Hi All, I'm looking for a replacement for our current hi-fi, but AV kit has never been my forte Criteria-wise, the only things that are essential are: ability to access music on a network share - as we have a large collection of ripped/digital music that I want to be able access ability to access the major streaming services i.e. amazon, spotify, etc. and because of this i want it to have an ethernet port/connection Other than that i'm open. SWMBO seems to favour something "all-in-one", but not set on it. Other things id like to understand/consider - but are not deal breakers... ability to extend the "system" throughout the house control options i.e. voice, remote, app, integrated, etc. how accessible it is, as would like my daughter (6) to be able to learn how to use it Do we need external speakers? We have the ones from the existing hifi that we may be able to repurpose, but as they have bare wire connections at the hifi end, i'm not sure... If there's anything else i need to consider, let me know! What can you lovely people recommend?!
Budget is a very important question here. Based on your requirements - Sonos and Bluesound would be the first port of call - lots of other options for all-in-one units for passive speakers, or integrated speakers, but none scale to multi-room quite like Sonos/Bluesound. I used to Sonos, now I Bluesound - both much of a muchness between them IMO. Either has a similar lineup of small, medium and large integrated speakers - all of which can be used singly or paired in stereo. For a more "hifi" sort of affair, would suggest you look at either the Sonos Amp or Bluesound Powernode - either of these connect to passive speakers of your choosing - probably what you have now - but best post make/model and the brain trust can verify and validate.
IMO it would be worth it, depending on budget, to replace the speakers. There's nothing there in terms of specs that actually indicate anything meaningful about the amp/speakers. It's not exactly true to that you need to "match" an amp and speakers, but generally I wouldn't recommend taking speakers from an all-in-one and continuing to use them in a different system.
Geeeeeenerally, I'd usually suggest going for two smaller speakers rather than one larger one - you may miss out on a bit of low-end extension but what you get back in terms of... "fullness" of sound is often more than worth it, IMO. Of course there are lots of reasons you might just not want two... where you put it, how visible do you want it to be etc. And also if you just want a bit of background music then nothing wrong with the one speaker either.
For £500 a Sonos Five would fit the budget. You can use all the streaming services, it's got a line-in (if you need it), easy to use & if you throw an Echo Dot in somewhere you can voice control it. Then you can expand around the house with either One's or Ikea Symfonisk's (which are rather good for the money)
It's worth being aware that the room correction (True play) with Sonos makes a massive improvement to the sound. You need access to an iPhone to set it up (no Android support for trueplay), which is a one off walking around the room waving the phone around. You only ever have to do it when you first add a speaker, or if you move it somewhere else. It's the only time I've ever been glad work force me to use an iPhone.
