The Hi-Fi industry seems to be in a state of constant, somewhat unnecessary evolution; if Guglielmo Marconi was inventing the radio today it would almost certainly come in five different colorways, dripped out over a few years as though they were new products. Still, the past 20 years—with the invention of Bluetooth, music streaming, and mass adoption of voice control speakers—has fundamentally changed what many people think of as home audio.
All-in-one streaming smart speakers are ridiculously convenient. But what about the millions of old analogue amplifiers and passive speakers that still sound great? The Bowers & Wilkins bookshelf speakers you bought 20 years ago remain phenomenal, they’re just not as smart. New Swedish startup Atonemo would like to change that with their small, unassuming Streamplayer.
Photograph: Chris Haslam
Measuring a matchbox-sized 1.97 x 2.76 x 0.73 inches, the Streamplayer is a very simple device designed to give streaming capabilities to any existing speaker. It supports AirPlay 2, has Chromecast built-in, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, and can offer playback in a respectable 24-bit/192 kHz high resolution. There’s no display, a single clicky button, and output options are via one 3.5mm jack either as analog or optical S/PDIF. That’s it.
Power comes via USB-C, and once you’ve synched everything up with the Atonemo app, linked it to your Wi-Fi, and plugged the supplied 3.5mm jack into an amplifier or active speaker, you can then stream audio to it from pretty much any platform. It took me three minutes to turn a verging-on-vintage Vita Audio R1 Mk1 (what is now Ruark Audio) into a Tidal streaming delight. The app is mercifully stripped back, and the software feels nimble, and is a whole lot more responsive than using Sonos.
Sound Quality
Much of the success of “smart” audio products has been based on convenience, rather than audio quality. Despite having access to more hi-fi kit than is strictly healthy, I still struggle with the quality vs. convenience of it all: There’s a $45 Echo Spot in my kitchen, but I have a $1,400 Audiolab M-DAC+ headphone amp in the office. Both work brilliantly, one actually sounds good.
The Streamplayer does its best to straddle both these worlds. The team at Atonemo has chosen an integrated DAC from Realtek's SoC (system-on-chip) range. This chip is a mass-market option, but can still handle 24-bit / 192 kHz resolution. It’s a world away from high-end standalone DAC chips (like ESS, Cirrus Logic or AKM) but at $99, to expect audiophile levels of DSP (digital signal processing) would be a bit much. It is convenient though.
Aside from Bluetooth streaming is Wi-Fi 6 dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (802.11ax) with WPA2 and WPA3 security. It’s a pretty solid offering for a cheap box of tricks and the brand also promises over-the-air firmware updates.