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Hi, I'm Ty Pendelburry, and today I'm looking at the Monster Sound Stage S1.
A wireless multi-room speaker available for $230.
While the speaker might look like your standard bluetooth speaker, it does that and a lot more.
The S1 is compatible with Qualcomm's AllPlay Wireless standard.
A competitor to SONOS and other systems such as DTS Play-Fi.
And there's a loud Spotify connect playback, as well as streaming music from the phone and the network, plus support for a handful of other apps.
Setup is a little trickier than most and needs the use of the WPS button on your router.
Or if you don't have one of those, the Chrome browser on your Android phone.
As well as wi-fi and Bluetooth, the speaker also allows you to stream Bluetooth sources around the home.
In addition to connecting USB devices, optical digital, and other players by the 3.5 milimeter input.
Some quality is generally good.
Especially if you like dance music.
With very deep bass for such a small enclosure, thanks to the padded bass radiator on the back.
And some over hyped treble.
It does have a very bass-like sound, and goes very very loud.
If you like any other style of music though, the combination of loud treble and recessed vocals can actually get annoying.
Especially with acoustic music and rock.
At a price that's a little bit more than the PLAY:1, the Monster SoundStage S1 offers a different take on the multi-room speaker.
And the support for hi res music is excellent.
But if you're looking for something more subtle, then Sonos is the better option.
This is Ty Penobry for Cnet.com.
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