Sonus Faber Launches Accessible Omnia All-in-One Wireless Speaker System

Sonus faber announced the premiere of Omnia, the brand’s new premium wireless speaker and the latest effort from the Italian brand to create an all-in-one lifestyle music system. And for this new project, the Sonus faber team covered all bases, going beyond a stunning high end design. The Omnia supports all forms of streaming, from AirPlay 2 and Chromecast and Tidal Connect, to Bluetooth with aptX HD, offers all imaginable digital and analog connections, including a phono preamp, and fills any room with convincing sound with advanced signal processing.

Matter is an industry-unifying standard for the Smart Home that promises reliable, secure connectivity — a seal of approval that devices will work seamlessly together. But... Do audio technologies matter in the Smart Home? The audio industry needs to get involved in this convergence and interoperability effort. After all, we can already tell a speaker to play a song - thanks to voice recognition technology, AI, and wireless networks - but we still don’t have a transparent wireless audio standard to stream audio to speakers or headphones because basically audio remains restricted by specifications that were not written with audio in mind.

Danish speaker designer Lyd by Dissing announced an original project for its latest development – the Strøm wireless speaker with support for both Bluetooth and Spotify Connect via Wi-Fi. This is one of twelve demonstration projects under the European Union OPENNEXT program, aimed at promoting community-based product design and manufacturing. The Strøm is a fully open source project where both the cabinet construction and software platform are open sourced.

WiSA, the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association, announced PIEGA’s new Ace Wireless speaker series has received WiSA Interoperability Certification. The Ace Wireless Series is a compact all-in-one system with a state-of-the-art design that offers a wireless multichannel system option, up to 7.1. This entry-level wireless series includes simple TV integration, and has integrated streaming clients, like Spotify Connect, Roon Ready, Google Chromecast, also featuring Bluetooth.

McIntosh is expanding the streaming options for modern listening with its iconic designs, now in the form of the new RS150 Wireless Loudspeaker, a more compact, vertical speaker, and the RS250 Wireless Loudspeaker System, a larger tabletop integrated system. The RS150 is intended to be a user-friendly and versatile wireless speaker, while the RS250 is introduced as McIntosh's most advanced and powerful home audio wireless speaker system to date. Both models offer the most recent technologies for wireless streaming.

Pure unveiled a new range of beautifully designed music systems with foldable displays, which fit perfectly into any home, offering a diverse choice of DAB+ digital radio for the countries who have it, Internet radio (increasingly the real digital radio for the streaming age), Bluetooth and even a built-in CD player in one of the models. The new Evoke Spot, Evoke Play and Evoke Home are simple music systems that sound decent, with interesting contemporary designs that include two color schemes in Coffee Black and Cotton White.

Swedish digital audio processing pioneer Dirac announced that the new ARCAM AVR5 receiver is “Dirac Ready” to run Dirac Live Room Correction, the company’s state-of-the-art solution to ensure home audio systems deliver the maximum sound performance across all entertainment experiences. The two companies worked together to bring Dirac’s room correction technology to the affordable ARCAM AVR5 Immersive Audio AV Receiver which is now available.

Bowers & Wilkins has re-imagined the Zeppelin for the streaming age. First introduced in 2007 as the ultimate iPod dock, the B&W Zeppelin is reborn in 2021 better sounding and smarter, with a streamlined design that pays tribute to the original. With a redesigned core now supporting updated wireless streaming protocols, the Zeppelin now also offers a more detailed and dynamic sound, that will fit high-resolution audio sources.

NAD Electronics continues its expansion in the “just add speakers” category with the introduction of the C 700 BluOS Streaming Amplifier. As it did with the C 399 integrated amplifier, this new compact and modern solution renews the company's Classic Series with a powerful HybridDigital UcD amplification, 80-watts per channel and integral BluOS app interface. The C 700 suggested retail price is $1499 USD / €1499 EUR and will ship globally in late October 2021.

NAD Electronics expanded its Classic Series with a new flagship integrated amplifier featuring HybridDigital nCore amplification, ESS Sabre DAC and the latest MDC2 Modular Design Construction architecture. With all these key elements of NAD's Masters Series amplifiers, the new C 399 Hybrid Digital DAC Amplifier takes value and performance to a whole new level. The suggested retail price of the C 399 is $1999 USD with retail availability in time for the holiday season.