It is the use of a BMR, or Balanced Mode Radiator, tweeter that is most canny, however. Among its many benefits, this flatter-faced driver has the ability to offer wider dispersion than a traditional tweeter – up to 180º in fact – and so can make the most of the A10’s cylindrical form, making it far less fussy when it comes to positioning. These are limited to optical and analogue auxiliary - though with a 3.5mm-to-RCA cable included, connecting to pretty much any existing set up could hardly be easier. Each comprises the 'koala bear' driver configuration that has become these speakers’ distinguishing feature, with a pair of 2cm soft dome tweeters and mid/bass drivers (and reflex ports, incidentally) growing in line with the cabinet. Another Award for Audio Pro is barely news anymore, but the fact this year the Drumfire displaced the Naim Mu-so – a product almost double the price we once heralded as the nearest to hi-fi we’d heard from a wireless speaker – as our most expensive champion in 2018 is proof it is operating on a different level to anything else around it. At What Hi-Fi? we comprehensively test and review every product we recommend, from soundbars to speakers, headphones and TVs. And it's no different for Sonos alternatives.

It’s difficult to imagine a less stressful set-up procedure. The Audio Pro app seeks out all available products connected to the home network (with the option of adding those not already tethered manually), and they are then all there to manipulate as you wish. This includes a clever process where the speaker uses in-built sensors to optimise its sound settings for its position in the room. Testing the feature by moving it closer to a wall in our listening room, our reviewers could hear the HomePod 2 adjusting its sound in real-time. Very impressive. Of course, it helps that Sonos' app is first class, as is its sound quality. Is Bose or Sonos better? On top of the sub is the second part of the Drumfire’s set-up, containing two 11cm woofers and a 25mm tweeter. This box has an RCA input for an external analogue source, as well as an ethernet port and 3.5mm input.

Why is Audio Pro C5 MkII better than Audio Pro Addon C5A?

What Hi-Fi? said:Sonos might be among the best in the business, but it isn't your only option if you want to go multi-room. Over the years it's also built up a portfolio of products that covers every need, from portable speakers ( Sonos Roam), to soundbars ( Sonos Ray), and everything in between. So whatever kind of system you're building, there's a Sonos speaker (or three) for every room in the home. All four speakers house a large circular volume control flanked by sets of four smaller buttons on the top: for power-on, play/pause, input selection and Bluetooth pairing to the left, and pre-sets to its right.

The only downsides I can really think of are its slightly eye-watering price tag and the fact that, despite having a handle, there's no battery to make it a portable device. But it’s important to point out the Audio Pro is far from the most limited multi-room app out there, and its occasional bug and rudimentary nature is forgivable when you consider the price and sound quality of the speakers it's controlling.

Features

Multi-room speaker systems are tested for sound quality, features, ease of set-up and use, and overall performance. And we aim to test multiple products in each family, usually involving at least two wireless speakers and a soundbar but this will vary depending on each system's product line-up. The usual connections, wired and wireless, are featured, with the A10 having capacity for 3.5mm aux, Bluetooth 4.0, Apple AirPlay, wi-fi andSpotify Connect. It also supports MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC and Apple Lossless formats. Through the Audio Pro Control app, you can actually adjust the bass and treble to better suit you as well. Other features in the app include a sleep timer to save energy or alarms to get you out of the house on time in the morning. The C10 MKII is a 2022 What Hi-Fi? Award-winner, and boy did it earn that accolade. With multiple streaming and multi-room options thanks to Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and the Audio Pro app, multiple inputs (including RCA and 3.5mm aux in) and arguably the nicest design of all the brand's speakers, the C10 MKII looks as good as it sounds. And it sounds rather lovely courtesy of some big steps up in clarity, bass tautness and refinement over the previous iteration.

Though there is a pair of unknown quantities in the Audio Pro line-up as far as we’re concerned – the Addon C-Sub can help those smaller speakers delve deeper into the low frequencies, while the A40 is set to receive a wider release following its design for the company’s 40th anniversary– our time spent with the rest of the company’s speakers allows us to confidently celebrate it as the best-sounding multi-room suite available for the money. Unsurprisingly, that’s one of the first things that jumps out when we switch the A10 on. We love the directness of its siblings, but the versatility and sheer spread of sound here is to be admired. It doesn’t have quite the unwavering focus, nor the sheer weight in the low end, but we can move around our test room and still be treated to the same high quality sound. The Addon C5A welcomes us with that same Award-winning musical understanding. There’s plenty of bass for a unit this size, and a level of detail we’ve become used to from these speakers, but the highlight is undoubtedly these boxes’ level of expression. They time with metronomic precision, but temper it with the kind of dynamic sense that captures rhythmic emphasis nicely. And that dynamic expression is a strong positive over the speakers’ entire performance, able to reflect lavish shifts and subtle nuance alike. It simply does everything right, and without fuss.Measuring 130 x 250 x 150mm, the Audio Pro C5 Mk II is the same size as its predecessor which is not particularly small but it’s not huge either so will look perfectly at home on a shelf or side table in your living room, office or kitchen. Of course, you do need to place it near a power source because it doesn’t come with a battery built-in, something I think this device would massively benefit from.

Audio Pro C5-A, more lengthily titled ‘Audio Pro AddOn C5-A Wireless Voice-Controlled Speaker’, is a versatile take on the original Addon C5 model, with an increasingly wider universe of connectivity and convenience – combining modern ‘Alexa’ virtual assistant technology with an already-high spec domestic speaker for the trendy home user. As the Addon C10 is to the Addon C3, similarly the Drumfire’s better-honed talents run further than the added power and bottom end over its family members – it is again a step up in terms of performance across the board. Removing a service requires that service's ID and passcode - yet the reason I want to remove a service is because it's outdated and I don't have the login info! Updating, sure. But removing????Both Bose and Sonos offer speakers and soundbars that can talk to each other wirelessly to create a multi-room system. Our tests have shown Sonos' devices have come out on top overall, thanks to the reasons listed above. But Bose does make some excellent speakers, while its noise-cancelling headphones are some of the best in the business. The increased power and driver and cabinet size predictably ushers a grander performance each step you take up the chain, with the Addon C10 particularly able to rattle trinkets from the mantelpiece or twist our insides with its low-end authority. The bugs are neither constant nor devastating, but the odd stutter and hang – particularly when pairing or splitting speakers – gets annoying in a short time.