Guinea Pig Wanted!

[woodyp]

Hitachi Introduces High-Performance Wireless Whole-Home Audio Speakers | News Releases : Hitachi in the U.S.A.

I see these just got released at a heckuva lot cheaper price point than Sonos. Includes Bluetooth too! If they have as good a quality------no brainer. Wonder if they are compatible with the Sonos stuff? Doubtful!

Maybe at least Sonos may come off their high horse prices? All these are currently at "select" Walmart for 20- 30 bucks less that suggested retail too.

 

[jblizzle]

No guinea pigs, but I have a few cats and dogs I could send out to you

Would be good to see reviews.

 

[woodyp]

Were announced in May ( I didn't know it) and just hit the street.

 

[Divin Dave]

Buy me some and I'll be your huckelberry

 

[woodyp]

Just slip on over and enjoy my Sonos 5's!

 

[pooldv]

5s are sweet! I can hear em from my pool!

 

[Divin Dave]

i have no idea how to hook all of that stuff up. None at all.
I might have to twist someones arm and offer up refreshments for some of you geniuses to come help me if I ever decide to get high tech.

 

[woodyp]

Man, If you got a wireless network-------it's all pretty much plug and play with this stuff! Heck----------I did it! Installing the new router was a lot harder ( and dang sure wasn't supposed to be).

 

[jblizzle]

Setting up a network can be plug and play ... but when it stops working for some reason, networking can be a real PITA to get straightened back out.

 

[woodyp]

Amen to that.

 

[cvgnus]

I have extensive experience with Hitachi's enterprise Storage Area Network (SAN) and some of their consumer level products and they rock. We throw the kitchen sink at this SAN and it keeps chugging along. They have the unusual habit of sharing their technology with other companies. EMC can no longer compete in the same enterprise SAN space with Hitachi and incorporates Hitachi's solid state hard drive technology, as do many of the SAN vendors. Many of the enterprise level computer hardware (particularly IBM) and consumer level electronics are manufactured by Hitachi and then re branded as Toshiba, Ricoh, NEC, Sharp, SONY etc with a few extra bells and whistles to differentiate them from Hitachi's brand (they choose not to directly compete with their partners). When Hitachi decides to go into a market they quietly take it over from the manufacturing side. Hitachi would likely not put out this product unless it was rock solid and will do anything necessary to ensure it succeeds. I wouldn't be surprised if Sonos (is or) will be selling re branded Hitachi hardware.

 

[eqbob]

Have you looked at all on wirecutter to see if they were revised there?

 

[eqbob]

I have a buddy I set up with a wireless network and we transformed him to essentially paperless with a Synology Raided NAS and we did wireless extenders due to the size of the building he owns (and lives in underneath). Then the fool goes and gives the password to the secure side to one of his front desk stuff and within a day, everyone was on FB, attaching their phones, etc.

We had a very nice and quiet (not!) discussion about not being stupid with your network security and then I tore it all down and rebuilt it. We've got all of his passwords stored in mSecure and backdropped to DropBox with 256 bit encryption and he's back to a solid network under the threat of what I'm going to cut off if he pulls something that stupid again...lol

 

[txnole]

Caveat: I'm a Sonos fan. Looking into these Hitachis... these are AllPlay speakers, which means that the Qualcomm AllPlay chip is driving inside. This system will support multi-room local play of your iTunes/etc over wifi, just like Sonos.

However, many streaming services will not work with AllPlayover wifi (Pandora, iHeartRadio, Beats, Apple Music, Google Play... To name a few). These services will stream via Bluetooth to ONE speaker, but not across multiple zones or speakers.

So... good multi-room system for your local music. Works as a Bluetooth system as well, but only to one speaker, not a system. The price point is great and will (hopefully) push Sonos to bring better value.

 

[woodyp]

Thanks for pointing that out txnole.. I must have missed that in the "fine print." You know if Spotify is able to stream to all speakers?

 

[cjd3060]

I'm a big fan of the Apple Airport Express and my existing stereos. It requires iTunes, but that is how I've digitized my CDs anyway. Adding Airfoil has opened up all sorts of streaming options too. Poolside, my OLD ipod touch and the iTunes Remote app work well with my boom box solution. If you, like me, have some older equipment that still sounds great but lack the digital features... it is worth checking out.

Sent from my SM-P607T using Tapatalk

 

[txnole]

Thanks for pointing that out txnole.. I must have missed that in the "fine print." You know if Spotify is able to stream to all speakers?

Spotify works out of the box for these new Hitachis.