Musaic Smart Wireless HiFi System

MikeSh

Well-Known Member
I've been idly researching something to play music/radio around the house for a while (for SWMBO) and today an email from Humax announced this Musaic thingy: http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/audio.html
(I've posted this in Other Humax Products as they are pushing it, but I'm not sure it is actually anything of theirs.)

Really after any opinions on it - is it new or been around for a while? Anyone got one or know anything about them?

The description sounds great, but is, as is often the case, vague on detail ... and we all know where the devil is hiding!
 
Dunno, but it's vastly overpriced for what it (apparently) is. And what exactly is the difference between a 5 and a 10 I wonder? A slightly bigger box?
 
I'm a bit surprised at the name of the maker, it sounds too much like Musak, the name given to 'elevator (lift) music', this may have been intentional but Musak has become a description of boring / bland background music, as in the John Lennon song How do you Sleep, in which he says, 'The sound you make is Musak to my ears', he was criticizing Paul Mcartney's songs since leaving the Beatles
 
Dunno, but it's vastly overpriced for what it (apparently) is. And what exactly is the difference between a 5 and a 10 I wonder? A slightly bigger box?
On my trawls so far I've found a few in this price bracket (of the 5 anyway). Good quality sound does pump the cost a bit, but at only 18+18W I'm not sure this will be outstanding.
Yes, the 10 just appears to be a beefier version.

I'm a bit surprised at the name of the maker, it sounds too much like Musak, the name given to 'elevator (lift) music', ...
:D I think it's a pun on mosaic as it is looking to slot into home automation with tiles in an app controlling this box and other stuff. Well, that's the impression I got. As I said, it's vague on the actuality of a lot of stuff, so I certainly wouldn't buy one without seeing some detailed reviews of it.
 
Good quality sound does pump the cost a bit, but at only 18+18W I'm not sure this will be outstanding.
I'm not sure how you can get decent quality stereo sound out of a fairly small box where the speakers are only a foot apart.

I might be interested in the MPL player, but not at £250. And the control details are sketchy. I don't know what IFTTT or Philips Hue is and I struggled to find any real details in the small amount of time I devoted to it. Lots of claims made on various websites for these devices, but no actual detail. Nor do I want to control it from a (iOS or Android) phone or tablet. What about a real computer? Why is everyone obsessed with f'ing phones/tablets, often via 3rd party servers (and when they go TU you're stuffed)? See also Nest!
Perhaps they'd send me one on approval to pull apart and see how it works? :roflmao:
 
Philips Hue is coloured background illumination, but I thought that was on TVs so that the ambient light approximates the dominant hue in the current TV picture.
 
Philips Hue is coloured background illumination, but I thought that was on TVs so that the ambient light approximates the dominant hue in the current TV picture.
?? Hue is their wireless light bulb technology.
 
I'm not sure how you can get decent quality stereo sound out of a fairly small box where the speakers are only a foot apart.
Obviously the stereo is going to be weak, but you can get good sound out of surprisingly small boxes. However (from my hifi days many years ago) it usually took heavy materials and a fair bit of power, which is why I'm suspicious of the low Wattage specified.

I might be interested in the MPL player, but not at £250. And the control details are sketchy. I don't know what IFTTT or Philips Hue is and I struggled to find any real details in the small amount of time I devoted to it.
Yes. I don't need/want most of the stuff they list. Actually I don't need/want the thing at all - SWMBO has asked for sound in other parts of the house and one of this type of device paired with her phone would cover most of the bases. I was interested in this one as it claims to use the home wifi rather than Bluetooth. Whatever we may get it has to be operable by a non-tech :)
 
This Humax speaker looks overpriced for what it is. I have a Samsung M3 speaker in the kitchen http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/audio-video/wireless-audio-multiroom/WAM350/XU

Looks good, but even that's not cheap. However, one thing that caught my attention with the Musaic was that it appears to have some standalone ability - in particular that it can do internet radio (presumably as part of it's wifi connection, as opposed to Bluetooth). As SWMBO listens to radio a lot that would reduce her need to use the phone quite so much; although maybe she'd still need it to control the Musaic even when doing that.
 
The Samsung can do that too. Just touching the radio button on the top starts up your first favourite station and subsequent touches move between the top three. No need to load up the app on a device for basic operation.
 
All links in this thread are dead, which tells you how bad and/or overpriced all these products were...

Musaic was dissolved in Feb. 2019.
 
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