Bang & Olufsen announced BeoLink Multiroom for its BeoLink products Wednesday, saying it allows users to play different music in different rooms or the same tune in every room. At the heart of BeoLink Multiroom is the BeoSound Moment intelligent music system the company launched in the spring (see 1505010055). Comparing the setup process of Multiroom to turning lights on and off, the company said users tap a B&O product while music is playing to “join the multiroom experience.” It also can be controlled by app or the BeoRemote One remote control. The $3,295 B&O Moment system sports a touch-sensitive wood interface positioned on the flip side of a conventional touch-screen controller with a volume wheel matching the virtual wheel on the touch screen. An accelerometer in the unit desensitizes whichever side is not being used. An intelligence feature in Moment is said to learn a user’s music preferences based on patterns so it can then “suggest” music or radio programs. The unit’s PatternPlay algorithm learns a user’s preferences for type of music, time of day, day of the week and plays what it determines the user wants to hear at a given time, Product Manager Dave Zapfel told us when the company bowed the system this spring. “It’ll see what you listen to normally at 6 a.m. on a Monday and after three weeks or so it knows what you’re going to do, if you’re consistent,” he said. T BeoLink Multiroom “breathes new life into your classic Bang & Olufsen products,” the company said Wednesday. Using the BeoLink converter, owners of the BeoSound 9000, turntable BeoGram 4000 turntable and other BeoLink products can be linked into the multiroom experience, it said. All BeoLink multiroom products are updated through software to get the latest features and functions, said the company. “Bang & Olufsen products are not commodities that you buy and throw away,” said Marie Kristine Schmidt, vice president-brand, design & marketing. BeoLink Multiroom allows customers to “unite new and classical products” wirelessly, she said.

Monster is designing and manufacturing a lifestyle electronics collection curated by international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, co-founder of CE startup Roc Live Life Loud, Roc said Tuesday. The Roc Sport line includes wired Roc Sport Black Platinum by Monster ($299) headphones, Bluetooth on-ear Roc Sport Freedom by Monster headphones ($249), in-ear Roc Sport SuperSlim by Monster headphones ($199) and Roc Sport BackFloat by Monster speakers ($199), said Roc. The company has a digital partnership with eBay for initial worldwide distribution, with additional retailers to follow, it said.

Yamaha bowed an integrated amplifier for audiophiles Thursday. The $2,999 A-S1100 has all-stage discrete construction, balanced transmission, phono pre-amplifier, a low-impedance design and a large-capacity EI core transformer for strong bass reproduction, said the company. Exceptional mechanical rigidity minimizes mechanical vibration, it said. The amp is available in black and brushed silver finishes and has black wood side panels and level meters. The A-S1100 is due in stores at the end of September.

PlanterSpeakers.com introduced the Piermont series of Flagstone outdoor speakers with sustainable teak wood from Costa Rica and custom plant grow bags from Smart Pots USA. The Piermont has 10-inch downfiring woofers, 4-inch midrange drivers and soft-dome front-firing tweeters and can be configured for two- or three-sided firing, said the company. The planters can be used with live flowers or plants, indoors or out, it said. Prices range from $5,499-$6,499 per pair.

Fifty-five percent of soundbar owners use their speakers for music or other audio-related content in addition to using them to improve the sound from flat TVs, a report from NPD said. Some 36 percent of soundbar owners are connecting at least one portable device to their units, as an increasing number of soundbars pack the ability to connect and stream, NPD said. The report said 23 percent of consumers connect their smartphones to a soundbar, 16 percent connect to a tablet or notebook PC and 12 percent connect a soundbar to an iPod. “Soundbars have been around for nearly a decade, and we are still seeing significant momentum in the market,” NPD analyst Ben Arnold said. Bluetooth has helped to drive interest, sales and usage in soundbar audio playback, especially among millennials, who account for 44 percent of all audio hardware spending. That's up from 35 percent a year ago, NPD said. Millennials spend more than $300 million annually on soundbars, which are among the top three audio spends by 25-34-year-olds, Arnold said. Two-thirds of millennials use a soundbar to listen to music or podcasts when they’re not watching TV, NPD said. More than 6,000 U.S. consumers were surveyed from NPD’s online panel in Q1, and roughly 750 were soundbar owners, the researcher said.

