Tote Your Songs

Tote Your Songs

Sixty decades ago, the advertising term “hi-fi” was used to market big stereo systems that played 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records and FM radio, instead of the lower-quality 78 rpm records and AM radio. Today few people still listen to records at home, as well as traditional radio is being replaced by digital music files downloaded from Web sources.

Music lovers buy tracks or albums from Apple’s iTunes and its equivalents, such as Google Play and Amazon MP3. Another common choice is streaming music websites, like Pandora and Spotify. These fundamental alternatives for finding music are only a couple of the hundreds. Along with the alternatives for listening are increasing.

Leslie A Wood

Music is usually discovered, purchased and controlled with computers, tablets and, above all, our phones instead of having anything related to retail stores or conventional radio.

At the hi-fi age, speakers needed to be physically connected by cables to a central receiver, which served as an amplifier — a box capable of getting over-the-air radio and enter from a tape or record player — and also a control panel, where the user can switch inputs, change the volume and decide on the music.

Now most of this is achieved within an program. However, if you want booming, high-quality home sound, you still need amplified speakers. However, you don’t need a receiver. And you do not have to transmit music over wires. You need Wi-Fi hi-fi. Good sound, no cables.

One of the most significant things about Wi-Fi hi-fi is its portability. You can just pick it up and take it into a different room, the garden — or a different home.

store.sony.com

Sony SA-NS510 Wireless Speakers – $299

The Sony SA-NS510 is notable because of its traffic-cone-like form and the fact that it runs on rechargeable batteries for approximately five hours. It’s a handle for easy portability. It has no front or back and blasts music 360 degrees about it — ideal for an outdoor party or picnic. Like the other systems within this ideabook, it streams music in your phone or tablet — in this case, either an iOS or Android device by means of a dedicated mobile program. It also supports Apple’s AirPlay technology, streaming music from any Apple telephone, tablet or pc directly into the speaker system over the atmosphere.

Crutchfield

Bowers & Wilkins A7 Speaker System – $799.99

The Bowers & Wilkins A7 has a 6-inch Kevlar-reinforced subwoofer, a Nautilus tubing aluminum tweeter, a 3-inch midrange speaker and five dedicated audiophile class-D amplifiers. Reviewers praise the A7’s noise, even in low volumes. In addition to streaming via Apple AirPlay, you can also decide to join over routine Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable.

Philips

Philips Fidelio Wireless Hi-Fi Speakers

Reviewers have lauded the Philips Fidelio Wireless Hi-Fi as a great-looking and great sounding wireless sound system. Constructed from Apple’s iOS or the Android mobile program Philips AirStudio, the Fidelio approaches the convenience of just playing music via earbuds, but with great speaker sound.

There’s no dedicated remote controller unit. On the other hand, the speakers do have five buttons that operate like car-radio presets. You pick an Internet radio station for every one, and that allows you turn on the speakers and play a station without using the program on a telephone or tablet.

Sony

These and many other sound options can bring your house’s sound system from the time of cables into the flexible, interactive and mobile age of Wi-Fi hi-fi.

See related