Build a multiroom audio system without blowing your budget

Forty-two dollars a month. That's roughly what a family of four spends on music streaming subscriptions. And yet somehow, getting that music to play through a multiroom audio system turns into a $5,000 conversation at most hi-fi dealers. It doesn't have to be.

The ecosystem you choose matters far more than the hardware at any given price point, and most people make that choice badly because nobody explains the tradeoffs up front. Plenty of households end up ringing a mate every Christmas asking why their thing isn't working, and the answer is almost always a mismatch between protocols, not a faulty speaker.

So here's how I'd approach it, from dead cheap to "serious but not stupid expensive."

What a multiroom audio system actually is

Let's be clear about what we're talking about. Multiroom audio means being able to play music in several rooms, either the same track synchronised across all of them or different tracks in different rooms simultaneously, controlled from a single app or interface. The technology to do this properly has existed since the early 2000s (Sonos shipped its first system in 2005), but it's taken another fifteen years for the budget options to become genuinely usable.

There are three broad approaches: a proprietary closed ecosystem, an open protocol, or a hybrid. Each has real consequences for what you can buy, how much you'll spend over time, and whether you'll be stranded if the company folds or pivots.

The Sonos question: still the reference, but not always the answer

Sonos is the name that comes up first in every multiroom conversation, and fair enough. They invented the modern consumer multiroom category and their synchronisation is still excellent. In Australia, a Sonos Era 100 will set you back around $299, the Era 300 (Atmos, spatial audio) is around $599, and a Move 2 portable runs about $549. That's not insane money for what you get.

But here's my honest take: the 2024 app disaster left a bad taste. Sonos pushed a major app redesign that broke core functionality for months, with missing alarms, broken local library support and disappeared queues. They've been fixing it, but if you'd built a whole home system around Sonos and that happened to you, you'd be reconsidering. I'd still recommend Sonos to someone who wants the simplest possible setup and is happy to stay within their walled garden, but I wouldn't tell you it's the only option anymore.

The other thing worth understanding: Sonos speakers are not hi-fi speakers in the traditional sense. They're very good lifestyle speakers with competent room correction, but if you care about the last 20% of audio quality, you'll want to use Sonos as a transport into better hardware.

Google Cast (Chromecast): the underrated open backbone

If I had to pick one ecosystem for someone who wants flexibility and doesn't want to be locked in, I'd tell them to build around Google Cast. It's not perfect, but it's the closest thing to an open standard that actually works reliably.

Here's the big advantage: hundreds of devices support it natively, across dozens of brands. Cambridge Audio, Denon, Yamaha, Marantz, JBL, Sony, and plenty of others build Cast in. That means you can have a Cast-enabled AVR in the lounge, a Cast-enabled soundbar in the bedroom, and a Chromecast Audio (if you can find one secondhand) feeding a decent set of bookshelf speakers in the study, and they all show up in the Google Home app as a single multiroom group.

The Cambridge Audio CXN100 (check price) is a great example. It's a proper network streamer with Cast built in, which means you can throw it into a Cast group with cheaper speakers elsewhere in the house and they all sync. The sound quality from the CXN100 itself is genuinely excellent; the Cast integration just means it plays nicely with the rest.

Latency in Cast groups used to be an issue, with audible delay if you happened to be standing between two rooms. Google has improved this significantly, and I'd say it's now comparable to Sonos for practical purposes. Not identical, but close enough.

The weakness is the app. Google Home is fine for basic grouping but it's not as polished as the Sonos app was in its prime. Roon handles Cast endpoints beautifully if you're going further, but Roon costs money, and that's a whole other conversation. (We've covered that one: see our piece on the best DACs and network streamers for context on where Roon fits, and Roon versus UPnP and proprietary protocols for the protocol side.)

Apple AirPlay 2: the right call if you're already in the Apple world

AirPlay 2 is Apple's multiroom protocol, and it's very good. It's arguably better engineered than Cast at the protocol level, with proper buffered sync that holds up well across rooms. If everyone in your house uses an iPhone and you already have a HomePod or two, this is the obvious path.

The problem is price. Apple's own hardware is expensive, and while AirPlay 2 support has spread to third-party devices (Denon, Marantz, Naim, and others support it), those tend to be mid-to-upper-range products. The Naim Uniti Atom (check price) supports AirPlay 2, for instance, but it's a $4,500 device. The Marantz Model 40n (check price) also has it built in at around $2,500. Great gear, both of them, but you're not building a budget multiroom setup around either.

Where AirPlay 2 makes practical sense on a tighter budget: use a HomePod Mini (around $149) as a satellite room speaker, fed by whatever app you're already using on your iPhone. The Mini sounds better than its size suggests, especially in a kitchen or bathroom where you're not sitting and critically listening. Pair two of them in stereo for $298 and you've got a genuinely decent small-room system.

One real limitation: AirPlay 2 requires an Apple device as the source. Android users are locked out. If your household is mixed iOS and Android, build on Cast instead.

The WiiM ecosystem: the budget giant-killer option

This is the one most people haven't heard of, and it's where I get excited.

WiiM (pronounced "wee-em") makes a range of network streamers starting at around AU$120 for the WiiM Mini and going up to around AU$260 for the WiiM Pro Plus. These little boxes support AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Amazon Music, and their own WiiM Home app for direct multiroom grouping. They also support UPnP and have proper optical/analogue outputs.

