Want to enjoy your music throughout your home, on any sound system, from virtually any source – and control it from your smartphone? Don't feel ready to commit to an expensive service like Roon – or have kit that isn't Roon ready?
Victor and David, two music lovers who met in France while studying for their musicology masters, had the idea to create a product that could bridge that gap – et voila, Octavio was born.
Octavio is an audio transmitter that sends sound over wi-fi, allowing you to broadcast your music to every room in your house. It brings multi-room functionalities to each of your speakers so you can listen to your music in all your rooms. The only thing you have to do is to equip each of your sound systems with an Octavio device.
Octavio is compatible with all pre-amplified speakers with an analogue input. So, you could hook one up to a high-end audio system in your living room, a Bluetooth speaker in your kitchen, a set of mid-range speakers in your bedroom – you could even dust off old hi-fi systems from the loft. The use of wi-fi means a 24-bit, 96KHz sound quality, gives a much better range than Bluetooth and might just give a second, multi-room youth to your old speakers without investing in an expensive new compatible ecosystem.
Once each of your systems is equipped with an Octavio device, you should be able to play all of your music, through all of your speakers. Each Octavio device shows up on the accompanying app, making it possible to broadcast from many different sound sources using your smartphone. You can send music over Bluetooth and listen to it everywhere at the same time, if you like, or switch between, say, the kitchen and living room as you make breakfast. Spotify Connect is also onboard, as is AirPlay. And with a simple auxiliary jack input you can also enjoy music from your vinyl or CD collection in all of your rooms.
Should your phone be on charge or in another room, there are playback buttons on the Octavio unit itself – which is about the size of a big bar of soap – to start and stop sound broadcasting.
Octavio is currently being launched on crowdfunding site Kickstarter and there are various options for pledging your support. You can still get the Super Early Bird Discount by pledging £53 / $64 / AU$105, (a 31 per cent discount on the RRP) which gets you one special Kickstarter edition Octavio receiver, the mobile app, power chord and audio cable. But if you want to go big, £617 / $755 / AU$1184 gets you a whopping 10 of them, which should kit out even the most speaker-heavy of homes.
The project has currently received 43 per cent of its £8821 goal, with 25 days to go.
If you back the project and select a product-based pledge, you can expect to receive your Octavio receiver (or receivers) in September.
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