OK a little missleading, but after having read the numerous post on what cheap hifi, and “how to make me 21st centry” and the like and continually reading Sonos, sonos… i too got the bug for a new music system. Having reviewed SO SO SO many (it’s a bloomin minefield) I went and bought a Streaming speaker from JBL -“JBL Authentics L8”, it’s an all-in-one jobbie and comes highly recommended.
I’d looked at:
Sonos (not surprisingly)
Sony SRS X9
Cambridge Audio Air 200
Marshall
Samsung and LG equivalents
Denon HEOS 7
But the JBL thing seemed to stand out for it’s connectivity. Despite it being like rockinghorse pooh and all the reviews were American, i bought one. It turned up yesterday, and it;s a nice bit of retro/modern type chic. I played around for hours trying to figure the thing out, it sounds BLOODY FANTASTIC, though i was getting annoyed at not being able to conenct Spotify are other streaming services without bluetooth.
So this morning a phone call to JBL and ask them – oh sorry sir, that’s only for America… Eh, why? Just is. Brilliant. So anyway it’s on a 30day no quibble return policy so it’s going back.
Roll on the hunt for something else. I’ve gone back to the HEOS, originally ruled out due to lack of bluetooth. However (and the reason for the poor rant), SONY, Denon and a few others are incorporating Chromecast in the coming months – so NO MORE BLUETOOTH needed.. They are supposedly rolling out firmware updates shortly.. HEOS was the only system offering up true multiroom flexibility over Sonos, but Sonos sound, though good, was still a bit..mleh..
So, who’s got a HEOS and or JBL L8?