Skip to main content

Hi-Fi Corner: Outfit your home in style with the W7 multi-room speaker

Multi-room wireless speakers are the easiest way to spread sound around your home — without calling the installer. Companies from Sonos to Samsung have created multi-room speaker series, allowing you to control a bevy of pieces from numerous sources, all from a single app. But while most of these speakers are proprietary, the latest from Definitive Technology, the premium W7, uses the new open-source Play-Fi protocol that allows you to mix and match speakers from several brands.

And it looks pretty good doing it, too.

Recommended Videos

Related: Sonos Play:1 goes blue for 75th anniversary of Blue Note Records

The W7 is crafted into a beautiful cube of sound. The speaker sports the same signature molded silver metal against black we’ve seen from Def Tech before, from computer speakers to sound bars. And thanks to its design, the speaker is able to spin sound from both the front and sides to load up the room with your favorite tunes.

Inside the speaker are a nice collection of drivers, including dual 1-inch aluminum dome tweeters matched by a 4-inch midrange driver at the front, and another 1-inch dome tweeter at each side, along with twin passive radiators at the sides to beef up the bass.

The speaker definitely compensates for its small size (around 6-inches on all sides) by loading up the low end with some musical heft. And while that makes the midrange a little cloudier than we’d like, there is some vivid brilliance above thanks to those dome tweeters. Pin-point precision in the treble makes for some fine listening, especially for lighter arrangements, like acoustic tracks and jazz.

There’s also a digital Optical port, and a 3.5mm port to plug in. And of course, thanks to Play-Fi, you can mix and match the W7 with other brands, including Polk (Def Tech’s sister brand), Wren, and Phorus for starters, with more brands slated to come on board. Perhaps best of all, the app is intuitive, clean, and easy to use, allowing you to source audio from your phone, media servers, Internet radio stations, and services like Pandora and Deezer. However, there’s still no Spotify — yet.

At $400, the W7 is pretty pricey. And we should also mention the top of the speaker scratches easily, so you’ll have to be gentle. But if you’re looking for a stylish cube of sound that will grow with more pieces in the multi-room speaker fashion, this new Play-Fi device from Def Tech is a fine choice.

Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is an audio engineer, musician, composer, and all-around lover of all things tech, audio, and cinema. Hailing…
Don’t ruin your cigars: here’s how to properly season a new humidor
Seasoning secrets every cigar lover could use
faceless man presenting a cigar humidor with cigars inside with gloved hands

If you're a newcomer to the world of cigars or just bought a brand-new humidor, you'll need to season it. And no, I'm not saying to add salt and pepper to it. If you've never heard of it, you might ask, "What is seasoning for a humidor?"

Don't think you need to flavor the box or anything — seasoning is really about getting the wood inside your humidor so as not to rob your cigars of precious moisture. Easy to understand, and getting it done is relatively straightforward as well. The trick is figuring out the "why," and we'll get into that in a bit. But let's first discuss seasoning a humidor.

Read more
The NBA’s ultimate celebration tool: The victory cigar
A look at the players and coaches who smoke to celebrate
Jordan smoking a cigar image on a bag

Sports are synonymous with celebration. After winning the biggest trophy of their lives, athletes want to indulge in the payoff that comes with seeing their dreams realized. Teams go into the locker room, where a waterfall of champagne hits them in the eyes, and swimming goggles seem to be a requirement, lest you walk around on the best night of your life half blind. While drinking is often the activity of choice after winning a championship, the NBA has an alternative symbol of greatness that other sports don't use nearly enough: the victory cigar.

Basketball is a team game, but it's also an individual canvas for solo superstardom. After winning an NBA championship, the coaches and players who sit atop the throne have long smoked a cigar in the locker room, during the parade, or even on the bench before the clock has hit zero. There's nothing quite like a good stogie to signify the ultimate win over the rest of the league, but how did the victory cigar get so ingrained in NBA championship celebrations? We want to take a walk down memory lane and look at some of the historical moments and people who made the cigar what it is within the NBA today.
Red Auerbach's victory cigar on the bench
Red Auerbach: The Story Behind the Victory Cigar + His Disdain of NBA Officials - Red on Roundball

Read more
The best medical shows of all time to binge now
From ER to The Pitt, these are the best medical shows ever made
Noah Wyle in the Pitt

Throughout TV's long history, the medical drama has occupied a somewhat unique place in the landscape. Medical shows are often some of the most reliable on TV precisely because there's so much drama built in to working in a hospital.

Personally, I've found the medical drama to be deeply comforting for years, even if I have no desire to be a doctor myself. Understanding the stress of people in the healthcare profession is fascinating in and of itself.

Read more