Review: Atonemo Streamplayer

The Hi-Fi industry seems to be in a state of constant, somewhat unnecessary evolution; if Guglielmo Marconi was inventing the radio today it would almost certainly come in five different colorways, dripped out over a few years as though they were new products. Still, the past 20 years—with the invention of Bluetooth, music streaming, and mass adoption of voice control speakers—have fundamentally changed what many people think of as home audio.

All-in-one streaming smart speakers are ridiculously convenient. But what about the millions of old analog amplifiers and passive speakers that still sound great? The Bowers & Wilkins bookshelf speakers you bought 20 years ago remain phenomenal, they’re just not as smart. New Swedish startup Atonemo would like to change that with its small, unassuming Streamplayer.

Photograph: Chris Haslam

Measuring a matchbox-sized 1.97 x 2.76 x 0.73 inches, the Streamplayer is a very simple device designed to give streaming capabilities to any existing speaker. It supports AirPlay 2, has Chromecast built in, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, and can offer playback in a respectable 24-bit/192-kHz high resolution. There’s no display, a single clicky button, and output options are via one 3.5-mm jack either as analog or optical S/PDIF. That’s it.

Power comes via USB-C, and once you’ve synced up everything with the Atonemo app, linked it to your Wi-Fi, and plugged the supplied 3.5-mm jack into an amplifier or active speaker, you can then stream audio to it from pretty much any platform. It took me three minutes to turn a verging-on-vintage Vita Audio R1 Mk1 (what is now Ruark Audio) into a Tidal streaming delight. The app is mercifully stripped back, and the software feels nimble; it’s a whole lot more responsive than using Sonos.

Sound Quality

Much of the success of “smart” audio products has been based on convenience rather than audio quality. Despite having access to more hi-fi kit than is strictly healthy, I still struggle with the quality versus convenience of it all: There’s a $45 Echo Spot in my kitchen, but I have a $1,400 Audiolab M-DAC+ headphone amp in the office. Both work brilliantly, one actually sounds good.

The Streamplayer does its best to straddle both these worlds. The team at Atonemo has chosen an integrated DAC from Realtek's SoC (system-on-chip) range. This chip is a mass-market option but can still handle 24-bit/192-kHz resolution. It’s a world away from high-end stand-alone DAC chips (like ESS, Cirrus Logic, or AKM), but at $99, to expect audiophile levels of DSP (digital signal processing) would be a bit much. It is convenient though.

Aside from Bluetooth streaming is Wi-Fi 6 dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (802.11ax) with WPA2 and WPA3 security. It’s a pretty solid offering for a cheap box of tricks, and the brand also promises over-the-air firmware updates.

Photograph: Chris Haslam

Plugged into my father’s 20-year-old Arcam amplifier, powering a pair of equally vintage Mordaunt Short floor-standing speakers, the Streamplayer works smoothly. It did require a 3.5-mm to RCA cable (more on this below), but Dad’s box of old cables is a tech treasure trove. On first listen I was impressed by the ease of it all, and switching between Qobuz and Spotify Lossless certainly didn’t offend. But when playing the same song side-by-side using a midrange Cambridge Audio CD player, the difference was obvious.

Playing the album Music From Big Pink by the Band, the power and scale of the CD version easily eclipsed that of the Streamplayer. Rick Danko’s bass lines soared, and the layering of the instruments was wonderfully pronounced via CD, while they were noticeably subdued when streaming. Same speakers, same amplifier, very different DACs.

It’s by no means a disaster, and the streaming convenience—in lieu of a large CD collection—is difficult to argue with. Even with quality components, the performance is only ever going to be as good as the audio quality played.

Cables and Connectivity

Atonemo makes a big deal over being able to power “all” legacy speakers. Included in the box is a single 3.5-mm to 3.5-mm audio jack, giving you the ability to plug into active speakers, old radios, cassette players, boom boxes, or anything else with a 3.5-mm aux-in port.

But to power analog speakers, you will need a separate amplifier and alternative cables, whether that’s a 3.5-mm to RCA or SPDIF RCA to 3.5-mm jack cable. Atonemo told WIRED it toyed with the idea of including multiple cables in the box but opted for the 3.5-mm audio jack because most hi-fi people would have one already. The company also plan to sell a range of cables to suit “all” legacy speakers. I think including a couple of cable options would have been a good idea, especially at launch, just to avoid any friction points with first-time installation, as not everyone has a box of old cables as comprehensive as my Dad.

Competition

Photograph: Chris Haslam

Atonemo isn’t the only option when it comes to breathing new life into older hi-fi components. The WiiM Mini Music Streamer ($89) is cheaper, offers AirPlay/Chromecast/Spotify Connect streaming capabilities, and has an XX DAC. Similarly the FiiO SR11 Desktop Streaming Music Receiver ($110) also copes with Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, FiiO Music, and PCM 768 kHz/32 bit and DSD256 (DOP) quality. And for a further boost in audio quality plus one of the finest hi-res streaming multiroom platforms, the $379 Bluesound Node nano streamer is hard to ignore. There are also plenty of basic Bluetooth dongles available, if audio quality, or the ability to enjoy multiroom audio, isn’t important to you.

But what Atonemo has done well is remove any technical barriers to use. The app is incredibly simple—in a good way—with no bloat or pretense that it is doing anything other than facilitating streaming between your old speakers and a modern streaming platform.

Yes, it could (and probably should) squeeze in a better DAC and a more comprehensive collection of cables, but these are deliberate omissions, not glaring mistakes. Anyone looking to tweak and tune, and generally nerd out about bit rates, is already well served elsewhere.