HiFi for small spaces

For a music lover, apartment-dwelling can be quite a challenge. The claims of furniture, books, CDs (for those that have retained them), computers and work paraphernalia etc. on the limited available space will often leave too little room for stacks of full-sized HiFi equipment and the acoustically appropriate positioning of physically separate stereo loudspeakers, to say nothing of the aesthetic impact of such things on a compact living space. 

Whilst all-in-one music systems are in no way a new phenomenon, the streaming age has brought something of a renaissance, combined with technological renewal, to the breed. Where such devices previously usually integrated a CD player and radio (and sometimes an iPod dock), nowadays they tend to eschew physical media in favour of internet music streaming. This change makes things like network connectivity and software just as important as pure audio performance and has left traditional HiFi brands playing catch-up as newcomers like Sonos (who arguably created the streaming speaker product category) reinvented music playback for the 21st century. 

A few years on, the streaming HiFi product sector is a little more mature. New brands have emerged and the aforementioned HiFi royalty have brought out products designed to combine Sonos ease-of-use with higher sound quality. Though some (perhaps lucky) people are perfectly content with a compact bluetooth speaker as their source of music at home, those of us who are space-constrained but want to listen to favourite recorded performances in good quality have more choice than ever. 

Searching for the best all-in-one streaming music system for myself has led to me having used and listened to three of the leading contenders for this title so I thought I would share my thoughts on their relative merits. The products are

The Sonos Five

The Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin 2021 model

The Naim Mu-so 2nd generation

Firstly, I should note that this is in no way a fair fight: The most expensive of these speakers costs around three times as much as the cheapest. I’ll mention value-for-money but the competition here is simply to find the best all-in-one streaming HiFi for a smallish living space. Secondly, I’m only going to comment in detail on these three, as I’ve used them all at some length. I will mention some competing products for completeness, but will not judge them. 

The Sonos Five is the largest of Sonos’ speakers designed for music playback (they also make soundbars for AV) and the only one meant to provide stereo from a single enclosure. It is the top of the Sonos line in terms of all-in-ones, even after the recent launch of the Era 300 speaker, and, like other Sonos speakers, it can be paired with a second Sonos Five to provide traditional stereo playback from two physically separate speakers (a useful capability that is outside the scope of this comparison). It has a recommended price of around €600 but is generally available for around €530 at the time of writing. 

The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin is the fourth generation of what started out as an upmarket iPod dock speaker but has now evolved into an app-driven streaming WiFi speaker (sans dock). It officially retails for €800 but has dropped in price significantly since launch and is currently available for as little as €530, making it a direct competitor for the Sonos Five.

The Naim Mu-so 2nd generation adds the royalty to the HiFi and is effectively the default ‘high end’ option in the all-in-one streaming speaker market. As its name makes clear, it is the second generation of Naim’s larger streaming speaker and, like the Sonos, has a more compact sibling in the Mu-so ‘Qb’ model. The Naim is a lot more expensive than the other speakers here, and has actually gone up a bit in price since launch. As a higher-end product, it is less widely sold than the other two but can generally be found at the €1600 mark. That’s right: Twice the official price of the Zeppelin and around three times the street price of it or the Sonos Five. Like I said, this isn’t a fair fight. Occasionally I have seen the Naim available at a significant discount from German vendors via Amazon (at the time of writing, it is available via this route for €1400)  but these seem to be temporary offers that come and go. 

Design and build

There are two quite different design philosophies at work in this group of products: The Sonos, though perfectly neat, is designed to be unobtrusive and to blend into the background in a room. Available in white or black plastic, it is a largely featureless, well-constructed rectangle with a few touch-sensitive buttons on top and that’s about it. For some, this will be exactly what they want from a music source. Behind the discrete front grille are 3 tweeters (two of which are set into acoustic channels pointing out to left and right in aid of stereo effect) and three mid/bass drivers. Sonos do not quote power figures for the unit’s amplification. 

The Mu-so and Zeppelin, on the other hand, are statement pieces, clearly designed to attract attention and feature prominently in whatever space they occupy. The Mu-so is a large, brutalist slab of immaculately-finished metal and perspex, crowned by the big, illuminated control wheel interface we’ll discuss in the next section. The Naim logo set into the transparent perspex base, upon which the massive unit rests, is also lit up, just in case you forget who you paid all that money to. The illumination can, incidentally, be dimmed or switched off, whilst the sharp-edged visual design is softened a little by the ‘wave’ form of the speaker grille, behind which 6 drivers (stereo tweeters and mid-range units on either side, with twin ‘racetrack’ bass drivers in the middle) reside. The drivers were designed by the French loudspeaker manufacturer Focal, Naim’s sister company, and are individually amplified with a total of 450 watts of power. Yes, really. 

