If you want to link unrelated audio kit across different rooms of the house to create a multi-room effect, DTS Play-Fi can help. It’s a wireless audio platform that’s licensed to hi-fi brands. It means that instead of buying all your audio gear from one manufacturer like Sonos or Bluesound, you can wirelessly link devices made by lots of different manufacturers. These are mostly ‘serious’ hi-fi brands like McIntosh, Onkyo, Arcam, Klipsch, Polk and Thiel.
Compatible devices include wireless speakers, stereo systems, AV receivers, preamps, streamers, media servers and more. You can control them all using the Play-Fi app on your Android or iOS device, Amazon Fire tablet or computer.
The app supports all the major streaming services (Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc), with the notable exception of Apple Music – though some Play-Fi-compatible products do support Apple’s AirPlay 2 wireless tech.
(Image credit: Tidal)
DTS Play-Fi supports MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF files up to 16bit/48kHz resolution without compression. But if you choose, you can stream higher resolution files than that – using the service’s Critical Listening mode, you can stream up to 24bit/192kHz (i.e. high resolution) tunes across your wi-fi network. Though those files will be pretty large, so you might want to use a wired connection to avoid the playback stuttering like Grandmaster Melle Mel.
So how many devices can you add to your home network? As many as you like, though DTS recommends a maximum of 32 to avoid performance issues. And up to 16 Play-Fi devices can play the same song. Imagine: Elton John’s Rocketman following you around the house. Terrifying.
You can also control Play-Fi using your voice through Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri voice assistants.
Compatible devices include wireless speakers, stereo systems, AV receivers, preamps, streamers, media servers and more. You can control them all using the Play-Fi app on your Android or iOS device, Amazon Fire tablet or computer.
The app supports all the major streaming services (Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc), with the notable exception of Apple Music – though some Play-Fi-compatible products do support Apple’s AirPlay 2 wireless tech.
(Image credit: Tidal)DTS Play-Fi supports MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF files up to 16bit/48kHz resolution without compression. But if you choose, you can stream higher resolution files than that – using the service’s Critical Listening mode, you can stream up to 24bit/192kHz (i.e. high resolution) tunes across your wi-fi network. Though those files will be pretty large, so you might want to use a wired connection to avoid the playback stuttering like Grandmaster Melle Mel.
So how many devices can you add to your home network? As many as you like, though DTS recommends a maximum of 32 to avoid performance issues. And up to 16 Play-Fi devices can play the same song. Imagine: Elton John’s Rocketman following you around the house. Terrifying.
You can also control Play-Fi using your voice through Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri voice assistants.
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