Music Streaming

Ikea has teamed up with Sonos to add another product to the Symfonisk range that debuted in 2019 with a table lamp/speaker combo and a standalone streaming speaker. This time the collaboration has merged a picture frame with a Wi-Fi speaker.

Music lovers who want to stream tunes from their smartphone to the home hi-fi or from the hi-fi to Bluetooth headphones might be disappointed. McIntosh Labs engineered the MB20 Bluetooth Transceiver to enable any hi-fi setup to do just that.

Bang & Olufsen has unveiled a new outdoorsy member of its portable speaker range called the Beosound Explore, which rocks an aluminum shell for durability and IP67 waterproofing for all-weather adventuring accompanied by B&O's signature sound.

A premium audio startup from an ex-Apple design veteran has launched a striking streaming speaker called the Cell Alpha, which uses three drivers and two woofers to immerse listeners in room-filling spatial sound.

High-end Brit hi-fi brand Naim Audio has launched a special edition of its Uniti Atom "just add speakers" music streamer especially for listeners who like to shut themselves off from the world and focus on the music.

Danish luxury audiovisual brand Bang & Olufsen has launched its most advanced connected speakers to date. The Beolab 28 towers can serve as floor standers, or be mounted on a wall, and feature covers that draw open like curtains at power on.

Bang & Olufsen shrugs off the blocky old persona of the average bookshelf speaker, and has instead launched a slim full-range model called the Beosound Emerge that can take its place well among the hardbacks and paperbacks on your library shelf.

Sony offered a glimpse of its first 360-degree audio speakers back at the online-only CES 2021 expo in January, with two units based around the company's 360 Reality Audio tech. Now the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 are up for pre-order.

Looking to offer a little something extra for the audiophiles in the crowd, Spotify has announced a new streaming tier for high-quality lossless audio called Spotify HiFi, which will be available to Premium subscribers as an optional extra later this year.

Back in 2014, French audio house Devialet launched a $2,000, 750-W wireless speaker called the Phantom that looked like nothing else out there. Now the company has upgraded its flagship compact all-in-one speaker for 2021.

A mid-year report has revealed vinyl sales in 2020 have surpassed CD sales for the first time since the mid-1980s. The report also reveals the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the physical media music market hard but streaming music subscriptions are up.

Bose launched a new audio product in late 2018, in the shape of two pairs of sunglasses equipped with tiny speakers and a microphone. And clearly the company has had some success with them as three more flavors have now joined the Frames lineup.