirPlay, Android-compatible
Wi-Fi speakers require a dedicated
app. These apps serve as the
gatekeepers for your media, and they
vary widely in which streaming
services each one can access. You
can count on plenty of Internet
radio stations at your fingertips, but
individual subscription services like
Spotify and Sirius XM are tougher to
find support for. You also can't mix
and match speakers between
systems nearly as easily, though
systems like Play-Fi and Caskeid
(Pure) are attempting to standardize
Wi-Fi audio compatibility across
multiple brands.
For Mixed-Device Systems: Sonos and
Bose SoundTouch
We've established that AirPlay
requires an iOS device, and most
non-AirPlay Wi-Fi speakers are very
limited in their music service
selections. If you want the best of
all worlds, Sonos and Bose
SoundTouch both fix these problems
—each in their own way. They stand
out as the best options if you're the
kind of user who prefers an iPad one
day and a Nexus phone the next.
Sonos is one of the longest-running
multi-room audio systems, and
because of this, it has some of the
broadest selections of streaming
media services available. Sonos
supports Pandora, Spotify, Google
Play, Amazon Cloud Player, Sirius XM,
and over a dozen more services, plus
thousands of live streaming radio
stations through TuneIn. Sonos can
also play music stored on a
computer or hard drive connected to
the same network. Granted, iOS
users still have to go through the
Sonos app just like Android users,
but all of these options are available
in the app.
The Bose SoundTouch lineup isn't
nearly as robust as Sonos in
supported online services (and
programmable through its
convenient six preset buttons), but
it gets around that problem for iOS
users much more directly: by
doubling as an AirPlay speaker. Bose
multi-room speakers like the
SoundTouch 20 can work just like
vanilla AirPlay speakers, giving iOS
users the ability to stream any
music they want from their iPhone or
iPad. It's less rosy for Android users,
though, who are currently limited to
streaming radio, Pandora, and media
stored on the local network.
Before you buy, though, be sure to
check out our Speakers Product
Guide for the latest reviews. You can
also read How to Buy Wireless
Speakers, but for now, here are our
favorite multi-room speaker systems.