The streaming speaker market has some great contenders when you think about names like Samsung, Bose and Sonos. For anyone who’s really into speakers and high quality audio, you’ll also know the latest name to jump into the streaming audio game with a similar designed system to the other market players – Klipsch.
The announcement today that they have launched 6 devices in the Klipsch Stream Wireless Audio Range to get your home pumping is a fantastic surprise to those looking for some high quality equipment so let’s take a quick look at the devices
RW-1 Wireless Speaker
The Klipsch Reference RW-1 Wireless Speaker is the “satellite” option for the Klipsch Stream Wireless Multi-Room Audio System, similar to the Sonos Play 1. Much like the Sonos system, Each room and speaker is controlled seamlessly from your phone, tablet or computer to deliver sound to every room of your house. The RW-1 wireless speaker is embedded with a 30-watt powered digital amplifier.
The Three
The big brother of the RW-1 is “The Three” which is certainly a big step up. It’s a really slick looking speaker with some gorgeous materials used including wood veneer, copper switches and knobs. The audio quality is said to be a big leap up from the entry level speaker too.
RSB-8 Sound Bar
The Klipsch Reference RSB-8 sound bar and wireless subwoofer add audio quality and volume that a TV just can’t do on its own. Unlike some of the other soundbars out there though, you can also utilise this via the streaming app on your phone which syncs with any other Klipsch stream products for a whole-home audio eco-system.
RSB-14 Sound Bar
More power than the RSB-8 and a slightly better audio range will make this one the bees knees of the range, but (although pricing isn’t available as yet) you’ll pay a premium for a this one. The RSB-14 is a top-of-the-line sound bar and wireless subwoofer system.
This is where I can’t help but feel Klipsch have out-thought their competition…
Gate
The Klipsch Gate is designed to connect your legacy audio products to the Klipsch Stream Wireless Multi-Room Audio System. It’s just a case of plugging your Gate to any audio source such as a CD player (a what?) or turntable to playback its content through your Klipsch speakers, or plug the Klipsch Gate into an existing audio system to enable you to stream music directly to your speakers.
Powergate
It’s a 2 x 100 watt amplifier which means that the PowerGate has the punch to drive pretty much anything you’re likely to have lying around your home.
Now here comes the bad bit for those of you who are invested in one of the major streaming services…
Right now the supported streaming services are:
- Pandora
- Tidal
- Sirius XM
- I heart radio
- Napster
So no Spotify, No Apple Music, No Google Music and no mention of Google Cast anywhere in the specs which seems to be a bit of an oversight on the part of Klipsch. That being said, some of the range have aux input so you could easily add a Chromecast Music to it but should you need to is my question?
We’ve reached out to Klipsch to confirm pricing and availability within Australia which we’ll share with the Ausdroid community once we have the information.
What will make you look at or overlook the Klipsch Stream range when you’re next shopping for speakers?
No cast = no deal. As an android user (which I assume most of the audience here is) why would you choose streaming speakers that use a new proprietary platform over something more widely supported and android-integrated like cast? The exception here is Sonos but they’ve got a reputation for good hardware and 15 years of app support legacy to fall back on.