Wireless Speakers: Where Do I Begin?

Where Do I Begin? #1 - Wireless Speakers

If you’ve been listening to music for, say, the last 20 years, you’ve been through a fair whack of tune delivery systems. As the cassette lost its thread at the end of the ‘90s, vinyl came close to becoming a DJs-only medium - and for a crazy summer, the MiniDisc looked like it might replace the then-dominant CD as the world’s preferred format.

Then the millennium ticked over and everyone realised their computers weren’t actually going to die/explode/take over the world after all. In fact, they could serve our music needs - and how! Peer-to-peer file sharing took hold via Napster, iMesh et al, and early mp3 players from Rio and Creative Labs set the bar. In 2001 the first iPod arrived, and the rest is endlessly iterative gadget history.

Now we’re all fluent in streaming bitrates (aren’t we?), one corner of the music experience remains unreasonably obscure: the speaker. Smartphones have given a generation the impression that tinny bass-free tiddling is an acceptable option for music. People, it isn’t. You need decent bins that respect your choice of idol, and wireless speakers are the way forward.

Priorities

Here’s what to think about once you’ve decided you need wireless speakers in your life (and you do).

1. What size is the room? The bigger the space, the weightier the speaker. Don’t blow cash you could spend on other shiny things, though: many a muso has emptied the bank only to find they’d have been fine with half the girth. Read this Cnet feature to help make the right choice.
2. What size is the budget? By far the easiest way to choose the right speaker system is to be quite skint. Technology’s moving so quickly in this arena that even budget bins will likely serve you well, especially if you hit eBay and Gumtree for local bargains.
3. What do you want from your purchase? If it’s just awesome sound and nothing else, you’ll probably be fine with a simple Bluetooth set-up. But if compatibility with services like Spotify are a priority, you’ll need something more sophisticated. And don’t forget the endless potential of multiroom.

Four for the floor

For a killer app: Sonos

The original, and many will tell you, still the one to beat. You might balk at the price tag (from £169 for the smallest PLAY:1 to £599 for the monster Playbar), but on closer inspection you’ll likely be seduced by the deliciously intuitive Sonos app, allowing stress-free control of its multiroom potential and the seamless ability to play nicely with everything from TuneIn radio to Google Play Music. Pin-clear sound, too.

For an all-in-one omnibox: Panasonic SC-ALL7CD

If you’re still hanging on to that CD collection - lest we forget, the unglamorous compact disc made up 59% of UK album sales in the first half of 2015 - Panasonic’s ALL wireless speaker system will nod to the physical while coaxing you into the multiroom future. Stream your CDs to other ALL speakers in the vicinity, and hook up to numerous digital services too.

For a hardy festival companion: Creative MUVO Mini

Remember Creative Labs, the creators of some of the first popular mp3 players mentioned above? They’re still at it, but now it’s all about the speaker. This Bluetooth beast is handsome, lightweight and best of all, sturdy enough to deal with all sorts of weather. So if you’re looking for some post-band tent tunes for the festival season, the search ends here.

For a real show-off: Samsung R7

If you really fancy pushing the visuals to the max speaker-wise, Samsung’s multi-room Audio 360 wireless speakers are a solid bet. An elegant egg-shaped speaker with Bluetooth, wifi and networking capabilities, it’ll look well pretty while treating your tunes with the respect they deserve. You might want to invest in a feather duster though: it’s going to be tough to keep clean…