Philips AD7000W/37 Fidelio SoundAvia Wireless Speaker with AirPlay

I have been using this device for a day now. Bought it for the kitchen to complete my Airplay setup through the whole home. The sound quality is beyond my expectation given the price (USD109). After reading some of the reviews I had prepared for a painful setup, but it was actually quite easy and I had it up and running in 2 mins. In my living room I have my Apple TV 2 connected to my hifi set through a DAC. I use the Airplay as the most common day-to-day source for my music (and only switch back to CD's when audio quality needs to be higher). I have been using Airplay (or Airtunes as it was called before) since 2005. The main problem of the technology has always been the dropping of stream. My Apple TV drops way too frequent (for now I keep my wifi signal responsible), but the Philips device does not drop at all when connected with my iPhone 4 using iOS 5. It does drop a bit when I control the volume when connected with my iPad using iOS 6. To me this seems related to the Apple devices. All devices are connected to the same Wifi AP. In short, good: - Good sound - Easy setup - Airplay connection within expectation - USB charging and playing from USB works fine - Direct analogue input works fine In short, not so good: - Could not find app to control the equalizer, perhaps does not exist in all App stores - External power source is larger than average

First, I admit that I had a little trouble setting this device up - the WPS (aka quick connect) didn't work after several tries, so I gave up in that. I attempted the manual setup next, and while the instructions made it seem complicated it really wasn't, once I figured out that I needed to hold the wireless setup button down closer to 8 second than the 5 suggested by the directions. Once the light goes blinking yellow-green though, it took just a minute to set it up. Once connected to the home wifi, this acts as a wireless speaker for either your iPhone or iPad, or for your home PC running iTunes. Multiple units can be added to the network - for instance one in each room, for having music play in every room at the same time, and Apple TV and Airport Express work with the same AirPlay system as well. In my particular setup, I had a PC upstairs, an Apple TV downstairs in the living room (hooked up to the home thater) and this Fidelio device in the kitchen. All devices could be set to play the same music using either the PC or using and iPhone with the Remote app to control all three devices, with the option to turn each one on or off and control the volume independently from the iPhone. Unlike higher end wireless home stereo systems, different music cannot be played independently through each unit though - for that I think you have to use something like the The unit itself is physically pretty small - not much bigger than a hardcover Harry Potter book. The design is pretty sleek, and it has speakers behind the front grill and subwoofer outlets at the back to give it some nice bass. Around back there are also a few extras like a USB port to let you charge your device, and a 1/8th jack input for non-AirPlay enabled devices (i.e. older iPods, other mp3 players, phones, etc). There are four buttons; power, volume up/down, and the wifi connect button. The wifi connect button is probably only ever going to be used once, and the others are going to be used infrequently since the volume control can be handled from an iPhone/iPod via Remote app and AirPlay. On top of the unit is a brushed aluminum cap, which looks handsome but may contribute to wifi reception issues (details later). Overall my setup works pretty well. The music sounds good - not mind-blowing, but very good for a unit this size and its enough to fill a medium sized living room, bedroom or kitchen easily. It is a little heavy on the bass, which does make spoken word programming (radio, podcasts, etc) a little muddled, but it's not too bad. The volume is very loud - I turn it up to just about 1/3 the max on the phone is plenty loud for my living room. The best advantage of this system is realized when you have multiple speakers throughout the house because the sound is synchronized, so moving from room to room it all just sounds like one system, which is pretty amazing. The only fault I can point out with the Fidelio is that the WiFi isnt that strong, so it needs to be placed where it gets good signal. If its in a weak signal area, it will drop in and out, and in doing so cause other devices to also drop in and it as they try to stay synced. If you have good wifi coverage and are not placing this unit far away from your wifi router, it should be fine. If you don't have great wifi coverage, you might want to consider an AirPort Express which acts as a wifi repeater to amplify your signal, and can also be hooked up directly to speakers. But then of course you lose the all-in-one package that this device has, which is its primary selling point. UPDATE: Originally I had purchased this as a gift for my father who wanted music in both the living room and kitchen, and I set it up for that purpose and it worked well. Recently though I noticed that the price had gone down significantly (now around $115 vs $199) so I picked one up for myself as well. I couldn't be happier with the purchase. I might even pick up a couple more for other rooms in the house. At that price, it's hard to pass up.

