Setting up multiple devices is relatively easy: While running the app, you join your mobile device to the wireless network created by the MusicCast device. I used the iOS version on an iPad Air and the Android version on my Nexus 6P smartphone for my tests.
#YAMAHA PO AUDIO COMPATIBILTY FOR ANDROID#
You use Yamaha’s MusicCast app-there are versions for Android and iOS-to connect and control each device. Yamaha’s MusicCast app is very easy to master. But if you prefer, you can also connect any of the components to a wired network, as each device has an RJ-45 jack to accommodate an ethernet cable. Unlike a Sonos system, which operates its own proprietary wireless network (provided you have a Sonos bridge or hardwire one Sonos component to your router), MusicCast relies on your Wi-Fi router for connectivity. Yamaha will eventually embed MusicCast in its high-end Hi-Fi separates, too. In addition to the powered speakers reviewed here, MusicCast is embedded into more than 15 of Yamaha’s other audio components, including its SRT-1500 speaker base (it fits underneath your TV, instead of in front of it), the YHT-5920UBL home theater in a box we recently reviewed, and a number of the company’s A/V receivers. Yamaha is building a comprehensive multi-room audio system with MusicCast. I’ll make comparisons to the Sonos multi-room audio system throughout all three stories, because Sonos is the 800-pound gorilla in this space. This review covers Yamaha’s MusicCast multi-room audio ecosystem in three parts: the MusicCast ecosystem as a whole (the topic of this story), my hands-on review of Yamaha’s YSP-1600 sound bar, and my hands-on review of its WX-030 powered bookshelf speaker (Yamaha sent one of the former and two of the latter, so I could test a multi-room configuration).