WHAT IS MULTIROOM AUDIO

WHAT IS MULTI-ROOM AUDIO?

Previously, your options were fairly limited if you wanted to listen to music throughout your whole house, you could either drill holes through walls and ceilings, run cables through them and install speakers, or play the music nice and loud with all the doors open – and then hope your neighbours don’t mind. Wireless was not an option back then. Those days are long gone.

Multi-room audio need not, in the simple meaning of the word, be technically complicated. The simplest variant is in fact single source, single zone: it requires no more than an amplifier, an audio player and multiple speakers to have music in several rooms. The same audio can be heard in all speakers; they need to be connected in series (i.e. all audio through one cable to the various speakers, instead of one cable per speaker), to avoid overloading the amplifier.

Single source, multiple zone is the same in principle as single source, single zone – with the crucial difference that you connect your speakers in the various zones wired directly to the amplifier. You can only hear the same sound in either zone.

Multiple source, multiple zone, on the other hand, is quite different: the separate zones utilise different audio zones. This places heavy demands on the amplifier, which means that one amplifier won’t be up to the job. You will therefore need to have a multi-channel amplifier. You can listen to different sources in different zones with this option.

For those for whom, for whatever reason, this isn’t an option, of course there used to be cheap and simple compromises, but a small portable Bluetooth speaker was obviously not a proper alternative when it comes to sound quality. However, wireless technology has not stood still since then. There is no longer any need to run wires everywhere: nowadays the various components can also be interconnected wirelessly.

There are several wireless protocols which can be made use of when streaming music wirelessly from an audio source to a system: Bluetooth, NFC, DLNA, and AirPlay, but a Wi-Fi link is the most common means of interconnecting the various components of an audio system. That is because a good Wi-Fi network is unaffected by visual barriers, provides better sound quality than the other protocols, and has the advantage of being able to connect common music sources, such as a computer, a NAS drive, a phone or even a streaming service wirelessly to the system. You can keep all your options open with multi-room audio systems. An amplifier is by definition not required, since the individual speakers all have their own built-in amplifier and are all able to connect (wirelessly) with their own audio source. Suppose a house has three occupants, in which case each of them can use their own speakers in their own room. Conversely, suppose a large house party is being held, it will then be possible to play the same sound through every speaker. The individual speakers do have knobs, but not their own screen to see what you are doing. A smartphone or a tablet app is used to operate the system and browse through music, either your own or via a streaming service.

Meanwhile, wireless is no longer the future, it is the here and now. Music lovers want a system that fulfills this need, and manufacturers are responding to it. HEOS, the Denon system, gives you control of your music anywhere in your home: all you need is one (or more) HEOS speakers, plus an audio source. Music in every room – without upsetting the neighbours.