Hi there, I have a Mu-So 1st gen and love it. Years ago though, I used to the Squeezebox range of streamers (one of the first on the market) and all of them could perfectly sync together to get music all throughout the home.
I know two or more Mu-So’s can do this, but can I sync music with other streaming devices or speakers?
I currently have a UE Boom, Alexa & two Google Nests, but willing to buy something else if needed… just not another Mu-So as it won’t really fit in the kitchen or bedrooms
The only way I know for you to achieve this is to use roon software which ignores brands and will let you create a multi room ecosystem with a mix of airplay and chromecast enabled devices. Otherwise no you can’t use multiroom without buying more mu-sos.
The google nest has chromecast so will work as a roon endpoint but Alexa echo dots and the ue boom won’t work.
Roon software runs on a computer and you pay a yearly subscription of currently 120 usd.
Thanks Robert, so the computer becomes the central server so to speak, and each device syncs as an end point, Naim, Alexa and Nests…
Not an ideal solution and damn expensive, but possibly an option
Do you have the name of this software (or link)
Hi
I do find that my ‘Apple’ items see all of my different brands (but I don’t have what you’ve got) - could this be a cheaper solution, where other brands work with the Apple (airplay) system?
JR
Yes the computer becomes the core. Search for Roonlabs. Not Alexa, it can’t see over Bluetooth only roon enabled devices (like current mu-so, ndx2, atom, nova etc), or chromecast, or airplay. Each speaker becomes an independent endpoint, you can play something different to each one simultaneously or the same thing synced. Integrates with all your locally stored music, plus tidal and qobuz.
Why not go for a musu Qb, smaller and still great sounding
@JR007, I wish it were that easy (I mean, if it is, that’s great!)
My iPhone and iPad can see all of my devices and happily stream to them including the Naim Mu-so.
But only one device at a time.
What I really need is to stream to several devices at ones, perfectly in sync. So, when I move around the house, the same music is playing everywhere. Is there a way to do this from an Apple device?
@robert_h, thanks for the info here. Looks like Roonlabs may not be the solution though, since it doesn’t seem to support Spotify where I stream most of my music
This would solve the problem, but it’s still too big and not suitable for the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen.
They do sound great. But I already have so many devices that can be cast to and stream from that buying three or four of these to go into all the other rooms would be both expensive and with space issues. Since I already have lots of gear, my hope is to use what I already have
EOD
Home now
I did forget, as I hadn’t used Airplay for a while now; if going from iTunes on laptop/Mac mini, I can use all at once, whereas you’re right - only one at a time from phone/pad 
apologies
Time to switch to Tidal then. Or invest in sonos. I dont know of any other solution.
Do you have a Mac? If you have devices that support AirPlay this should stream to them, certainly from Apple Music, I’m not sure about Spotify.
I’m guessing that some of your devices don’t support AirPlay 2, which bought this same multiroom capability to iOS devices.
The only device mentioned that supports airplay is the gen 1 mu-so. He has a pair of google nest speakers that support chromecast, the others are just Bluetooth I believe. The google nests are £90 and thats not bad for a plug and play device supporting chromecast that would act as a roon endpoint … if you are prepared to invest in that ecosystem to get multiroom.
You can have a google nest in every room, use spotify and have a very simple and effective “whole house” system, but as far as I can tell, its 1 speaker at a time.
Tidal and Qobuz are options, and you can use the Soundiiz service to migrate your favorites and playlists
Roon seems like a rather expensive solution in the context of the devices you use, especially if you need to buy the hardware to run it, although you may already own a computer that can handle it.
Also note that Roon cannot use a mixture of RAAT, AirPlay and Chromecast devices in the same multiroom group, so it may not work for you.
So, I found a Mac app called AirFoil, which seems to be able to connect to my Google Echos (sorry, they are Echos rather than Nests) and my Mu-so, and with Spotify. So I am now technically about to do what I wanted to do.
That said, they are not perfectly in sync. I’ll contact Airfoil and see if there is a way to fix that. Pity though. Way back in 2007, I was doing this with my Squeezeboxes and every device was perfectly in sync. Granted, they were all from the same company, but it is sad that all these years later, this sort of thing is more of a mission now.
Ok, I know someone will say it can be done easily by buying another Naim product and that is fair enough, but as mentioned, there is no space in the other rooms for this. I was sort of hoping with how streaming devices are all the norm now this would be easy between devices.
Unfortunately the multiroom systems that work well together are proprietary. If it’s important to you, maybe best to choose one and stick with it if you need them in perfect sync. That means either a HiFi brand (like Naim but others do it too) or any mixture of devices that have native support for either AirPlay, Chromecast or Roon.
Thanks for everyone’s help and replies here.
Airfoil seems to be a reasonable option for playing Spotify across multiple platforms in sync, including the Mu-so. There is an option on it to help with the synching problem. It is all a bit of a hassle though.
As mentioned, it would have been nice to be able to do what I achieved on a proprietary system 14 years ago, but across multiple brands today. Our technology has improved so much since then, but despite WiFi and Bluetooth standards, it looks like many companies still don’t have this feature available.
I work in the TV industry with some of my work in setting new streaming TV standards. My experience suggests most companies really like international standards. It just takes people who work in creating these standards to decide what to include. A pity this one slipped through the net
If you use AirPlay 2 on all the devices you can then stream to them all while staying synchronised. So, your solution is to buy more devices that support AirPlay! The new Apple HomePod Mini now reduces the entry price to better match other offerings.
Standards have to be agreed by all those who have a stake. Given the current market this is never going to happen. At least the availability of equipment that supports AirPlay has greatly expanded, so if you are an Apple user it makes life simpler and offers a wider choice than other proprietary systems.
If you still have your Logitech Media Server running, you can use that and include your Mu-so with a plugin. There are two options, either use the UPnP/DLNA Bridge, which will make a bridge between LMS and almost all DLNA compatible endpoints. Otherwise you may use the Airplay Bridge which connects to the Airplay endpoint on the Mu-so. On the 2nd gen you can also use a Chromecast Bridge. Like Roon, you can only get realtime sync with identical protocols. So to have the Mu-so play in perfect sync with another device, they have to use Airplay. The UPnP/DLNA Bridge will group disparate devices but will not play them in perfect sync.
AirPlay Bridge = integrate AirPlay devices with LMS (squeeze2raop) (slimdevices.com)
UPnPBridge = integrate UPnP/DLNA players with LMS (squeeze2upnp) (slimdevices.com)