![]() ![]() You can incorporate any Chromecast speaker into your Google Home setup and create room-based groupings in the same app as your Google Assistant speakers and smart home devices (if you use Google Home for that).Īmazon Echo speakers and the Alexa voice assistant didn't originally support multi-room audio, but now you can group and arrange most recent Alexa speakers like any other multi-room system. Google Home/Nest devices support Chromecast, as do many Wi-Fi speakers and soundbars. They let you easily stream from your iPhone or iPad at better quality than Bluetooth, but if you're an Android user, you won't find much utility in them.Ĭhromecast is Google's answer to AirPlay and works similarly. There aren't any first-party AirPlay speakers besides the Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini, but many other Wi-Fi speakers, including Sonos products, support AirPlay. Sonos and Ikea Symfonisk (made in collaboration with Sonos) speakers tap into the Sonos app to let you access any or all speakers connected to your home network and play music from dozens of different streaming sources as well as local storage.Īpple's AirPlay platform is the iOS- and macOS-friendly multi-room sound solution. It means a system can manage multiple speakers at once, playing from one or more sound sources to one or more speakers at a given time. Multi-room audio is exactly what it sounds like: playing audio in multiple rooms. Fortunately, multi-room audio is more common and easier to use than ever. Instead of juggling Bluetooth pairing with each one or physically carrying a speaker from room to room, a multi-room sound system is the way to go. If you want sound throughout your home, you need more than one speaker. Which Is the Best Multi-Room Audio System? The different Wi-Fi standards also mean various services might not be available to stream over a given speaker, though this is less of a problem than it has been in the past because of Chromecast and Sonos' lengthy lists of supported third-party services. The trade-off is that Wi-Fi music systems require a Wi-Fi network you can't use them as a portable speaker with your smartphone like you can with Bluetooth speakers (though many offer Bluetooth pairing as a backup). It can also integrate into your home network, so you can easily play audio from any device on your Wi-Fi network without pairing anything. Wi-Fi can handle more bandwidth than Bluetooth, so it supports higher-fidelity audio. Wi-Fi audio includes standards like Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast, along with various manufacturers' Wi-Fi streaming platforms. The result isn't quite as high-fidelity or as powerful as Wi-Fi multi-room audio, however. Others can create a wireless mesh among multiple speakers for multi-room audio. It's direct, (mostly) easy to set up, and lets you stream fairly high-quality music because of recent technological advancements.īluetooth generally can't facilitate multi-room setups by itself, though you can configure some speakers in stereo pairs with the help of an app. Bluetooth is a point-to-point wireless system: You pair a transmitter (your phone or computer) with a receiver (your speaker) to play music. Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Speaker: Which Is Better?īluetooth is the most common wireless music streaming standard, but it isn't the only one. We also cover everything you need to know about the different types of wireless speakers, so you can determine which one is right for you. With that in mind, we've selected the best wireless speakers you can buy now.
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