Category: new

Multi-Room Audio Systems at Prices You Can Afford

It’s always impressive when you walk into a house and music is playing softly in all the rooms. Your host reaches for his mobile phone and with a few swipes the music changes. Not many years ago, the technology to achieve true multi-room audio was not only expensive, but complicated to set up. But now, thanks to the latest streaming technology, it is literally just plug and go.

There are some pre-requisites. Firstly you need a wireless (or wired) network; you need a source where your music files are stored (this can be your PC or Mac or a smart phone) and you need a streaming device at each point where you want your music.

There are some amazing products out there today – especially from the high-end, esoteric hi-fi makers, which can deliver the most amazing sound quality – if you are prepared to pay a knee-buckling price.

Stunning

But there is a newcomer on the scene, a stunning little product from those clever guys at QED who’ve built something of a reputation for developing extraordinary audio products at very ordinary prices.

QED’s starting point was to strip their design right back to the basics. They realised that today’s smart phones could actually take over most of the data processing, control and display functions, freeing them up to focus on sound quality. They have achieved this by using a high quality Wolfson DAC which supports music files up to and including 24bit/96kHz (CD music files are 16bit/44kHz.).

The end result is the QED uPlay Stream, a tiny 4.5” x 3.7” x 1” (111.8mm x 94.3mm x 25.5mm) unit shaped a bit like a glossy black scallop shell, and completely devoid of any knobs. Its job is to sit on the network (wireless or Ethernet) and stream the chosen files to your standard audio amplifiers. And it does this for less than £150.

Cloud

Your music can be streamed from an iPad, iPhone or Android device; from the hard disk of your PC or Mac or any DLNA or UPnP-compatible media servers including NAS drives. You can also stream from the cloud via DropBox or Microsoft’s SkyDrive. And all the control is handled using free apps available for iOS and Android.

So, to create your perfect multi-room music system, all you need is one uPlay Stream in each room where you want the music, up to a maximum of eight. Each uPlay unit must be connected to the network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and to an amplifier and speakers (via a standard 3.5mm stereo audio output jack). This could be your main hi-fi system in the lounge or a simple active speaker system in the bedroom.

Simple

Setting up is simple and accomplished via the app on your phone or iPad in a matter of minutes. Once all the uPlays are connected, you will have complete control of music in your home – and you can even adjust the volume independently for each room. So, if the kids don’t fancy an afternoon with the cascading strings of Mantovani, they can connect their own phone to the system and independently select their favourite drum and bass tracks for their bedrooms.