Hi-fi brands at a glance: from Sonos to Piega

The choice of speakers and systems has become confusing because two worlds overlap: the streaming systems with app and WiFi, and classic hi-fi with amplifier and cable. Here are the brands we install regularly, and what they stand for.

Streaming systems

Sonos is the best known: speakers, soundbars and amplifiers in one app, easy to use, connected to almost every service. Bluesound (BluOS) is aimed at listeners with higher demands, for instance with the Node streamer and the Powernode amplifiers; the technology is also inside devices from NAD and Dali. Denon HEOS turns the amplifiers from Denon and Marantz into multiroom participants. Bose sticks to simple operation and powerful bass. Apple HomePod is the right choice for households that work with Apple anyway.

Design and sound from one hand

Bang & Olufsen from Denmark builds speakers you put in the living room because they are beautiful – and which sound good while they are at it. Devialet from France delivers with the Phantom bass from a volume you would not think possible. Naim (Mu-so) and Bowers & Wilkins (Zeppelin) are the British representatives for high-quality single speakers.

Classic hi-fi

KEF is known for its Uni-Q drivers, in which tweeter and midrange sit on one axis; the active LS50 Wireless and LSX are complete systems in two boxes. Dali from Denmark sounds warm and is outstanding relative to its price. Bowers & Wilkins builds the speakers of Abbey Road Studios. Dynaudio, Monitor Audio and Focal cover the upper segment; Klipsch and JBL stand for dynamics and party.

Among amplifiers and receivers, Denon and Marantz (the same company, different character), Yamaha, NAD and Cambridge Audio lead. For pure music in stereo, integrated amplifiers with built-in streaming are today the most practical solution.

The Swiss

Switzerland has a remarkable speaker scene. Piega from Horgen on Lake Zurich builds aluminium cabinets with ribbon tweeters that are among the finest anywhere – by now also as streaming speakers. Rowen from Steffisburg has been building by hand in the Bernese Oberland for decades. Stenheim in Valais plays in the top league, Goldmund in Geneva likewise. Revox, founded in Zurich, stands for the tape recorders of the sixties and today for multiroom and speakers with Swiss roots. Thorens, once founded in Sainte-Croix, is the classic among turntables.

Built-in

Anyone who does not want to see speakers reaches for in-wall and in-ceiling speakers: Sonance, Bowers & Wilkins CI, KEF Ci, Monitor Audio and Dali offer ranges that disappear into the plaster. Sonos and Bluesound supply the amplifiers to go with them.

How we choose

Not by brand, but by three questions: what is listened to, in which room, with which control? Only then is the choice made – and for the room the system will later stand in.