The pitch is simple: drop a WiiM Mini behind any existing amp with a spare input, and it becomes a multiroom endpoint. Got an older integrated sitting in the spare room? WiiM it. Got a decent active speaker in the study? WiiM it. The WiiM Home app lets you group them into zones and control volume independently, and it works as advertised. For a worked example of the approach, see this four-zone WiiM multiroom build.

Sound quality at this price point is fine. It's not audiophile-reference fine, but for a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, totally honest. For a more serious room, the WiiM Pro Plus has a proper headphone output and a notably better internal DAC, and it gets compared favourably to streamers at twice the price. That's the kind of claim I usually dismiss, but in this case it strikes me as credible.

The limitation is longevity. WiiM is owned by Linkplay, a Chinese tech company, and the ecosystem is newer. I'd be comfortable recommending it for secondary rooms where a $120 loss isn't catastrophic if the company changes direction. I'd think twice before making it the centrepiece of a serious lounge system. If price is the main driver, our look at cheap multiroom that actually sounds good covers the same ground from another angle.

Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect: the protocols you're already using

These are worth a separate mention because a lot of people don't realise they're multiroom protocols in their own right. Spotify Connect lets the Spotify app hand off playback directly to a compatible device. It's not your phone streaming over Bluetooth; the device streams independently. TIDAL Connect works the same way at lossless quality.

If your speakers or streamers support these natively, you can build a practical multiroom setup just by opening Spotify or TIDAL, selecting the room you want, and casting. The sync isn't as tight as Sonos or WiiM's native grouping, and playing the same track synchronised across multiple rooms requires both devices to support group playback, which Spotify Connect does allow but implementation varies by hardware.

For most people who just want different music in different rooms simultaneously, Spotify/TIDAL Connect is all they need. Same family, different rooms, each person controls their room from their own phone. Done.

Why network quality decides whether your rooms stay in sync

Synchronised playback depends on every device agreeing on timing. Most systems buffer a few seconds of audio on each endpoint and then start playing at an agreed moment, so a weak Wi-Fi link in one room shows up as a stutter, a drift or an echo between zones. That's why the network matters more than the speaker. Fewer hops, a wired backbone where possible and a router that isn't drowning in devices all give those buffers room to stay full.

Setups with a different source in each room are far more forgiving, because nothing has to line up with anything else. Each endpoint is just pulling its own stream. If that's your plan, our piece on taming multiroom when every zone plays something different goes deeper.

A wired streamer, or a mesh node placed close to the endpoint, will fix more dropouts than any firmware update. Honestly, I'd argue most "my multiroom is rubbish" complaints are network complaints wearing a speaker costume.

How to plan a multiroom audio system on a real budget

Let me give you a framework rather than a shopping list, because gear changes and prices shift.

Start by counting rooms and ranking them. The main listening room should get the best hardware: a proper streamer, a decent DAC or integrated with streaming built in, and speakers matched to the room. For this room, don't cut corners; check our guide to the best streaming amplifiers for options that combine the amplification and network streaming in one box. Secondary rooms like kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms can be served by budget endpoints: WiiM Minis, HomePod Minis, Cast-enabled portable speakers, or whatever you already own.

Then pick one ecosystem and stick to it. Mixed ecosystems cause headaches. If your primary room is built around Cast-enabled gear, make sure your secondary rooms are also Cast-compatible. If you're in the Apple world, commit to AirPlay 2 throughout. Mixing Sonos in one room with WiiM in another and AirPlay 2 in a third is how you end up with three apps open and nothing playing where you want it.

Wired ethernet connections to streamers are always better than Wi-Fi. If you're doing a renovation or a new build, pull Cat6 to every room where you plan a streaming endpoint. Most people read that and immediately assume it's too hard. It's not, and a sparky can usually do it for less than you think. If you're renting or retrofitting, powerline adapters (the ones that use your home's electrical wiring as a network) are a reasonable second option.

And don't overlook the router. A cheap ISP-supplied modem-router struggling to handle fifteen Wi-Fi devices is a bigger enemy of multiroom audio than any other single factor. A decent mesh Wi-Fi system, such as TP-Link Deco, Eero or Netgear Orbi, transforms reliability. It's common for people to spend $800 on a new streamer when a $300 mesh upgrade would have fixed their actual problem.

Where to go from a budget start

The best thing about building on an open protocol is that you can upgrade incrementally. Start with a WiiM Mini feeding your existing system, add a HomePod Mini in the kitchen, and as budget allows, replace the Mini with something better or upgrade the main room's streamer. Nothing's wasted. The WiiM moves to a bathroom, and the old receiver becomes a secondary zone endpoint.

If and when the main listening room starts demanding more serious attention, that's when you look at dedicated network streamers with better clocking and DAC implementations. The gap between a $120 WiiM Mini and a proper audiophile streamer is real and audible in a good system; it's much less relevant on a $400 pair of bookshelf speakers in a medium-sized kitchen. Spend the money where the room and the listening justify it. The standmount buying guide is worth reading before you get to that point, because acoustic treatment and speaker placement in the main room will matter more than which streamer you chose.

Multiroom audio is one of those categories where the cheap stuff has genuinely caught up to where the expensive stuff was five years ago. The trick is knowing which cheap stuff is actually good and which protocols will still be supported when you want to expand. Pick the right ecosystem now, and you'll be adding rooms for years without starting from scratch.

— Dave Okafor, Value & Giant-Killers Contributor