The Best Music Streamer (2024)

I’m an updates writer at Wirecutter covering audio, video, and smart devices for the home. I wrote the smart plugs guide and contributed to the gear for a home theater system roundup. Prior to working at Wirecutter, I played rhythm guitar, sang in several bands, and was quite active in musical theater. I’ve had years of classical piano training and over a decade of vocal coaching, so music and sound engineering have been a big part of my life.

For this guide:

• I spent a week researching network music streamers, using sources like Crutchfield, Darko.Audio, Amazon’s best-sellers lists, and even Reddit reviews (namely in r/audiophile and r/budgetaudiophile) to determine which devices would be worth testing.
• I spent 60 hours testing 10 streaming music players.
• Senior staff writer Brent Butterworth contributed his measurement expertise. Brent has been reviewing speakers and other audio devices for over 30 years and writes Wirecutter’s guides to subwoofers, soundbars, portable Bluetooth speakers, and more.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
• In accordance with Wirecutter standards, I return or donate all products I’ve tested once my assessment of them is complete, which may involve longer-term testing by my colleagues and me. I never hang on to “freebies” once testing is done.

Whether you stream music from services such as Spotify and Tidal or you have a giant collection of digital music files (or both), you could benefit from a standalone music streamer.

While Bluetooth has become nearly ubiquitous in newer audio devices, it has a few glaring flaws as a wireless-streaming protocol: It’s not designed to work throughout an entire home, its capability to do multiroom audio is extremely limited, and it can’t stream high-res audio. A network music streamer can solve most or all of those problems, directly integrating many popular music streaming services and acting as a stable and wide-reaching port of communication between your phone, tablet, laptop, NAS (network-attached storage) device, or dedicated music server and your home-audio system.

Most of these streamers are relatively cheap as far as audio components go, and all of the models we tested support a multiroom-audio function to stream music all around your home.

In a perfect world, the best music streamer would be compatible with every streaming service, have every type of input and output, reproduce the highest resolution of audio, and play every known audio file format—all from an app that updates on its own, offers a user-friendly interface, and never crashes. Unfortunately, that device doesn’t exist, but we tried to find something that came as close as possible and also didn’t cost four figures.

My initial model list included 26 units, but I was able to pare that list down to 10 streamers to test, going by the following parameters:

• Price: We set a max price of $300. For our initial round of testing, we focused on affordably priced streamers that don’t rely on closed wireless ecosystems (sorry, Sonos Port and Bluesound Node). We found plenty of streamers in this price range offering features that both audiophiles and average listeners could appreciate.
• Streaming service compatibility: Since the main function of this audio component is to stream music through it, we preferred streamers that incorporated the widest selection of streaming services into their apps. (None of them officially support Apple Music.) With the app, you can pull playlists from supported services and add them as presets for quick access—so the more compatibility, the better.
• File compatibility: For people who have amassed large digital libraries, it’s important that the network music player supports a wide variety of file types, including lossy formats (MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, MQA), lossless formats (FLAC, ALAC), and uncompressed formats (WAV, AIFF, PCM).
• Wireless protocols: The best streamers also support multiple wireless streaming protocols, such as AirPlay 2, Chromecast, DLNA, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth. We also appreciated models that were Roon-ready.
• Audio resolution: CD-quality audio (16 bit/44.1 kHz) is the baseline resolution that every streamer should support. For audio to be considered “high resolution,” its sample rate and bit depth should be higher than CD quality. Most high-res streaming and download services max out at a resolution of 24 bit/192 kHz, but few streamers in this price range can output at that resolution successfully.
• Size: A network audio player should be able to fit discreetly into your existing home-audio setup. We gave preference to smaller models.
• Analog and digital connections: The best streamer has both analog and digital audio outputs so that it can work with any stereo speaker system. Inputs to accommodate a NAS or USB drive are important. The ability to connect a record player or TV is a nice perk, too. Few models in this price range include a subwoofer output.
• App functionality and features: Almost all of the network music streamers we tested work with an app that lets you stream integrated music services and control playback. Most of them use some version of the Linkplay control app, but not every interface has the same features. Setup within the companion app should be quick and painless.

