LG is finally ready to launch its Music Flow wireless multi-room speaker system, in an effort to take on established names like Sonos but avoid the pitfalls of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections by using a proprietary mesh network for the best wireless performance.
We heard the first Music Flow speaker at a behind-the-scenes LG event in April, but the rest of the range was still to be finalised. Today's announcement, posted to the official LG press room earlier this morning, revealed that the company has renamed the NP8740 to the much simpler H5, with the smaller H3 and larger H7 completing the standalone speaker range. That's very similar to the current Sonos range, which is comprised of the Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5, and nearly identical to Denon's rival Heos 3, Heos 5 and Heos 7 multi-room speakers.
LG will also expand the range with the HS6 soundbar, a home cinema speaker that can connect to existing Music Flow units to add surround sound playback to your films and games, and the R1 network bridge for adding Music Flow compatibility to your current Hi-Fi or speaker systems.
The accompanying Music Flow app will let you stream tracks stored locally on your smartphone or tablet, or music from online services like Spotify, Deezer, Napster and TuneIn, to all the speakers in a setup at once. You'll also be able to play a different track on each speaker, all from the one device. With 24bit/192KHz support, Music Flow will play nicely with hi-res FLAC files as well as regular MP3s.
We're most excited by the Auto Music Play feature, which will take the track or playlist you're listening to through headphones on your smartphone as you enter the house and automatically play it through your Music Flow system once you're in range.
The H5 and H7 speakers are set to go on sale in the UK later this month alongside the R1 network bridge, with the H3 speaker and HS6 soundbar to follow shortly after.
We're almost certain to see the entire range at next month's IFA show in Berlin, so will be sure to report back on whether it can indeed rival Sonos for ease of use, wireless range and sound quality.
