Samsung M7 Multiroom Speaker System Review

Ease of installation and flexibility are the by-words here

by hodg100
Hi-Fi Review

4

Recommended
Samsung M7 Multiroom Speaker System Review
MSRP: £329.99

What is the Samsung M7?

Another manufacturer beginning with the letter ‘S’ has had the multiroom audio market pretty much to itself these last few years.

But now Sonos finds itself with serious competition from some of the truly big names in the industry with several of the more mainstream manufacturers throwing their hats into the ring. The Samsung system we have here is the full monty package with four M7 wireless speakers and a multi room hub - although the speakers can be purchased individually and you don’t necessarily need the hub - so it’s something that can be built up over time. Samsung also offers the step-down M5, which features all the same benefits but a slightly less meaty audio output.
As well as offering a multi-room audio solution, the M7’s can be configured to be used over Bluetooth, WiFI and teamed with compatible Samsung TVs using SoundShare, so flexibility is the by-word with this product. They will also accompany the 7 series soundbar to create a surround sound setup. The M7 speaker is priced at around £330, so not inexpensive, whilst the hub will set you back in the region of £50 so it would seem a shame not to buy it if you have more than one M7, although Samsung have said they are considering including it gratis in some packages. Let’s find out if Samsung’s first true multi-room system is up to the task of rocking the whole house.

Samsung M7 Design & Connections

The M7 speaker units are wedge-shaped and available in black or white glossy finishes. They have a fine plastic mesh, to the front, concealing the speaker drivers and to the back is a detachable cover, beneath which are some inputs plus reset and pairing buttons. In keeping with the nature of the system, physical inputs are limited in scope with a single 3.5mm jack, a LAN socket and a USB port, which can be used for charging as well as updating firmware.

Each speaker comes with its own ‘figure of eight’ power lead that are a little on the short side but you can easily, and cheaply, pick up longer ones should you need to. The M7’s come with optional stands so can be placed vertically (better when using as surrounds with the soundbar) as well as the default horizontal position. Dependent on orientation, the M7’s have a height of either 40cm or 15cm and widths the exact reverse. Depth is, of course, the same whichever way to lay it at about 20cm, at their deepest point, so they are certainly quite imposing when arranged vertically.
Samsung M7
Samsung M7

The Samsung Wireless Audio Multiroom Hub (WAM250) is a considerably smaller proposition in a near-square form factor, taking the tape at 100 x 25 x 106 mm (WxHxD) and retaining the same criss-cross plastic finish of the speaker units. At the rear are two Ethernet ports which act as a switch. This is a good idea at it means you won’t lose any of the wired connections to your router in order to hook up the WAM250. It will basically pass through the signal of any connected device through its Ethernet connection to your router. Also at the back is an ’add speaker’ button, a USB port for service, a connection for the DC power supply and a reset button. To the front are some indicator lights that display feedback on pairing, power, connection and to when the box is being used in WiFi repeater mode to boost the signal. And boy they are bright so they can be very noticeable in your AV rack unless you hide the box well.
SetUp is a ridiculously easy process!

Samsung M7 Setup

As we noted above, there are a number of ways in which you can use the M7 system but we’ll concentrate most on the multi-speaker side of things, as we all should know what a solo wireless speaker can do. In terms of setting up a multi-room system, it is obligatory that you must use both Samsung’s Multiroom app – available on iOS and Android – and have a WAM250 hub in your possession. You can pair an individual speaker to your router, using WPS, but you won’t get the multi-room functionality afforded by using the hub, just the ability to stream over WiFi.

The system uses mesh network technology to prevent network traffic problems by automatically searching for and finding clear audio data paths and we have to say that setup was an absolute breeze. It was just a matter of connecting an Ethernet cable between the WAM250 and our router and plugging it, and the 4 speakers, into power sockets. The two speakers in the downstairs rooms connected within 10 seconds and the one’s upstairs were glowing with the blue light of success in less than the time it took us to ascend the steps. Presumably they also issued the accompanying beep of brotherhood but we weren't in time to hear that either.
Samsung M7

Should things not go so smoothly, one would locate the SPK ADD button to the back of the hub, press it, and then do the same to the corresponding button at the back of the speaker. You know it’s failed if the light is glowing red. Should you continue to experience difficulties, it’s likely the speaker isn’t in range for your WiFi so you could either consider adding another hub to the system as a WiFi repeater or creating a wired connection to the troublesome speaker. Since we had zero issues with the review sample(s), we’ll move smugly on.

Just a quick mention on the M7 acting as a solo speaker. As we said above, you can pair the speakers individually by Bluetooth and a connection can be initiated by NFC (Near Field Communication), if you have a compatible device, it’s just a matter of tapping it on the NFC tag on the top surface of the speaker. If not, one would simply just pair in the conventional way by pressing the Bluetooth symbol, which makes it flash, and then finding it in the list of available devices in your tablet, phone or PC’s usual menu.
The app works very well, once you are used to the interface

Samsung M7 Control

Assuming all has gone smoothly in setup, one can then rename all the speakers, using the Multiroom app, to correspond with the room they are in (or anything you like) and then control what’s being played to each individual speaker. Or create groups of speakers to simultaneously stream through. The app takes a little while to become accustomed to but it does give you handy hints as you go along and it’s usually just a case of dragging and dropping the various elements in to place.

