VIZIO Announces Crave Multi-Room WiFi Speakers

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I’m finishing up a review of VIZIO M-Series display. It’s an amazing Ultra HD display with Google Cast built in. I’ve been looking at VIZIO sound bars to add to it and was psyched to get word that VIZIO is also bringing some WiFi speakers to market in the form of the all-new VIZIO SmartCast Crave Pro and 360 Speaker.

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These new speakers are “designed to provide the entire home with seamless, multi-room audio.” Better yet, they work with the VIZIO SmartCast app. That’s the app that is at the center of the company’s SmartCast displays and it allows users to turn iOS or Android mobile devices into Crave speaker remotes. That’s a level of convenience that I suspect most people will appreciate.

As VIZIO explains:

“While conventional home audio speakers typically connect solely via Bluetooth, the new VIZIO Crave speaker collection allows consumers to stream their favorite music, podcasts and internet radio stations over WiFi as well as Bluetooth. With WiFi streaming, listeners are no longer interrupted by phone calls, texts and other disruptive notifications that commonly occur when streaming over Bluetooth. WiFi streaming also helps conserve battery usage on mobile devices, and frees up the mobile devices for other tasks. Best of all, WiFi steaming allows for better audio quality compared to Bluetooth.”

As mentioned, the Crave speakers also have Chromecast built-in. That means anyone’s with a Crave speaker and an iOS or Android device can discover, cast, and control music from the apps they already use right to their VIZIO SmartCast Crave speaker.

In the line are:

The $299.99 VIZIO SmartCast Crave Pro Speaker.

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“For consumers seeking superior audio quality, the VIZIO SmartCast Crave Pro Speaker delivers room-filling sound with deep bass. With a satin aluminum finish, the Crave Pro sits perfectly on an office bookshelf or living room side table. Crystal clear 2.1 home audio brings listeners’ favorite songs to life with custom-crafted drivers that produce up to 102 dB2 of dynamic sound and an integrated dual subwoofer pumping out bass as low as 40 Hz.”

The $249.99 VIZIO SmartCast Crave 360 Speaker:

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“VIZIO’s SmartCast Crave 360 Speaker makes music the center of any gathering. Bring music anywhere with portable 360° 2.1 WiFi audio boasting amazing clarity, 8 hours of power and a wireless charging base. Experience up to 95 dB of crystal-clear audio with bass as deep as 50 Hz from the integrated subwoofer, custom-crafted drivers and audio technologies from DTS®.”

“Its 360° seamless, tin alloy body produces omnidirectional stereo sound that perfectly fills any room. A wear-resistant glass touch surface allows you to command with simple touch controls – tap to play/pause, swipe to skip and twist to adjust volume.”

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Both speakers offer multi-room audio so VIZIO is clearly going after the market Sonos currently dominates. They, however, offer some huge advantages.

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For example, these speakers leverage Google Cast, which is already familiar to many of us and works with a host of apps on many of our mobile devices.

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They also make use of the VIZIO SmartCast app that is, for example, already controlling both our HD displays. The result is an audio system that is ready to integrate with the video approach many of us enjoy. That’s a level of integration that is extremely attractive to me!

The speakers are on the way and will make great gifts this holiday season. We will be going “ears-on” soon and look forward to bringing you a full review.

You can learn more here!

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.