To test each music streamer, I connected it to a pair of ELAC Debut ConneX DCB41 powered speakers via both analog and digital connections, if available, as well as to a pair of Edifier Stax Spirit S3 headphones in wired mode.

I used AirPlay to stream music from my MacBook Pro, and I cast FLAC, AIFF, and WAV files from a Roon media server. Finally, I added a handful of FLAC and AIFF files to a thumb drive and connected it to applicable models.

I downloaded each streamer’s control app to both an iPhone 14 and a Google Pixel 7. I immediately dismissed any music streamer that had trouble staying connected to its app interface, which ended up being a common issue with most streamers under $100.

Since all of the control apps used the same Linkplay interface, I was able to chain them together and control them from one app to test the multiroom-audio function. At one point, I had the Andover Audio Songbird HR, the Arylic S10+, the Audioengine B-Fi, and the OSD Nero playing “Welcome to the Jungle”by Guns n’ Roses through different systems at 8 a.m.—if my neighbors complained, I couldn’t hear it.

Finally, I tested various features that differed between models, such as their remote controls, physical buttons, touch controls, and in-app features like EQ, automatic room correction, and smart-home compatibility. I took note of whether these features were easy to use and functioned consistently.

Senior staff writer Brent Butterworth then ran technical measurements on the top contenders to confirm that they had no technical flaws that our listening tests might have missed. Using an Audiomatica Clio 13 audio analyzer, he tested each model’s frequency response—the evenness of output from bass to midrange to treble. He then tested total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N), a measure of how cleanly and accurately a receiver reproduces an audio signal.

He finished by testing the maximum output of each receiver in volts; a receiver with a lower-than-standard maximum output below 2 volts might not be able to drive an amplifier or a set of powered speakers to the maximum volume they’re capable of producing.

The WiiM Pro Plus is the best network music streamer because it offers easy setup, reliable performance, and a wide variety of features—without commanding an audiophile price. It has enough inputs and outputs to integrate into most home-audio setups, and both audiophiles and casual music fans are likely to appreciate its functionality.

Setting it up is a breeze. Easy setup wasn’t the norm for these audio streamers, as many of them, especially those priced under $100, had trouble connecting—and staying connected—to their apps. But the WiiM Home app (available on iOS and Android) connected to the Pro Plus within 30 seconds, no need for troubleshooting. If for some reason the app has difficulty finding your device, it provides troubleshooting instructions during the setup process. Additionally, if you have spotty or unreliable Wi-Fi, the Pro Plus has an Ethernet port for you to directly connect it to your router.

The app then walks you through the process of connecting to the WiiM voice remote (for which you need two AAA batteries), measuring audio path latency, and integrating smart-home voice control. Each of these steps took about a minute in my tests, so the total setup time for the WiiM Pro Plus took about five minutes max.

If you plan on using the Pro Plus with your smart-home ecosystem, I recommend setting it up during the initial process within the WiiM Home app. Adding it afterward through Alexa Skills proved to be more time-consuming than just doing it when WiiM’s app prompted me to. If you’re using Siri, you can add the Pro Plus only through the Home app on iOS.

This streamer is intuitive and feature-rich. The Pro Plus has touch controls on the front face, and it comes with a remote (many other models we tested did not). But you need to use the companion app to get the most in-depth control and feedback, and its user-friendly design makes controlling the Pro Plus foolproof.

The home screen tells you what track is playing, which physical output it’s using, and the resolution at which it’s playing, depending on which source you’re streaming from. From the same screen you can also access controls for play/pause and track skip/reverse, as well as adjust the volume.

The app makes it easy to customize the way you listen. If you’re not using a separate device to EQ the sound, the app offers 24 presets, an adjustable graphic and parametric EQ feature that you can assign to your input source of choice, and automatic room correction using a supplied microphone. You can also control things like volume balance between channels and max resolution for each output.

You can also set a timer for standby mode, add a different remote, turn the touch controls on and off, or override the volume buttons.

It’s compatible with most music streaming services—but not Apple Music. In our test group, the Pro Plus had the highest number of integrated services, including Amazon Music, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Qobuz, SoundCloud, Spotify, and Tidal. If you like to listen to radio broadcasts, the Pro Plus also integrates BBC Radio, Calm Radio, iHeart Radio, Open Network Stream, Radio Paradise, TuneIn, and vTuner.