From within the app, it’s possible to find all the music/audio stored locally on the device or anything on other machines on the same network and then you can simply assign it to a speaker or group, whereupon it will play instantly. One can also create playlists using the app to be played back in the same way and it gives you individual EQ and volume control over each individual speaker as well. The EQ controls are basic, there’s just Bass, Treble and Balance but it’s a genuinely useful addition.
Samsung M7
Samsung M7

The Samsung Multiroom app comes with built-in compatibility to a number of streaming services although it’s personally disappointing that Spotify isn’t one of those. If you want to stream that particular service to your M7 system, it will have to be done on an individual basis via Bluetooth. But you do get the availability of thousands of internet radio stations through TuneIn as well as integration with Deezer and Napster, which are both very similar to Spotify, in essence, in providing access to around 20 million songs that can be streamed without limits for a monthly fee.

Samsung M7 Listening

The quandary here is whether we’re assessing the M7 as an individual speaker or as part of a multi-room package - so let’s do both.

We’ll make no bones about this, if you are considering an M7 just as a simple wireless or Bluetooth speaker, then you can do better for around the £330 mark. They are not a bad listen, by any means, but there’s virtually no sense of stereo separation, even with the speaker orientated horizontally. The sense of stereo is improved - to a certain extent - the further you move away from the system but if convincing two channel is the goal, you will need to consider alternatives.

You will likely need to play with the EQ settings in the MultiRoom app to get the best out of the M7 speakers. We found they were far too bass heavy at default levels for palatable listening with the in-built 4-inch woofers (presumably down-firing), completely over-powering the tweeters and mid-range drivers. We also found the subs to be quite boomy and undefined which made the predominance all the more unwanted. As we said, you can tune the bass down but it never feels totally integrated with the other frequencies.
Fine for background listening but there are better solo wireless speakers
As a ‘lifestyle’ full home system, the M7 package is an excellent solution, however. It proved totally reliable in maintaining connections and never once was the audio interrupted, even when we were throwing 4 separate sources at the speakers. So, for instance, if you were throwing a party where in some rooms you intended guests to dance and others you would like more sedate behaviour, this package really delivers.

It also has the capability to go really quite loud, too, so, again, ideal in the party scenario as well as the likes of the kitchen, where there is a lot of background noise. In fact, we’d imagine that the most likely places these speakers will be housed are in rooms where critical listening is not a major factor so their lack of audio finesse might not be such a big issue.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Setup is so easy it's barely believable
  • Flexible placement options
  • MultiRoom App works great
  • Extremely reliable streaming over network
  • Ethernet switch on hub is useful

Cons

  • Lacking in any real sense of stereo
  • Bass tends to dominate
  • There are better solo wireless speakers for the money

Samsung M7 Multiroom Speaker System Review

Samsung’s M7 speakers are wedge-shaped and not of an inconsiderable size. Depending on how you have them placed – either vertically or horizontally – they reach a height of 40cm or 15cm and the reverse figures for width. There are very few physical connections aboard the speakers, with just a 3.5mm jack below the clip-off panel but you can connect to them individually for Bluetooth streamimg or add them to your network using WPS to connect with your device over WiFi.

But, of course, the point of this system is multi-room for which you’ll need to add in the WAM250 hub to get the full experience. We must say that setting all this up could not have been made simpler by Samsung and all 4 speakers were up and ready to go within seconds of attaching their respective power cords, having already wired the hub to our router.

There is no remote control supplied with the M7’s. This is 2014 and thou shalt only control your kit with a mobile or tablet so the Samsung MultiRoom app – for iOS (5.0) and Android (2.3.3+) is obligatory. It takes some getting used to in terms of usability but once you have it licked, it will allow you to individually send audio to the speakers, from a variety of sources, or team them up to listen to the same tunes all over the house. The app also lets you create playlists, apply some basic EQ settings, individually adjust volume and it supports TuneIn, Deezer and Napster, natively, for internet music streaming. We do wish that Spotify was supported but that doesn’t stop the app from providing a superb degree of flexibility.

If we were just assessing the M7(s) as an individual wireless or Bluetooth speaker, we’d probably steer you in another direction, with the circa £330 RRP taken in to account. They don’t really provide any sense of being stereo and the subwoofers overpower the other drivers but as a convenient, lifestyle multiroom system, where speaker placement dictates that ultimate audio fidelity isn’t likely to be so crucial, their combination of reliability, flexibility and the ability to be played fairly loud without crumbling makes it a package well worthy of recommendation.

Let’s cut to the chase. The obvious competing system here would be the Sonos Play 5, along with the accompanying Bridge. The RRP’s for the M7 and Play 5 are near identical, as are the respective prices for Samsung’s hub and the Sonos bridge. We wouldn’t like to say which sounded better without a direct side-by-side comparison but our recollection would be that there is very little in it, so you may just find that the more simplistic set-up of the Samsung system wins out for you. In all honesty, we’d have to recommend trying to demo both as it’s just too close to call.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Performance

.
.
.
7

Sound Quality

.
.
8

Networking, Internet, Streaming quality

.
.
.
7

Build Quality

.
9

Features

.
9

Set up, Menus, Remote

.
9

Value For Money

.
.
8

Value for Money

.
.
.
7

Verdict

.
.
8

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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