Sonos rival Pure lets you stream any music app to its wireless speakers (hands-on)
Using a combination of Bluetooth and your home's Wi-Fi network, Pure's Jongo wireless multiroom speakers can play any audio streaming from a mobile device or computer throughout your home.
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
One of the few weaknesses of Sonos' wireless speakers is the lack of Bluetooth, keeping you from streaming music with every app on your phone or tablet. A weakness Pure exploits with its Jongo line of wireless speakers.
The speakers use both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which -- with a quick software update -- allows you to stream whatever music you want simultaneously to multiple speakers and in sync with each other.
Here's how it works: Say you have three Jongo speakers spread around your home and all of them are connected to your Wi-Fi network (a relatively painless procedure done with the Pure Connect Android or iOS app or a web browser). Open up your Bluetooth settings on your smartphone, tablet, or computer and pair it with one of the speakers.
Start playing music stored on your device or your choice of streaming service and it will be piped through the speaker you connected to just like any other Bluetooth speaker. However, within a few seconds, the other Jongo speakers will synchronize over your Wi-Fi network and playback through those speakers, too.
Pure, or should I say its parent company, Imagination Technologies, calls the technology Caskeid and, well, it works as promised. Although, even with just the little time I've spent testing them, there are a couple potential issues.
Since it's using your home wireless network, you're limited to its range and capabilities. That means if your wireless signal cuts out on occasion or isn't strong in an area of your home, you'll experience dropouts in audio. That goes for whatever you're streaming from as well. And if it's your smartphone or tablet you're using, you'll have to keep an eye on your battery life or plug in.
Still, the Pure Jongo speakers are an easy way to spread music around your home using your pre-existing wireless network and without waiting for a manufacturer to add support for the service you want to use. They're fairly inexpensive to boot (especially compared to Sonos), with its Jongo T2 speaker starting at $180 (£100), but available online for about $130.
We'll have a full review soon.