You can create up to 12 playlists from these integrated services, though you can access only the first four from the remote. Toggling between playlists did produce some delay for me, but this likely happened because I was using different services in my tests.

None of the streamers I tested supported Apple Music directly within their apps, but all of them support AirPlay to transmit music wirelessly from your iOS or Mac device. The Pro Plus goes even further and adds support for Chromecast and Bluetooth, which are less common on other streamers.

It has all the input/output connections you need, and it can handle high-res audio. Because the Pro Plus has a bunch of input and output connections, it fits easily into most home-audio setups. It has optical and coaxial digital outputs, plus an analog stereo out. Unlike many other streamers we tested, this one also has analog and optical digital inputs to connect devices such as a TV, record player, or CD player.

You can change each output’s max resolution within the settings menu. Both the digital and analog outputs can play tunes at a max resolution of 24 bit/192 kHz. The streamer’s AKM AK4493SEQ digital-to-analog converter is technically able to decode files up to 32 bit/768 kHz, but the streamer supports output only up to 24/192. This difference in decoding versus output wasn’t an abnormality among the music streamers we tested; since they’re meant to work in a multiroom audio system, the lower output-resolution level curbs the possibility of audio breaks or lagging between speakers.

I created high-res playlists from Qobuz and Tidal, and I played a few high-res files through Roon to confirm that the WiiM Pro Plus didn’t choke on them.

The “browse” screen in the app is where you can access files stored on a home music server, such as a DLNA or NAS drive. As for file formats, the Pro Plus can handle AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA.

It gives you several ways to create a multiroom audio system. There’s no one perfect way to stream audio all throughout your house, but WiiM offers several ways to create a multiroom setup that’s relatively painless to use. First, the Pro Plus is Roon-ready; you can add multiple devices to your Roon server and stream music to all of them at the same time.

You can also create a multiroom-audio setup using multiple Pro Plus streamers (or other WiiM devices). In our testing, we found that almost all of these affordable music streamers rely on the same Linkplay app interface, so you could connect them all to one other within the app to set up a multiroom system. On the home screen, you’ll find a little chain-link or plus-sign icon in the top-right corner; once you’ve added your devices to the control app, you just tap the icon to chain them together.

Finally, the Pro Plus’s smart-home compatibility also makes multiroom audio a reality. You can link the Pro Plus with your Alexa speakers, Google Home speakers, or Apple HomePod. I was able to add the Pro Plus to my Echo Show 8 and Echo pretty easily. I set up a speaker group called “party time” and played a cacophony of ear-piercing dubstep music that made cleaning my home more tolerable.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The WiiM Home app can be sluggish when you’re switching sources. If you switch from, say, your laptop to your phone or from the analog output to the digital output, you sometimes need to hit the play/pause button in the app more than once for it to work. I often found that the functionality was marginally better on Android than on iOS.

It has no USB port to attach a thumb drive. This omission doesn’t matter to everyone, but if you prefer to keep a bunch of songs stored on a thumb drive, know that you can’t plug that drive directly into the Pro Plus. You can, however, insert it into a laptop and stream the music to the Pro Plus.

It’s our bulkiest pick. The Pro Plus isn’t as big as other models we tested, but it is the largest of our picks, measuring 1.75 by 5.5 by 5.5 inches (HWD).

If you’re willing to give up some features to save money, we recommend the Audioengine B-Fi. This tiny network audio player outputs only CD-quality sound and has fewer connection and streaming options, but it consistently performed well in our tests and was the easiest to set up.

Setup was quick, and the B-Fi is always ready to go. Of the 10 models I tested, the B-Fi was the quickest to connect to my Wi-Fi network and its companion control app (iOS and Android). During the device-finding stage, the B-Fi took less than 30 seconds to connect to its app, and it was also the only sub-$100 music streamer to remain connected. I was able to switch quickly between streaming with my phone and my laptop, without experiencing the occasional glitches I encountered with our top pick.