Sonos’s latest limited-edition version of the Play:1 speaker went on sale Tuesday. The Play:1 Tone, available in black or white with a matte finish, sells for $250 compared with the standard Play:1 at $199. Sonos is making 10,000 units of the Play:1 Tone, it said.

Klipsch announced its Dolby Atmos speaker line Wednesday, including tower speakers that meet Dolby Atmos specifications using a two-way speaker design. Klipsch said that its Tractrix horn technology enables the speakers to meet directivity and sensitivity specs required for Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers from a two-way speaker. The Klipsch Reference Premiere Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers include the all-in-one RP-280FA tower speaker with an integrated height channel ($2,400/pair) and the RP-140SA surround speaker, which can double as an Atmos elevation speaker ($500/pair). The elevation speaker enables an existing speaker to be Dolby Atmos-compliant. Klipsch also introduced the RP-450CA center channel speaker ($850) as part of the series.

One of the powers of a smart speaker is that it’s possible to “make improvements even after the speakers are installed,” a Sonos spokesman told us by email Tuesday in response to questions about Monday's 5.4 software release (see 1507130047). Sonos acoustic engineer Giles Martin is “always looking at ways to make our products sound better,” the spokesman said, and in the latest release, Martin improved the Play:1 speaker’s clarity “so when the volume is at high levels, the vocals sound even more natural,” he said. On the changes in functionality to the CR200 touch-screen controller, the spokesman said Sonos “worked tirelessly” to preserve the original experience of the $350 CR200 “even as our software has evolved … and placed further demands on the hardware.” The company eliminated some of the core features from the Sonos touch-screen controller, including the ability to set up a new Sonos system, add new components, change room settings, create a stereo pair or add or manage music services or libraries. “We’ve reached the point where we need to make tough choices about the platform,” said the spokesman, “so we’ve decided to keep core browsing and music playback functionality intact and remove system setup, music library management and music services management.” The core browsing and playback functions will be kept for “years to come,” he said. The company also said in Monday’s announcement that the system won't support MPEG 2.5 audio formats that have sample rates of 12 kHz and below. “Most of our partners stream above this rate, but there might be some stations on services that do not have alternate streams,” the company said.

Yamaha bowed a pair of Bluetooth compact audio systems Tuesday that include CD players, AM/FM radios and USB music playback. The TSX-B141 ($399) and TSX-B235 ($349) stream over Bluetooth with aptX and offer AAC support, said the company. The systems can also be paired to near field communication-compatible Bluetooth phones and other devices, it said. Users can control the systems via smartphone with Yamaha’s app that can power the systems on and off, adjust volume, select sources and operate clock-related functions including the IntelliAlarm function that wakes up users to selected songs, it said.

Sonos rolled out a software update to customers Monday that included a sound tweak to the Play:1 speaker, improvements to Google Play and Radio by TuneIn services, and a cutback in functionality for the CR200 controller. Sonos discontinued the CR200 in 2012 but continued to support it and issue software updates for the device. With the 5.4 update, users who bought the $350 Sonos CR200 touch-screen controller are no longer able to: set up a new Sonos system, add new components, change room settings, create a stereo pair or add or manage music services or libraries, Sonos said in a blog post. In a 2009 review, Gizmodo called the CR200 controller, which sold as an accessory for a hefty $350, “better” than the iPhone app for its superior user interface and more direct control with fewer steps than required through the iPhone app. Among the other Sonos updates announced Monday, the company briefly described an update to the Play:1 speaker, saying only, “We’ve enhanced the clarity and presence of the Play:1 sound." Engineers also optimized the Play:1 bass performance when paired with the Sonos Sub, the company said. Building on the Wi-Fi capability Sonos added last year (see 1409030065) the Sonos Sub and surround sound speakers can bond to a Sonos Playbar without the need for a Sonos component to be wired to a router, the company said. When Sonos first launched more than a decade ago, Wi-Fi “was not good enough,” spokesman Eric Nielsen told us last year (see 1409030065). “We wanted to have a good music experience from the beginning so we created our own proprietary mesh network to make sure the music didn’t stop,” Nielsen said. Following the update, users can set up Sonos speakers via Wi-Fi or through the Sonos network, with the Sub being the latest component to become Wi-Fi-ready. An add to the Sonos shuffle feature, meanwhile, allows users to peek at the order of songs in queue. If they don’t like the shuffle order, they can revert to the original song sequence or shuffle again to get a different mix, Sonos said.