Audio Video News

DTS today announced that the first DTS Play-Fi-enabled multiroom wireless speakers to incorporate Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service are slated to hit the market in the coming weeks.

The PS10 ($249) from DTS subsidiary Phorus, is expected to ship in late September/early October, and will be followed by Onkyo’s Smart Speaker P3, which was announced in Europe today, and Pioneer’s Elite Smart Speaker F4. Alexa capabilities will come via a future firmware update.

Each of these speakers has a built-in far-field microphone that lets users use voice commands to control the speaker and other devices as well as access information from the internet via the Alexa platform. DTS said advanced signal processing is employed to reliably capture spoken commands in noisy environments, even from across the room and even when the speaker is playing music.

The speakers can be operated via the DTS Play-Fi app loaded on a smartphone or tablet; when DTS Play-Fi products are grouped together, music plays to the group simultaneously regardless of the selected source. Play-Fi systems can also be controlled using the Apple Watch or Android Wear.

The Phorus PS10 supports multiroom wireless playback of 192kHz/24-bit high-resolution files and uses a built-in 30-watt Class D amplifier with DTS audio processing to power two 2.5-inch drivers, which are bolstered by a pair of bass boosting passive radiators. The speaker also has four preset buttons for quick access to favorite streaming apps.

Apps available on the Play-Fi platform include Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Juke, KKBox, Napster, Qobuz, QQ Music, SiriusXM, and thousands of Internet radio stations.

“By combining DTS Play-Fi with the Alexa Voice Service, these speakers extend Alexa’s capabilities to more than 200 products from 23 different manufacturers, while providing compatibility with the same Alexa skills customers have grown to love,” said Dannie Lau, general manager of DTS’s Networked Audio Division and founder of Phorus, now owned by DTS.

In addition to Onkyo and Pioneer, the DTS Play-Fi platform is supported through dozens of speakers, soundbars, set-top boxes, and receivers from Aerix, Anthem, Arcam, Autonomic, Definitive Technology, DISH TV, Integra, Fusion Research, Klipsch, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Paradigm, Phorus, Polk Audio, Rotel, Sonus faber, Soundcast, SVS Sound, Thiel Audio, and Wren Sound.

For more information about DTS Play-fi, visit play-fi.com.