Ready to upgrade your home’s entertainment situation? Perhaps it’s time to go shopping for a multi-room audio system.
While the best-known ones are made by Sonos, many brands are producing wireless speaker setups so you can jam out (or listen to podcast) in every room of your house.
Read on to see our top picks for the best multi room audio systems for your smart home.
What is a Multi-Room Audio System?
A multi-room audio system is a broad category of products that allow you to listen to music in multiple rooms.
Whether you can listen to different songs in different rooms, or the same music in every room, depends on the system you choose.
The music you play can come from your own music collection on CDs or your computer, or from streaming services like Spotify or Amazon Music.
Multi-room audio systems are typically wireless and controlled via smartphone. This allows you to put speakers anywhere you want inside or outside your home.
It might sound expensive to have the luxury of music playing in every room of your house. But since you have the ability to add speakers one by one, it can be more affordable than you think.
Plus, the ability to listen to different songs or artists in every room is a huge bonus when you have different generations under one roof.
| Multi room Audio Systems | Product Information | Check Price |
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Top | Audio Pro Addon C3 Portable High Fidelity WiFi Bluetooth Wireless Multi-Room Speakers | Check Price |
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Top | Sonos Five - The High-Fidelity Speaker for Superior Sound | Check Price |
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Top | Sonos One (Gen 2) - Voice Controlled Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa Built-in | Check Price |
 | Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i Portable Wireless Multi-Room Smart Speaker with Bluetooth - White - Compatible with Alexa and Siri | Check Price |
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Top | Denon HEOS 5 Wireless Speaker | Check Price |
Audio Pro Addon C3 Multi-Room Speakers
- FITS ANYWHERE: Small in Stature, Big in Sound: Fits in any space, fills any room with surprisingly rich and powerful sound.
- TROUBLE-FREE PORTABILITY: Addon C3 is a rechargeable, battery powered & wireless multiroom speaker.
- WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: Use any bluetooth or wifi compatible electronic to wirelessly stream your favorite tunes!
- LONG-LASTING BATTERY: Up to 15 hours of playback on a single charge!
- POWERFUL AMPLIFIERS: Impressive 25W Class D Digital Amplifier.
Coming in at $299, the Audio Pro Addon C3 Multi-Room Speakers is a fantastic start to a multi-room audio system. While it’s small in size, it packs a punch when it comes to sound, with plenty of bass.
If you like streaming music via Bluetooth, this is one of the best-sounding speakers you’ll find. It’s rechargeable, wireless, and battery powered, with built in wi-fi.
And with multi-room functionality, you can play one song throughout the whole house or different songs in different rooms. It’s compatible with Alexa, so you can play music using just your voice.
With an easy to use smartphone app, you can stream music from Apple AirPlay, Spotify, Tidal or numerous other services.
Audio Pro is a longstanding Swedish speaker company, and this is a great-looking speaker. It has a simple, classic design with a leather handle on top and comes in black, gray, or white.
Overall, this is a fantastic speaker with amazing sound quality that will look great in your home, too.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great sound quality | Smartphone app can be buggy |
| Classic design | Expensive |
| Great features for the price | |
| Best Multi-Room Audio Systems Reviews |
Sonos Five
- All-new Sonos Five - Experience vividly clear, room-filling sound for music and more with Five, tuned by renowned producer Giles Martin. Enjoy control with the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2, and more
- Deep bass - Fives unrivalled acoustic design features 3 high-excursion woofers within a sealed architecture that eliminates reverb and echo
- Ultra-wide soundstage - 2 precisely-angled side tweeters create spatial extension and rich stereo sound, while a center tweeter optimizes vocal playback
If you’re looking to start your multi-room audio system off on the best foot possible spring for the Sonos Five.
While it costs around $500, it has the most superior, room-filling sound of just about any speaker you’ll find. If you’re a music lover who really desires the best sound possible for their multi-speaker system, start here.
The Sonos Five is somewhat bulky in size, but its size also lends it the most powerful bass of any speaker in this article.
That amazing sound quality was tuned by famed producer Giles Martin and offers deep bass, plus smart stereo sound if you turn the speaker horizontally — great for watching movies.
Thanks to the Sonos app, it’s also incredibly easy to make this the center point of a multi-room audio system. (And thankfully, Sonos has less expensive speaker models you can put in other, less-used rooms.)
The minimalist design of the Sonos Five should fit into any room. Really, the only downside of the Sonos Five is that it lacks Bluetooth, which may be a deal-breaker for some.