It’s compatible with most major streaming services, but not nearly as many as our top pick. The B-Fi app integrates Amazon Music, Napster, Qobuz, Spotify, and Tidal; it also has iHeartRadio and TuneIn for listening to radio stations. You can create 10 preset playlists for these services.

Curiously, Apple Music appears as being “compatible” within the app, and tapping it takes you directly to the service rather than forcing you to manually use AirPlay. However, you can’t add any preset playlists from Apple Music.

The B-Fi supports the AirPlay and DLNA wireless protocols, but not Chromecast or Bluetooth as our top pick does. It supports a number of file formats, including AAC, ALAC, APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WMA.

Its barebones approach allows for smoother functionality. The Audioengine app is a stripped-down version of the WiiM Home app. However, its lack of features actually aids in more streamlined functioning, and some people may prefer its uncomplicated approach.

It gives you only three screens to choose from: Browse, where your input and source options are located; Device, which is where you can access song control, add more devices for multiroom setup, and specifically adjust the B-Fi’s controls; and Settings, which includes the app version and the ability to send a feedback email to Audioengine.

It can’t output high-resolution audio tracks. However, its CD-quality output is good enough for non-audiophiles, and this restriction allowed the B-Fi to perform consistently well during our testing, since it wasn’t bogged down by extraneous functions competing for bandwidth.

As for connection options, it has only an analog line-out and an optical digital output. With those outputs, you can connect it to an amplifier, powered speakers, or a receiver, but the lack of inputs means you can’t connect any sources (like a record player) to it, as you can with our top pick.

It also lacks an Ethernet port for a direct network connection, but it does have a Wi-Fi antenna if range is a concern. I didn’t encounter any issues with the B-Fi staying connected via Wi-Fi.

Its compact size and low price make it a great fit for most setups. The B-Fi is the smallest and cheapest of our picks, measuring 1 by 3.5 by 3 inches (HWD, not including the antenna) and priced at around $100. It’s small and low-profile enough to fit anywhere, and it’s the only pick that fit comfortably on my desk without my having to rearrange things first. It also comes with a microfiber bag, which adds to its appealing portability.

Creating a multiroom setup with the B-Fi is a breeze. As with our top pick, you can either purchase multiple B-Fi units or mix and match streamers to Frankenstein together a system. I connected the B-Fi, the OSD Nero, the Arylic S10+, and the Andover Audio Songbird HRthrough the app, and they played well together as a team. Audioengine advertises that you can set up 12 B-Fi players on one system, but we didn’t test that claim.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The B-Fi can’t stream music higher than CD quality. Though its ESS Technologies Sabre ES9023 DAC is capable of handling 24 bit/192 kHz audio, Audioengine has limited the output resolution to CD quality (16 bit/44 kHz). Audioengine says that it made this move as a safeguard against audio breaks or lagging in a multiroom setup, though our top pick supports multiroom streaming of 24/192 resolution.

It isn’t as feature-rich as our top pick. You don’t get nearly as many audio-customization controls here as you get with the WiiM Pro Plus. This model also doesn’t have any type of manual controls, such as a remote or front-panel buttons, so you’re bound to its companion app.

Its connection options are limited. You’ll find no USB port or input connectors of any kind, and this model omits both a coaxial digital output and a subwoofer output.

If you need a USB thumb-drive port or something rack-ready: Unlike our picks, the $250 OSD Nero SRT1 Gen2 includes a USB-A port for a thumb drive. It also includes rack-mounting materials, if you want to add it to your rack system. In our tests, the Nero sounded good, supported a lot of file types, and was able to stream high-res audio at a max resolution of 24bit/192 kHz. Plus, it had a good amount of output connections.

This was one of the very few models we tested that had a subwoofer output to connect a sub. However, Brent Butterworth found in his measurements that the subwoofer output wasn’t worth using because it’s a full-range subwoofer output, with no filtering for the sub or your main speakers, so it essentially acts as a Y-connector from the streamer to your amplifier or speakers and subwoofer.

Overall, though, we concluded that this streamer didn’t have enough features to justify its higher price. The Nero app supports fewer streaming services and has fewer in-app adjustments than that of our top pick, and the setup instructions are also somewhat lacking. Strangely enough, this model uses the exact same remote as the Arylic S10+.

