We have an Atom paired with KEF R3’s as our main music source, and have added 2 Mu-So Qb 2 speakers for a multiroom experience. We would like to add additional multi-room speakers, but the Mu-So’s are quite expensive (and large). Does anyone have a suggestion for a different wireless speaker to pair with the system? We understand that we would not be able to use the Naim app - and the intention would be to run the system with AirPlay 2 when we want to play in the additional rooms.
I realise that this is starting to sound like a Sonos system, but we chose to go with the Naim set-up due to the superior sound. It is hard to get the spine-chilling sound we hear from the KEF’s with a Sonos system. I am just now wondering if we could have a hybrid option for those times when we really want to play in every room.
If your other rooms don’t need to have the same level of sound quality as your Naim system, which makes sense if you are moving from room to room and just want background music, there is an almost limitless choice of devices you could consider. If you want them to be in the same multiroom group as your Atom, you can use either AirPlay or Chromecast multiroom. Then you could mix, say, some cheaper Apple Homepods with the Atom and QB2. I thought the HomePods sounded fairly decent for the price when I heard them at a friends house a few months ago, and they are quite small.
A cheaper alternative to the Qb worth investigating would be the Cambridge Audio Yoyo L. Think it has pretty much the same connectivity options which includes Chromecast built-in.
I haven’t listened to it, but liked the Yoyo M despite being Bluetooth only. So would definitely consider the L.
Bluesound offer a good range of wireless speakers which can work over airplay2 and are Roon Ready if you ever decided to go that way for Multiroom as well as their own multiroom control.
Perhaps one thing worth mentioning is that with Bluetooth and Airplay, your phone/tablet will be used as the streaming source. I.e. will be repurposed for the duration and battery will drain. With Chromecast you just initiate the stream, and from then on the device can control (as can others to some extent) but is otherwise not involved. So more like using the Naim app. I’m not sure how Airplay2 works as I don’t have any Apple devices.
Does anyone have an opinion on the audio quality of AirPlay2 vs. Chromecast? I have read that Airplay limits the quality to 16/44 while Chromecast allows up to 24/96 streams. Will that really make a difference for streaming Spotify??
That won’t help you with lossy streams like Spotify, but may be useful for other streaming services.
Although Chromecast can be very useful, I have found that the quality of its implementation varies from one service to the next, so I would always trial it with your chosen sources if possible. Things like gapless playback and volume control are not always well done by the developer. I have experienced far more problems of this type on Chromecast than AirPlay.
I’ve mainly used it with Spotify and Tidal and the Radio Paradise app. All have always been excellent, but there is indeed the SoundCloud thread from a few days ago which talks of an issue.
Regarding Airplay I can’t really comment as I have no experience, but be aware that Airplay and Airplay2 are different things.