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    Russound MBX-PRE review: Yes, Virginia, there really were multi-room audio systems before Sonos

    Countless stereo programs may get a supercharge from a Russound MBX-PRE wi-fi streaming media participant. Boasting fantastic sound, main content material companions, and all method of connectivity, this little black field will carry your treasured classic stereo gear into the online-everything age. Multiples of them can convey music into each room in your house. Just convey your individual amp and audio system.

    In that regard, the MBX-PRE is lots just like the Sonos Connect (since changed by the Sonos Port, which I reviewed in June). But Russound is not any copycat; in actual fact, the corporate is among the pioneers of whole-home audio, having obtained its begin 45 years in the past when each speaker pair in each room needed to be hardwired to an in-wall quantity management harnessed in flip to a matrix switcher or a multi-zone amplifier. Russound nonetheless recommends hiring knowledgeable installer to arrange its programs, however the firm doesn’t freeze DIYers out (I’ll get deeper into that later). You will, nonetheless, have to buy its gear from a certified vendor (and Amazon just isn’t in that membership).

    Unlike Sonos’ providing, the MBX-PRE is a Hi-Res Audio certified participant that helps audio information encoded with as much as 24-bit decision and at sampling charges as excessive as 192kHz. The participant doesn’t assist MQA information, however it may well deal with AAC and AAC+ (as much as 24-bit/192kHz), FLAC (8- and 16-bit), WAV (8- and 16-bit), OGG Vorbis, and MP3 (CBR and VBR) information. Russound recommends connecting its {hardware} to a UPnP server operating on a NAS field (such because the QNAP TS-253D TechHive recently reviewed), however I had nice experiences streaming 16-bit/44kHz FLAC information from Tidal and Deezer. They in contrast very favorably to the CD variations I spun on an Oppo BDP-103 disc participant.

    Jonathat Takiff / IDG

    Measuring 1.75 x 8.25 x 7 inches (HxWxD), the Russound MBX-PRE is way bigger than the newer Sonos Port, however Russound supplies user-friendly controls on its enclosure.

    Russound despatched over two of its $400 MBX-PRE items for this analysis. With one put in per stereo system and ground, I obtained the home rocking in stellar synchronized rhythm, blasting content material from subscription streaming providers together with Spotify Connect, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, and SiriusXM (SiriusXM Business for industrial purposes can also be supported). This streamer additionally helps a threesome of web radio aggregators—TuneIn, VTuner, and Airable—to ship the best-sounding and most fascinating stations from each style and international locale, all without spending a dime. (Don’t miss our two-part guide to internet radio.)

    You may stream music from Android and iOS gadgets through Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay (AirPlay 2 assist remains to be within the works), and Chromecast. And you may management the system with voice instructions spoken to a Google Assistant-compatible sensible speaker (I examined it with a first-gen Google Home, a Nest Home Mini, and the recently reviewed JBL Link Music). Training the system to reply to Amazon Alexa instructions can also be potential, however that software program isn’t as baked in.

    Russound additionally gives a model of this streamer with an built-in amplifier (the MBX-AMP), however as this unit’s title implies, the MBX-PRE is a pre-amplifier element. As such, it incorporates a full complement of inputs and outputs, together with 3.5mm analog and Toslink optical digital audio inputs; and RCA analog and Toslink digital audio outputs. The absence of coaxial digital audio ports is a bit of stunning, given Russound’s deal with the custom-installer market, however Sonos doesn’t put any digital audio enter on its Port. You’ll discover a 12-volt set off output on each gadgets for signaling a appropriate outboard amp or receiver.

    mbx series stacked Russound

    Russound’s MBX-PRE (prime) and MBX-AMP have all of the inputs and outputs you can need (save maybe coaxial digital).

    Shoot-out on the streamer corral

    MBX-PRE versus Sonos Port comparisons—performed with Tidal and Deezer-sourced FLAC content material performed by my Yamaha Adventage receiver and Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus audio system—have been additionally telling. Carefully matching the variable-level analog output indicators of each items, I virtually invariably most well-liked the digital-to-analog processing happening contained in the Russound.

    The variations have been delicate however discernable, with the MBX-PRE serving clearer, brighter tambourine rattles, sweeter-toned electrical bass notes, extra reverberant (and personable) piano and hollow-body guitar voicings on materials I do know nicely, together with the hits assortment Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story (1972-1980), and a newly issued set of Grateful Dead rehearsal takes, Workingman’s Dead: The Angel’s Share, that opens up particular person participant’s components for vivid inspection.

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