The Zeppelin, though just as much a design statement, has a far more organic form than the rectangular Naim, being modelled on (surprise!) the shape of a Zeppelin. The material choices are a little more prosaic, with the unit being largely plastic, though mounted on a stylish aluminium pedestal that (again, like the Naim) is illuminated, giving a sort of ‘floating’ look to the speaker. Controls are minimal (akin to the Sonos) and the grille hides five drivers this time: Left and right stereo tweeters and mid-range drivers, with a single large bass driver in the middle. Said drivers must do their work with a combined amplification power of a mere 240 watts. However will they cope?

Connectivity and controls

This section provides the clearest distinction of all in terms of the comparison between these products: With only a couple of small caveats, the Naim absolutely steamrollers the other two units. Besides an app for control, internet radio and integration of streaming services (all three have this and the apps will be discussed in the next section), the Naim’s wireless connectivity incorporates both Apple’s Airplay 2 and Google’s Chromecast wifi streaming protocols in addition to Spotify Connect and Bluetooth (though this lacks the highest-quality AptX protocols). Wired connectivity is also extensive, offering both analogue and digital inputs, together with a USB socket for music on pendrives and an HDMI input that allows the Mu-so to be used as a soundbar replacement. An ethernet port is present, in addition to the built-in WiFi receiver. 

In addition to the wireless app-based options available from one’s smartphone or tablet, the Naim device incorporates a frankly glorious physical control system atop the unit: A huge, illuminated, volume dial encapsulates a touchscreen that offers playback controls, allows selection of 5 preset internet radio stations (or playlists) and gives access to the various source and multi-room options, including a ‘resume’ button for Spotify connect. The control senses the motion of one’s approaching hand and activates itself for use, even after the unit has been switched off, and the lighting of the volume dial adapts itself to indicate which functions are being accessed. The whole thing is beautifully designed, superbly functional and feels genuinely luxurious. The supplied remote control is a bit of a let-down after the experience of the control wheel, being a bit plasticky and mundane in comparison, but it works fine and the Mu-so is actually the only device here to include a physical remote in the package.

The opposite end of the scale from the do-it-all Naim is the Zeppelin, which is rather minimalist in its approach to connectivity and controls: In addition to the app sources, the Zeppelin supports Spotify Connect, Apple’s Airplay 2 protocol and has a very good Bluetooth implementation that supports high-quality AptX protocols but it lacks Chromecast support. Physical connectivity is basically non-existent: The only connection on the back of the Zeppelin is a USB-C maintenance port. This can supposedly be used with an ethernet adaptor for wired network connectivity but I couldn’t get this working with the adapter I tried (WiFi reception was excellent however). In addition, the Zeppelin is the only unit in this comparison to incorporate voice control directly, via Amazon Alexa; for those who would like to invite Jeff Bezos’ employees into their living room. Physical controls are limited to play/pause, volume adjustment and buttons for multi-room and Alexa.

The Sonos Five sits in between the other two units’ extremes but is closer to the Zeppelin: It has slightly more comprehensive on-unit controls, allowing rewind and fast-forward, but gets nowhere near the Naim’s capabilities in this regard. In addition to the Sonos app, it supports Airplay 2 and Spotify Connect (in addition to direct play from a couple of other streaming services) but lacks Chromecast or Bluetooth. It offers a single, 3.5mm, physical input for music sources and has an ethernet port for wired connectivity. 

App and Ecosystem

Here is where the Sonos really comes into its own. There is a reason Sonos leads the market for wireless speakers and the app is a big part of it: It is by far the most comprehensive in terms of supporting streaming services (pretty much all of them) and is generally slick, reliable and well-designed. It’s worth checking the support of your preferred streaming service, as not all integrations are equally well-done but the universal search and internet radio features in the app work superbly. Sonos is also the leader in terms of its ecosystem, offering what is probably the best multi-room support and offering a variety of speakers at different price-points to those who want a whole-house system.

Of the other two apps, the Naim gets the runner-up prize: It’s well designed, generally reliable, internet radio works well and the two streaming services that are directly integrated (Qobuz and Tidal) are superbly done, with the ability to search within favourites (something the Sonos app can’t do). On the other hand, Sonos integrates far more services and the Naim app sometimes keeps you waiting when you return to it; it often takes a few seconds for the ‘now playing’ view to catch up with the network. Multi-room is integrated within the app for compatible Naim products so the very well-heeled could do a whole-home system with this.

