The increased power and driver and cabinet size predictably ushers a grander performance each step you take up the chain, with the Addon C10 particularly able to rattle trinkets from the mantelpiece or twist our insides with its low-end authority. They time with metronomic precision, but temper it with the kind of dynamic sense that captures rhythmic emphasis nicely. And that dynamic expression is a strong positive over the speakers’ entire performance, able to reflect lavish shifts and subtle nuance alike. It simply does everything right, and without fuss. As much as anything else, your chosen path for migration to multi-room should be about whose speakers you want around your house. For us, Audio Pro makes that particular decision admirably simple.

The functionality of multi-room is aided with a custom-made app, curated in-house by Audio Pro themselves: Audio Pro Multi-room; somewhat self-explanatorily.Sure to fit in with any modern home aesthetic, the Audio Pro C5 Mk II is striking with Scandinavian roots, and you can tell.

The C10 MKII is a 2022 What Hi-Fi? Award-winner, and boy did it earn that accolade. With multiple streaming and multi-room options thanks to Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and the Audio Pro app, multiple inputs (including RCA and 3.5mm aux in) and arguably the nicest design of all the brand's speakers, the C10 MKII looks as good as it sounds. And it sounds rather lovely courtesy of some big steps up in clarity, bass tautness and refinement over the previous iteration. Through the Audio Pro Control app, you can actually adjust the bass and treble to better suit you as well. Other features in the app include a sleep timer to save energy or alarms to get you out of the house on time in the morning. This includes a clever process where the speaker uses in-built sensors to optimise its sound settings for its position in the room. Testing the feature by moving it closer to a wall in our listening room, our reviewers could hear the HomePod 2 adjusting its sound in real-time. Very impressive. Living with the app is a slightly different proposition, though. In some ways it’s simple –‘drag and drop’ to partner or separate speakers, either in stereo pairs or multi-room zones, and tweak the bass and treble at your leisure. But it can be a little buggy, and is certainly limited compared to most rival systems. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ It's all a moot point when we lose power, which is frequent, though if we run the generator, I can have all of my connected devices (and yes, the Lutrons and cheap wall outlet plugs still work manually if that outlet/circuit is connected to our generator (which they aren't). What Hi-Fi? said:Sonos might be among the best in the business, but it isn't your only option if you want to go multi-room.

All the controls for the speaker are located on a metal panel on the top. These are all clearly labelled, so it doesn't take long to get to grips with them. They also have a satisfying "clunk" to them when pressed; they are a world away from the cheap plastic buttons you find on many other speakers. There's also a separate panel for the built-in Alexa feature, with an LED strip to tell you when the C5A is listening and a button to manually mute the microphone.

Sound Quality

On top of the sub is the second part of the Drumfire’s set-up, containing two 11cm woofers and a 25mm tweeter. This box has an RCA input for an external analogue source, as well as an ethernet port and 3.5mm input. Though there is a pair of unknown quantities in the Audio Pro line-up as far as we’re concerned – the Addon C-Sub can help those smaller speakers delve deeper into the low frequencies, while the A40 is set to receive a wider release following its design for the company’s 40th anniversary– our time spent with the rest of the company’s speakers allows us to confidently celebrate it as the best-sounding multi-room suite available for the money. It is the use of a BMR, or Balanced Mode Radiator, tweeter that is most canny, however. Among its many benefits, this flatter-faced driver has the ability to offer wider dispersion than a traditional tweeter – up to 180º in fact – and so can make the most of the A10’s cylindrical form, making it far less fussy when it comes to positioning. The deep integration with Apple’s ecosystem also makes it blissfully easy to set up. Paired with an iPhone all you have to do is scan for the speaker and run through a few on-screen commands to get it fully up and running and integrated with your smart home setup. The entire process only took us a few minutes. The Audio Pro C5 Mk II wireless speaker has a lot to boast about - not only does it sound great and work just as you'd expect it to, but it won't disrupt your decor at home either because it looks genuinely cool.

DON'T BUY SONOS is the only advice I can offer. I don't know what else to get; the options you gave were really limited.The Addon C5A welcomes us with that same Award-winning musical understanding. There’s plenty of bass for a unit this size, and a level of detail we’ve become used to from these speakers, but the highlight is undoubtedly these boxes’ level of expression. It’s difficult to imagine a less stressful set-up procedure. The Audio Pro app seeks out all available products connected to the home network (with the option of adding those not already tethered manually), and they are then all there to manipulate as you wish. Unsurprisingly, that’s one of the first things that jumps out when we switch the A10 on. We love the directness of its siblings, but the versatility and sheer spread of sound here is to be admired. It doesn’t have quite the unwavering focus, nor the sheer weight in the low end, but we can move around our test room and still be treated to the same high quality sound. At What Hi-Fi? we comprehensively test and review every product we recommend, from soundbars to speakers, headphones and TVs. And it's no different for Sonos alternatives. These are limited to optical and analogue auxiliary - though with a 3.5mm-to-RCA cable included, connecting to pretty much any existing set up could hardly be easier.