Streaming has made music even more accessible and portable, with a variety of services giving consumers the power to access almost any album or song on demand. However, in many cases, this has taken a major toll on music quality and the listening experience. Music is compressed in order to take up less room on mobile devices, and to stream without interruption over WiFi. When listening to compressed music through headphones or wireless speakers you may not notice how much of the music you are really missing, but when you are at home relaxing, entertaining or even working and listening to music through good quality equipment, it can become much more apparent.
Many music lovers argue that they shouldn’t have to settle for lifeless music, especially when they are at home, and for this reason distributed, high-resolution audio is catching on. More services are making higher-fidelity music available as a standard or premium service, turning average consumers into sophisticated listeners. As a result, high-resolution music is emerging as the next big thing in home technology, especially when paired with quality multi-room audio solutions that allow you to not just hear the music, but to truly feel it. These solutions portray the depth and emotion that the artist originally intended. What was previously perceived as a luxury, or something only prioritised by audiophiles, is now becoming much more mainstream.
This may not surprise some dealers, who know that entertainment is a fundamental feature of a Control4 Smart Home — 65-percent of Control4 homeowners include multi-room audio as part of their connected home experience. Unlike traditional one-room audio systems, multi-room audio systems have the ability to fill the home with music. That accessibility, combined with high-resolution sound, turns the home into an immersive music listening experience, elevating a homeowner’s enjoyment of their system. For example, install a landscape speaker system throughout the yard and everyone can enjoy great-sounding music during your pool party or summer BBQ. Add speakers to the ceiling in the kitchen, dining room and other shared living areas, and you can continue entertaining guests indoors, all without skipping a beat.
“What was previously perceived as a luxury, or something only prioritised by audiophiles, is now becoming much more mainstream.”
As homeowners embrace better sounding music they’ll want to explore other streaming service to match their individual tastes and preferences, such as Deezer, iHeartRadio (US), Napster, Pandora, Spotify, TIDAL, and TuneIn — which can all be natively streamed through Control4 EA Series controllers.
To access your music, you need great user interfaces, and though a smart phone app or even a touch screen are good ways to search for new music, they aren’t always the preferred option. Control4 makes the user interface easy and intuitive by providing many control methods that are natural for each room a homeowner may occupy. By the pool the homeowner may use their phone, a voice command is optimal for the kitchen when cooking, and the dining room might be best served through a wall keypad that with a single button press can launch a romantic dinner scene, which dims the lights and starts the perfect playlist.
But high-resolution, multi-room audio isn’t only about the content and simple user interfaces. To appreciate all the benefits that high-performance audio has to offer, you need the right electronics and speakers. Triad is a strong go-to high-fidelity brand which offers a comprehensive range of build-to-order premium speakers for every room of the house, and even outdoor environments. The same amount of craft goes into creating these speakers for powerful, detailed sound in the home as the producers and artists put into creating today’s high-resolution tracks.
To get premium sound, you no longer need speakers or equipment sitting on your TV console, bookshelves or countertop. Sleek options like the Triad Designer Series in-ceiling speakers and subwoofer, discreetly deliver incredible sound quality from a tiny four-inch, flush-mount speaker grille. Quality sound shouldn’t be restricted to the walls of the home; for the backyard, pool, or patio, the Triad Garden Array speaker system allows high-resolution music to flow outdoors. The system includes best-in-class satellite speakers and a subwoofer designed to be installed throughout flower beds or around the pool, featuring ultra-broad dispersion that blankets your outdoor spaces with beautiful sound (without overpowering your neighbours).
Quality content and speakers may be the first parts of a system to consider, but every system also needs the right electronics to deliver high-resolution audio to every corner of the home, from the source to the listener’s ears. Ideally the equipment is hidden away in a closet, and Control4 offers a perfect mix of products to do just that including Triad multi-zone amplifiers and matrix switches. When expanding an existing system, running wires can be a challenge. To facilitate those situations, the Triad One streaming amplifier is a simple solution. This slim and easy-to-install device provides 100 watts of high-resolution audio to a single zone in any room of the house – just hook it up to your Control4 system and speakers and you’re ready to go!
These advancements have made beautiful sounding audio more accessible, and an essential part of any size connected home. As this trend picks up speed, more homeowners will be able to see – and hear – high-resolution, multi-room audio for themselves at their nearest Control4 Certified Showroom. With over 150 locations worldwide, interested consumers, builders, architects and designers can experience the difference of high-resolution audio with native control of streaming services, easy multi-room audio control, and high-quality sound from speakers that blend seamlessly into any home environment.
Kordon Vaughn is senior director of product marketing at Control4