We plan to test the following streaming music players for a future update:

The $90 Andover Audio Songbird Music Streamer is compatible with most major streaming services and can output audio at a 24 bit/192 kHz resolution from its analog 3.5 mm output. It’s compatible with a lot of audio file formats, high-res and otherwise.

The $150 WiiM Pro is the midlevel model between our top pick and the WiiM Mini. It looks virtually identical to our top pick and has a lot of the same features, but it uses a different DAC that supports a lower resolution.

For our initial round of testing, we focused on music streamers priced under $300 that didn’t rely on closed wireless ecosystems. As a result, we decided to forgo testing big-name streamers such as the Sonos Port, Sonos Amp, and Bluesound Node.

Amazon Echo (4th Gen): Although this Alexa smart speaker may not seem like an obvious choice for a network music streamer, it offers most of the same basic functions—it allows you to connect your streaming service(s) of choice through the Alexa app, and it has a 3.5 mm audio output jack to integrate into your sound system. However, we found that using a music streamer was easier, and listening to Alexa speak through your speaker system while streaming music feels akin to the annoying experience of playing music through your car stereo and being interrupted by a maps app telling you to turn left.

Andover Audio Songbird HR Music Streamer: The Songbird HR has too large a price tag for too few features. It’s capable of outputting audio up to a 24 bit/192 kHz resolution, it’s compatible with most streaming services, and it has a wealth of input and output connections. But for $300, it doesn’t offer much that the WiiM Pro Plus doesn’t. It’s bulky in size, in-app features such as EQ were buggy in our tests, and it didn’t connect to Alexa without putting up a fight. The provided cables were laughably short at about 11 inches long, making positioning awkward.

Arylic S10+ Wi-Fi Music Streamer: We like that this streamer is compatible with a lot of streaming apps and provides a decent amount of features for an attractive price. And before the B-Fi dropped in price, the S10+ was the only sub-$100 model to stay connected to its app. But over time I began to notice inconsistencies in volume levels, and streaming anything over AirPlay was laggy. Brent also found that its maximum output was only 1 volt, so it may have issues pushing a set of powered speakers or an amplifier to its full volume.

August WR320: The WR320 refused to stay connected to its app. Even if the WR320 had managed to function correctly, we would have dismissed it because its features are highly limited.

Dayton Audio WBA51: The WBA51 had a promising start in our testing. At 0.75 by 3 by 3 inches (HWD), it was one of the smallest streamers I used. It was also compatible with the streaming apps that mattered—like Spotify and Tidal—and it included several nice-to-haves such as a remote control and a QR-code owner manual. It dropped out of the running within 24 hours when it disconnected from its app and required me to set it up all over again just because I went into the basement gym and left my Wi-Fi range.

FiiO SR11: We dismissed this one based on its lack of features—namely, a control app with integrated streaming services. It can receive only streamed audio via AirPlay or Roon, and it can output audio only via digital/USB outputs. Also, the remote control doesn’t control anything musically; it has no pause button and works only to switch between sources and to control the volume. It’s much more geared toward iOS, Mac, and Roon diehards.

WiiM Mini: I was genuinely saddened to dismiss the WiiM Mini, as I had the highest of hopes for this budget model. It offers a ton of features for its minuscule, $90 price tag. The biggest differences between the Mini and our top pick are its lower-tier DAC (Texas Instruments PCM 5121), its teeny, tiny size (0.75 by 2.75 by 2.75 inches, HWD), and its number of connections. The problem was that I couldn’t get the Mini to stay connected to its app during testing. Initial setup was a nightmare, and I had to follow the troubleshooting instructions over the course of several stressful minutes to add it. After that, it managed to stay connected to its app for only a few hours. Once I left the range of my Wi-Fi network, I had to add it all over again. I tried with the Android app, and the exact same thing occurred. Several Amazon reviews have cited a similar issue. It’s a shame, as the Mini has a lot of the same fine-tuning features that make the Pro Plus great. For what it’s worth, senior staff writer Brent Butterworth didn’t have connectivity issues with his Mini.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.