What Is Multi-Room Audio: Everything You Need to Know

Denon Staff

There once was a time when multi-room audio meant turning the volume up loud enough to hear it in another room. Happily, technology and time have swiftly democratised multi-room audio, meaning even music lovers with modest means can create a high-quality setup that’s as modular as it is easy to install and customise. Here’s everything you need to know to join the multi-room movement.



What is multi-room audio?

At its simplest, multi-room audio describes a network of devices – speakers, amps, soundbars, AV receivers – that enables you to play your music seamlessly around your home from a central device such as a smartphone or tablet. While this used to involve the hassle and cost of physically connecting every device in the network with cables, these days wireless connection through a home Wi-Fi hub is the norm, even for high-end setups.

As for where your music collection needs to reside in order to enjoy the benefits of multi-room audio, whether you have a music server, USB device or are signed up to music streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music HD, Tidal or Deezer, you’re good to go. 

What are the benefits of multi-room audio?

In terms of benefits, multi-room audio’s headliner has to be the ability to move around your home, leaving off and picking up playback of your favourite music as you go. That’s huge, of course, but there’s a lot more to love:

Multi-room audio is wireless, so install anywhere

The latest Hi-Fi wireless speakers such as the Denon Home range, couldn’t be easier to install. Plug them in, connect them to your WiFi network via the free Denon HEOS app and you’re done. And, because you control playback via the app, you’re free to place the speakers wherever you like, even if the best spot is hard to reach. 

Multi-room audio is modular, so go at your own pace

Jumping into multi-room audio is not an all or nothing affair. So if your budget is limited or you simply want to take things slowly, there’s nothing to stop you beginning with a network of two speakers. Then, as your needs change, you can add devices to your network, all controlled via the same app. 

Multi-room audio is endlessly flexible

With multi-room setups you’re free to play different music in multiple rooms simultaneously. Great if your teenager isn’t as into Brahms (or Boards of Canada) as you are. What’s more, everyone can have their own profile so personal favourites and settings are always at their fingertips. It’s just as simple to create listening zones that cluster devices from different rooms. So, if you want your party playlist rocking every room downstairs, for example, you can create a zone just for that.

Multi-room audio: what do I need? 

Before you begin shopping for your multi-room audio devices, it’s important to have Wi-Fi broadband, and a mobile device (Android or iOS) upon which you can install the app to control playback through them. With wireless connectivity assured, the network-ready devices you can use for multi-room music in the home include:

• Wireless speakers
• Mini Systems
• AV Receivers
• Network Audio Players
• Soundbars

While many of our products come equipped HEOS Built-In multi-room compatibility, the Denon Home series of wireless speakers is an ideal solution to get you up and running with multi-room audio with little fuss. 

Denon Home Wireless Speakers