Home Reviews ,,,,, Imagine clicking the Play button on the iPhone music player being recharged on the bedside table in the bedroom to listen to your favorite album in the living room, then moving to the kitchen and then again to the entrance of the house, without ever losing a single word and avoiding any wireless headset. This is one of the reasons why you might want to buy August Multiroom, a particular type of wireless speaker that combines with others of the same series to amplify the music in several points of a room or the entire home.
Our editorial staff had a few weeks available to try three of them together, carefully evaluating both their individual use as a common Bluetooth speaker, and combining them via Wi-Fi to create an effective sound system.
In the package
August Multiroom, as anticipated, is a Bluetooth speaker that can work independently or in combination with other speakers of the same series. The speakers are basically two, WS150G and WS300G, which differ from each other in size. The contents of the box are the same for one or the other: in addition to the speaker we find the manual (in English), AUX cable and microUSB cable for charging.
WS150G
Of the two speakers, WS150G is the smaller. It measures specifically 18 x 6.9 x 5.6 cm and weighs around 480 grams, therefore comparable to most Bluetooth speakers that slip into the backpack just before leaving for a picnic. Power 10W, is accompanied by a passive radiator for the amplification of low frequencies.
WS300G
Larger and heavier than the previous one, it measures specifically 25.6 x 8 x 10.4 centimeters and weighs 1.4 kilograms, therefore it is hardly suitable for outdoor use, at least for the smaller pocket size. Inside it incorporates a 15W driver system and a subwoofer for bass.
How it's done
Whether it's one or the other, the two amplifiers are aesthetically “almost” identical. Parallelepipoidal in shape, they are accompanied by a rubberized base with 6 feet (8 feet in the largest) and an equally rubberized upper surface where large buttons are recessed for rapid management of music playback and, in a column on the left side, the indicators LEDs for the various types of connections (WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC) and for the two WPS and mode change buttons.
The larger surface that surrounds the cases and protects the internal components is perforated and in metal, accompanied on the front by the embossed company logo and, on the back, some inputs and switches. In common they have the ON / OFF switch, the AUX socket and the microUSB socket for charging: WS150G has an additional microSD slot while WS300G has a USB socket, both for reading MP3s from microSD cards and flash drives or external hard drives respectively.
Multi Mode, how it works
Without going too far into use via Bluetooth, NFC, AUX cable or reading music from external media, common to almost all wireless speakers, we instead delve into the mode that the company calls “Multi” and only works via WiFi, so necessarily using the smartphone hotspot or, even better, the home network (the system supports AirPlay).
Our tests, although the package clearly indicates compatibility with Android, were carried out entirely by iOS, therefore we will concentrate on describing the methods and impressions of use through this system.
First you need to download the AugustAlink app (here for iOS, here for Android). Only in this way will it be possible to transmit music, pair the speakers and synchronize the audio stream, as well as manage the various functions available.
At the first start, the WiFi Setup Wizard will be started, a guided procedure necessary to connect the app to the home WiFi network. In a few clicks, after selecting the network and entering the relative password, the system will be ready for use.
At this point it is necessary to click the WPS button on one of the August Multiroom speakers and then press the Next button on the screen to pair the speaker to the system. This will take approximately 10 to 60 seconds. At the end, it will be sufficient to click the “+” button to add another speaker and repeat the procedure, from pressing the WPS button onwards, to connect all the purchased speakers (obviously this operation can also be performed in the future).
Once you have created your own configuration, all that remains is to play the albums locally in the Music app or any other audio stream from Spotify, YouTube and any other online streaming service.
The application is localized in Italian even if the translation, for some function, is not perfectly correct. However, the manufacturer recently warned us that the app is about to be updated with – among other things – a better translation of the various functions for our language, so what we could call a small system flaw will soon be fixed with the next update.
Multi Mode, first impressions of use
After several tests we have found that this modality, as mentioned above, is particularly useful in two different contexts. On the one hand, you can listen to the same piece of music by placing each speaker in a different room of the house, on the other hand you can create a sort of dolby surround system inside the room by placing the speakers in several points.
In both cases, through the app, it is necessary to connect the speakers together. To do this, simply drag the respective icon of one over the icon of the other cash register: in doing so, a virtual link will appear that will link the boxes together. This pairing takes approximately 5-10 seconds to complete.
In multi-room
In multi-room use, the moment you click the Play button, all the speakers will start playing in unison. We will therefore be able to move freely between the rooms to listen to the same album, whether we find ourselves having to deal with the house cleaning alone, or if the whole family agrees to want to listen to the same song. Otherwise, just a click is enough to turn one off or simply deactivate the connection and use it, independently, via Bluetooth.
Even the smallest one offers really clean, full-bodied and very loud audio even at maximum volume. The bass is present and clearly distinguishable, and in general it is possible to easily fill a medium-sized room. WS300G is practically identical in sound quality, but manages to do something more both in terms of volume and bass amplification, which literally make the surface on which the speaker rests vibrate.
The music that surrounds
The use of the speakers in a single room has literally displaced us. We did some testing by initially placing them on the cabinet in front of the TV, with the WS300G in the center and two WS150Gs on either side of the larger case. In this position, despite the trio, we didn't notice any great advantages. Certainly the audio is much more powerful, but other than that it felt like we were dealing with a classic stereo rather than three Bluetooth speakers.
However, it was sufficient to move the two speakers to two opposite corners of the room to realize the important advantage of combining two or more speakers of this system. Suddenly the music becomes enveloping and at maximum volume it is difficult even to be able to talk to another person in the same room.
In this mode, a particular software customization becomes even more interesting if we find ourselves listening to a music album alone. With one click, each speaker can switch from LR playback to L or R playback only: in practice it is possible to separate the left and right channels for each individual speaker.
A good configuration is to use the WS300G speaker in LR mode and the smaller WS150G in L and R mode respectively for the speaker positioned on our left and right. Even with only two speakers with separate channels, positioned on either side of the listener, they can be enough to guarantee an excellent stereo effect in music listening, especially with those ad hoc mixed tracks that make use of separate channels to move the music from one ear. to the other.
Conclusions
August Multiroom is not just a Bluetooth speaker. If you buy it only for this reason, then economically speaking it is more convenient to aim for something else, as at a certainly lower price you will be able to enjoy the same functions.
Those who buy a case of this series do so in anticipation of taking at least another one, now or in the future, as it is in the Multi mode that really makes the difference. The wireless connection is rather intuitive thanks to the guided configuration, minus the pairing between the various speakers, at least in the first ten minutes of use.
The audio quality is remarkable, and only after having had the opportunity to play the same album in multiple rooms at the same time or in the same room from multiple corners of the same room will you really realize that you will no longer be able to do without this system.
Both in listening to music locally and in audio streaming we did not notice any latency, neither with Spotify, nor with YouTube videos. Instead, they are unusable in video games. We did some testing with Asphalt Xtreme, finding that the crash of a car accident was transmitted 5-7 seconds after it occurred during the race.
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Retail price
August Multiroom is on sale on Amazon. The WS150G case costs 89.95 euros. The largest WS300G costs € 109.95.
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