Is there a concept of budget multi-room audio system and what is this “multi-room”? Let’s talk about that!
Everyone who at one point or another became interested in an audio system that works on the multi-room principle (read in each room on a speaker, one music is played from one device or different from different ones) was faced with the price of such a system and … hammered. The well-known Sonos PLAY:1 system, for example, will cost 447$ for 3 speakers, and 596$ for 4 speakers. Scared? That’s it … but now we will have a moment of magic, and I will tell you how you can save three times, while getting quite a good audio system at a ridiculous price.
Fabriq RIFF
What is Fabriq RIFF? First of all, this is a wireless speaker. It can be used as a Bluetooth speaker, which is facilitated by the presence of a built-in battery, the charge of which is enough for 5 hours. Many? No, there are speakers that offer 2-4 times longer operating time, but this mode of using the speaker is more like an additional one, because in addition to working via Bluetooth, this speaker can also work via Wi-Fi connection. The essence of the action is that the FABRIQ application of the same name is installed on the phone , in it we connect our speaker to our own router through simple actions and voila, everything is ready!
The functionality of the program allows you to play music from your phone, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Spotify, TIDAL, Napster. Most of these services are paid and require a subscription, but in the case of playing music from the device’s memory, nothing of the sort is required. In the same program, we can configure our speakers (after all, we are making a multi-room, or what?), give them names (for example, Kitchen, Bathroom, etc.), update the software, and most importantly – combine them into a group. Even when the speakers are in a group, you can adjust the volume of one or another speaker in one or another room from the program to adjust the volume to your liking (for example, turn off the sound completely in the nursery, and turn it on very quietly in the kitchen and bedroom). If necessary, the speakers can be separated and only the one in the kitchen or bedroom can be used, getting a more pleasant sound than from the speaker of a smartphone.
The system becomes livelier when connected to a computer. I chose the TuneBlade program as the most convenient software for me . This program finds our individual speakers or a pool of combined speakers and allows us to output what? That’s right, all computer sounds on the audio system. Here you are free to decide for yourself what to listen to music or other audio programs from (after all, no one prevents you from using this system for an audio book, and listening to an exciting story while doing your homework). I will note only the observed point – due to the budget of the system (let’s be honest, similar systems do not work 100% now), there are two connection options. The first implies that all speakers are not in a pool, but are connected to a Wi-Fi network by separate devices. In this case, the plus will be the stability of the work, the minus is that the sound will be transmitted to each speaker with delays and you will either need to manually adjust these same delays, or listen to music in only one room. The second option is the combination of all speakers into a pool described above. With this layout, one speaker is connected to the Wi-Fi network (the main one, with which you started to connect the others), the rest are connected to it via Bluetooth. The limitation is the distance and obstacles between the speakers. In this case, the main thing to do is to make a speaker that is in the centre of the speaker chain, which will allow you to have a higher-quality signal, and therefore reduce the number of problems with speakers.
Our example
The approximate plan indicated above is relevant for a house with an area of 90 square meters, and the location of the speakers in your case (as well as ours) is up to everyone, but with a high probability they will be located near the sockets (the speaker comes with a power cable, but there is no power supply , it will have to be bought separately or twisted, I have one of the speakers connected for power to the port of the router, which is not used. The connector is standard, micro USB, that is, you can use the charger from the location of the router will also be important. It is located 2 walls from the main column, which does not particularly interfere with the signal quality.
How does it work
I would call it quite satisfactory. At least when the source is a computer, there are mostly no problems. There is some dropout, but I think there will be when using most wireless systems, including the Sonos PLAY:1 listed at the beginning of the post. There are two options – either to put up with it, or to scatter all the speakers with an audio cable around the house. Will it be cheaper? No. After all, in addition to the cable and speakers, you will need to purchase an amplifier, as well as a device called a media splitter, which will obviously be more than the price of the above system.
Design
Separately, I would like to note that each speaker has its own special design – not the usual colors like black, white or wood color, but more cool ones. Several of them are in the photo below, and I assure you – there are so many design options that you can find your own for any design
From additional functionality
I did not find a place to describe the “ruffles”, I will describe them. The speaker has an LED backlight that shows us the status of the speaker (search for connection, playback, low battery), which can also play the role of music. In my opinion, this is the easiest way to create a cozy atmosphere in the room, but mostly we have the speaker lights turned off. An equally interesting function is support for the Amazon Alexa voice consultant. With my broken English, I was never able to convince her to play the next track, and I should have, given that it requires extra body movements like pressing a button on the case to activate voice commands.
Fabriq Chorus
For richer people who prefer comfort, the manufacturer has another speaker – Fabriq Chorus. There are several differences – two speakers instead of one, a battery with a larger capacity, the possibility of installing the speaker on a docking station with power (included in the kit), voice activation of Alexa (probably convenient) and…as far as I remember everything. You will have to pay twice as much for these cons, so if I were to take this speaker, it would be more likely to be the main one, while the others would be small ones. Also, such speaker is more relevant for premises such as a hall with an area of more than 20 square meters. By the way, the volume of the Riff speaker is also enough to cover the entire hall of such an area.
Feeling
Once upon a time, Sony Ericsson had an advertisement…I won’t tell you, I’ll just show you this video:
So, when you have a Fabriq speaker in each room and they sound simultaneously (without delays, that is), the picture is almost the same as in the video, the feeling that the music is floating around you. Regardless of the volume of the music, you hear it in every room in the same way, you don’t have to turn it on at some high volume in order to hear the music in any part of the house or apartment while doing your business. This incomparable feeling is worth having such a system in your home.
Options for use
There are actually many options for using such a system – my wife like to take a bath while listening to music, those who have children will appreciate the opportunity to turn on a lullaby for the child at night, and if you have guests, you can always turn on some music in the background. A romantic evening? Can it be without the appropriate music? And cleaning is more fun, singing along and dancing to your favourite rhythms. I assure you, with such a system you will start listening to music much more often, because the process itself will bring more pleasure, and if you live in an apartment, the neighbours will have dramatically fewer reasons to knock on your door in the middle of the night, because now it is not necessary to turn on the music at all coil to hear it in any corner of the apartment.
In the dry residue…
Despite some shortcomings of the system in terms of operation (everything is fine from the phone, when starting music from the computer, sometimes you have to start the system on the phone first and only then it will work on the computer, i.e. dependence on the native on the phone), I would call it good way to check and see if you need a similar audio system in general. In our case, she added comfort to the house, which is well worth the money they ask for several such speakers for use in multi-room mode.
Author: Sa Crea
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