The Bowers and Wilkins ‘Music’ app is attractively designed, has good internet radio support and has an interesting playlist generation feature but, like the Naim, is limited in terms of the streaming services it integrates. It also suffered from network connectivity issues in my experience, often ‘losing’ the Zeppelin for a couple of minutes. For this reason, it comes last. When I tested it, the Zeppelin was still waiting to receive an update to allow multi-room with compatible Bowers and Wilkins ‘Formation’ products.

Sound quality

Firstly: No all-in-one speaker will give you the same, broad, stereo soundstage as two physically separate, correctly positioned stereo loudspeakers. This caveat applies to all three unit discussed here (though not equally). It is, however, the only caveat that applies to the sound quality of the Naim Mu-so 2. In every other respect, it sounds superb: It’s basically a very good HiFi in one elegant box. The Naim app offers 3 presets for room positioning, allowing you to tell the Mu-so if it is in open space, near a wall or in a corner. These settings tame the bass reflections that would otherwise dominate the sound and are well worth playing with. Once this is set up and the ‘loudness’ setting (inexplicably on by default) is switched off, the Mu-so will delight you with a particularly good mid-range and vocal reproduction, strong bass and a stupid amount of power (if you should ever need to fill a concert hall with a single speaker, choose this one). The aforementioned stereo soundstage may not match two separate speakers but is better than most all-in-one competitors. It’s the best sounding speaker here; as well it should be, given its price.

The Zeppelin is a real surprise. Though a lot less expensive than the Naim (particularly at its current street price), it actually gets quite close to it in terms of sound quality. It’s plenty powerful for the average living room, has deep bass and, like the Naim, has an excellent soundstage for this type of device. It lacks any room positioning settings and in a reflective space the bass can get quite boomy, which requires manually tweaking the tone controls, but other than that it’s quite difficult to fault. In terms of sound performance for your money, it’s clearly the bargain of the group.

The Sonos Five is a bit tricky to rate. Out of the box, it doesn’t sound great, with a sound that is unbalanced and bass-heavy. Switching off the loudness function (like the Naim, on by default for some reason) helps quite a bit but the default tuning of the Five still has too much bass to sound neutral. Turning the bass down a one or two notches in the tone controls works wonders and results in a basically good sounding speaker, though one with a narrower soundstage and less power than the other two units discussed here. The Sonos app offers a sophisticated room-tuning feature called ‘Trueplay’ that uses the microphone in a smartphone or tablet to measure the acoustic response of the room and adjust the speaker accordingly. It works well but has one very major downside: It is only supported on certain Apple iPhone and iPad devices. Non-Apple users must do without or, as Sonos (seemingly without irony) suggest, borrow a friend’s iPhone. Some other Sonos speakers (like the new Era 100 and 300) have a built-in tuning feature that uses the speaker’s own microphones, but this is no help to owners of the Five. In terms of sound quality, the Sonos is by no means bad but must finish last in this company.

Verdict

If you want the best all-in-one wireless HiFi speaker and cost is no object, the conclusion is as simple as can be: Buy the Naim Mu-so 2nd generation. It sounds the best, has the best connectivity and controls, is superbly built and looks stunning. Other than the price of admission, it’s as close to a no-regret purchase as you’re ever going to get. 

If the Naim’s price is a barrier, the Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin makes a very compelling argument for itself, offering excellent sound quality in an elegant and distinctive package. You’ll be making a trade-off in terms of app reliability (which may not be a big deal if you are mainly using Spotify, Airplay or Bluetooth), power and connectivity, but will be getting a lot of quality music reproduction for your hard-earned cents.

It seems unfair to banish the Sonos Five to last place: It is far from a poor product, sounds good once set up correctly, can be used in a stereo pair and has the best music streaming app and ecosystem around. This contest was simply about finding the best all-in-one for music reproduction, however, and the other products do that better. 

Competitors and alternatives

It’s worth noting, as a final addendum, that the three reviewed products are not alone in the marketplace. At the high-end price point, the Mu-so 2 has gained a competitor in Sonus Faber’s Omnia, which has been getting good reviews but lacks its own app for control and integrated streaming. Denon have a range of ‘Home’ speakers, of which the 350 model may provide an alternative to the Zeppelin or Sonos Five, though their app platform is far less comprehensive than that of Sonos. There are also alternatives from brands like Harman Kardon, Bose and Bluesound. A final option for those who are tempted by the Mu-so but for whom it is too expensive (or too large) is its smaller sibling the Mu-so Qb, also now in its second generation. In comparison with the full-size Mu-so you’ll be losing some amplifier power, one of the bass drivers and the HDMI input but the beautiful control system, app and the rest of the functionality is the same. The acoustic design and cabinet is very different however, with a much narrower chassis and angled drivers (with passive bass radiators, rather than a bass reflex port), so listening yourself would definitely be advised.