If you’re used to having visitors connect their phone to your system to play music, the Sonos Five won’t cut it. But if you’re an Apple user, you can accomplish that via Airplay.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great sound quality | Bulky |
| Volume gets very loud | Expensive |
| Easy to manage multiple speakers | Lacks Bluetooth |
| Best Multi-Room Audio Systems Reviews |
Sonos One
- Sonos One - The powerful smart speaker with voice control built-in
- Brilliant sound - Get rich, room-filling sound with Sonos One, and control it with your voice, the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay2, and more
- Voice control - Amazon Alexa is built right in so you can play music, check news, set alarms, get your questions answered, and more, completely hands free
The Sonos One was Sonos’s first entry into the smart speaker world, and an impressive one at that.
If you’re devoted to using Alexa or Google Assistant but also want really amazing sound quality and multi-room functionality, you can’t go wrong.
While it’s certainly more expensive than an Amazon Echo or Google Home, the fantastic sound makes it worth the $199 price tag.
With six internal microphones, your digital assistant will have no trouble understanding you even with background noise. And with Spotify Connect, you can request songs by simply saying them out loud.
The Sonos S2 app is highly intuitive and makes multi-room audio easy. It has a great feature called “room groups” which remembers frequently grouped speakers, like if you have multiple speakers on your patio.
This makes getting the party started faster and easier.
Like the Sonos Five, it lacks Bluetooth, but Apple AirPlay compatibility generally makes that a moot point. If you’re an Android user, you may want to consider a Bose instead.
But for anyone else, the Sonos One is an excellent, budget-friendly choice for multi-room audio with smart speaker functionality.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Speaker is attractive | Mediocre sound quality |
| Apple Airplay 2 compatible | Smartphone app isn't very intuitive |
| Great, clear sound | Expensive for the quality |
| Best Multi-Room Audio Systems Reviews |
Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i Portable Wireless Multi-Room Smart Speaker
- Ultra-compact speaker that delivers crystal-clear size-defying sound
- Direct digital amplifier and custom-tuned drivers energize your music with Deep detailed bass and no distortion
- Plug it in and connect it to your Wi-Fi for control from anywhere in your home
- Works with Alexa and Siri and lets you control and play music hands-free with voice command
The Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i Portable Wireless Multi-Room Smart Speaker is a small wireless speaker that you can use to play audio across multiple rooms.
At $299, it isn’t cheap, but it has some good features including both wi-fi network connectivity and Bluetooth, as well as Apple Airplay 2 compatibility.
It also integrates with Siri or Amazon Alexa, although you’ve got to have a Siri or Alexa-enabled device for it to work with.
Where the Bluesound Pulse Flex 2i falls short is with the sound quality. This isn’t a speaker that’s well-suited to jamming out with; the sound is too closed-in and simply isn’t up to par.
It might do the job for listening to podcasts, but for the money, you may want to look elsewhere. The smartphone app also isn’t the most intuitive, especially compared to Sonos.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Speaker is attractive | Mediocre sound quality |
| Apple Airplay 2 compatible | Smartphone app isn't very intuitive |
| Great, clear sound | Expensive for the quality |
| Best Multi-Room Audio Systems Reviews |
Denon HEOS 5 Wireless Speaker
- Connect your iOS/Android phone or tablet, or Kindle Fire device, or GIVE VOICE COMMANDS THROUGH ALEXA, Airplay 2, SIRI OR GOOGLE ASSISTANT and JOSH.AI
- SET UP YOUR SPEAKER (OR SPEAKERS) IN MINUTES in 3 simple steps plug it in, tap the app, connect to wireless network and enjoy your favorite music crisp, clear and amplified
- HEOS Sound, with Denons 100 year legacy and Japanese precision technology, demonstrate our innovative craftsmanship and high quality audio solutions; Passionately engineered with meticulously designed components, the HEOS 5 speakers deliver exceptional performance
The Denon HEOS 5 Wireless Speaker is one of the larger wireless speakers on this list, with sound quality that gives Sonos a run for its money.
The larger body houses four drivers and impressive bass for impressive sound. Nonetheless, it’s still compact enough to fit into just about any room. At $399 it’s quite pricey, but if sound quality matters to you, this is a good pick.
And unlike Sonos models, the Denon HEOS 5 does indeed support Bluetooth. This makes it a great option if you often have guests, so they can stream music from their phones.
However, the HEOS app only runs on Android, iOS, and Amazon Kindle devices. That means there’s no simple or fast way to play music off your laptop or desktop computer, which many folks may find frustrating.
You may notice some distortion with deep bass at higher volumes, but overall the sound is impressively clear for any music lover.
The Denon HEOS 5 also works with all your favorite streaming services including Amazon Music and Tidal.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Compatible with iOS and Android | Wi-fi can be finicky |
| Great, clear sound | Deep bass distorts |
| Works with many streaming services | |
| Best Multi-Room Audio Systems Reviews |
Final Thoughts
Now you’ve learned more about these powerful multi-room systems that can play music all over your house via voice assistants.
Whether you’re loyal to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, there’s a system out there to make your life easier and more fun.
And no matter what your budget, you can find a multi-room audio setup that will work for you. Happy listening!
