Harman, Monster Jump Into Wireless Streaming Audio, as Sonos Goes Wi-Fi

Sonos’ announcement earlier this week that a software update allows the company’s music systems to now operate over Wi-Fi -- without a bridge to a router -- has taken on new significance with news Thursday that Harman and Monster have launched competing Wi-Fi-based streaming music products.

Market leader Sonos has so far weathered competition from companies trying to enter the space, including Bluesound, Bose, DTS with Play-Fi and Samsung, but now its decade-old dominance is being put to the test with the arrival of audio industry big guns Harman, Monster and Panasonic. Monster and Panasonic are using Qualcomm’s AllPlay system for wireless audio.

Harman announced Thursday the Harman Kardon Omni loudspeakers and the Adapt wireless adapter powered by Blackfire Research wireless media technology (http://bit.ly/1AaUhGO). Both Harman products support 24-bit/96kHz audio streaming compared with Sonos support for 16-bit/44.1kHz streaming. According to a user forum on the Sonos website, the company doesn’t plan to support high-res audio, a strategy that hasn’t been well received by some customers. One user said 10 months ago it was a “pity” that Sonos isn’t looking to support high-res formats. “I think it will be their Achilles’ heel moving forward if this isn’t reconsidered soon,” the user said.

In response to our question about Sonos’ plans for high-res audio delivery, company spokesman Eric Nielsen told us, “We can’t comment around any specifics on potential formats that may or may not be on our road map.” The company is “always exploring the various ways [customers] can listen in the home,” Nielsen said, adding that the company isn’t married to a single format and supports “more file formats and music services than any other manufacturer of home audio systems.”

Although many competitors tout Bluetooth streaming as an option for their wireless music systems, Sonos has no plans to take that route at this time, Nielsen said. Bluetooth technology “currently doesn’t support our measure for the robust music experience” the company wants to give customers, he said. Sonos innovates and differentiates in other ways, he said, such as allowing users to “play music from outside of our app directly on Sonos.” He cited agreements with Google Play and Chinese music streaming company QQ Music along with software updates that enable users to stream files directly from a smartphone or tablet to a Sonos speaker.

Harman, meanwhile, said Thursday that the Harman Kardon Omni 10 ($199) and Omni 20 ($299) can be placed as stand-alone speakers, combined as a stereo pair or set up as a multichannel speaker system. The Harman system also offers Bluetooth streaming. In an apparent jab at Sonos, it cited ease of setup via the app and a standard Wi-Fi connection “with no network cable connection required.” The Harman Kardon Adapt ($129) wireless adaptor “connects the gap” between a consumer’s existing hi-fi gear and a wireless network, the company said. Through the adaptor, users can play a song in one room only or to every room that’s part of the system, it said.

Monster launched Thursday its SoundStage wireless music system: three speaker models at $199, $299 and $399 each that will be available Oct. 25. The company focused on design, emphasizing a “minimal footprint” and leather top surface over a wedge-like cabinet shape that’s a departure from typical speakers. The accompanying app gives user control of all functions, and the system works over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Monster said.

SoundStage is designed to make it easy for consumers to integrate their music from various connected devices into a single wireless hub, Monster said. All of the devices on a Wi-Fi network running the SoundStage app can collaboratively build playlists from music stored on computers, networked drives and smartphones, the company said. Each device running the app can add music to shared playlists for each speaker or speaker group, Monster said, and users can use the app to send separate music streams to different speakers simultaneously.

Qualcomm’s AllPlay platform allows users to synchronously stream music to multiple Soundstage speakers in party mode or to send multiple songs to multiple speakers, Monster said. Streamed content can be local or native from within music service apps including Napster, Rhapsody, Soma.FM, Spotify and others as they come available, it said. A differentiator for Monster’s SoundStage is a software algorithm used to simulate a larger sound stage, the company said.