Thought I had to do a quick review on this item since I posted a question before purchasing, and most people advised I stay away - I have to say I am glad I went through with the purchase, so far so good after two weeks of use - the only issue I have really is that it would not connect to my 5ghz network, which I had especially for streaming - however even on my 2.4 ghz network I have not had issues - I previously had a Airport express hooked up to a home theater which was bulky and annoying, this device sounds better and is much more portable and convenient, and takes up less space, while looking nice. I previously made tons of tweaks to my home network, I have a Cisco E4200 dual band router, before I had major streaming issues even with my airport, but with this new router and configuration I did not have any issues with the airport, and do not have any with this device. I usually have about 7-10 devices on the network at a time, and stream Spotify and Soundcloud with a program called Airfoil on my MacBook, so far I have rarely encountered any drops in sound, even on the 2.4 Ghz network. Connected effortlessly by using another reviewers suggestion of doing the WPS setup. So far I've had to reboot the device once since it lost its wireless connection. If you are on the fence about this device I would give it a try. 6/22/13 - Guess I'm waiting for the "I told you so" - all of a sudden started getting some network hiccups, stutters every 5-10 seconds, too annoying, I switched back to my airport express and used the audio in to play the music, so now I guess I can use the built in Airplay at 2.4 ghz or my airport express at 5 ghz, best of both worlds I suppose.

I purchased this speaker for my dad for Christmas. The overall design and sound quality are good, but iPhone 4S users need to be aware that apparently there is a compatibility issue between the two devices. It seems to work fine with my dad's iPhone 4, although it did drop the connection to the network a few times. (This may be a router issue more than a speaker issue). But when you try to stream audio from a iPhone 4S, the connection drops as soon as you try to adjust the volume. I contacted Philips technical support and they said that this was a known issue and that they were trying to resolve. They did not have a timeline for an update. I do not think this product offers substantial value above and beyond what is available from the many available (and cheaper) bluetooth speakers (except, perhaps, the ability to stream from a laptop or desktop using iTunes). The sound quality is not that much better than a bluetooth, and the dependency on the wireless network is its weak link. If I had it to do over again, I would either go with a bluetooth or save $100 and buy an apple tv that plugs into a TV sound system. That way I could stream video as well. Bottom line on this device is that there are better options for less money. Skip this and buy something else! p.s. I have purchased many products on amazon in the past and this is the first time I've written a review -- FWIW.

This should be your only review you read for this product and I will tell you why. I am a research nut. I research everything before I buy. I check prices, reviews, manufacture websites, I go into stores and try stuff out. I researched airplay speakers for over a year before I purchased this one. Let me tell you, for the price there is no better. I can't comment on this speaker versus the $500+ ones because I'm sure the high dollar speakers have better components but who the heck wants to buy a $500 speaker...really...really. First - Great sound.....some reviews talk about lack of sound quality, what the heck are these people, sound engineers. I have a large backyard and we can easily entertain 50 people. I put this speaker out there and people were amazed. Enough sound for all to hear. The quality is great. No hissing, pops, or loss of strength. The bass lacks a tiny tiny bit but I just made the music play with bass booster through iTunes and it makes up for it no problem Second- connectivity ..... This speaker took me about 15 minutes to setup and add to my wifi network and since then there has been no issues. I can AirPlay music from my PC, IPAD and three different iPhones with no issues. I am actually streaming music from this iPad right now and typing this review with no issues what so ever. Third - price..... 114 dollars let me say it again 114 dollars one more time 114 dollars. Ok most of us are looking for is a speaker that sounds good and is affordable. I can't justify spending $250+ dollars on a speaker let alone $500 which are what some makers are asking for an airplay speaker. At this price you can't pass it up I am considering buying a second one just for the heck of it. So to sum it all buy this speaker now. Ya it's not perfect but it sure is close and nothing is perfect anyway

I received this device a few days ago after reading several of these reviews. There were some things I was prepared for and others that caught me by surprise. My intent for this device was to provide an always-on airplay speaker for my Indigo home automation system as well as an airplay speaker system for rooms that have no wiring. To the point: Setup: After reading these reviews I expected setup to be tricky. It was. I first went through the 192.168.1.1 setup to connect to the firmware on the device. Connecting to the website was simple enough but no matter how many times I entered my WPA2 TKIP information, the device refused to stay on the network. I tried option 2 using the WiFi sync feature of my Cisco router. This failed 3 times (and there are no more steps really other than pressing 2 buttons and letting the device scan). Finally I tried the 192.168.1.1 address configuration 3 more times and eventually it connected. Wifi Connectivity: After setup completed, the connectivity to the network rarely faltered. There were a few instances where my airplay list did not contain this device and required a manual power on-off to return to the list. Airplay: This is the main reason for purchasing the device. I spent 2 days locating and relocating the speaker around the house. I have yet to find a location (including the desk next to my wireless router and next to my AppleTV) where the music played without interruption. Airplay has been choppy everywhere in my house and I fail to blame my home network speed since I was able to successfully Airplay with the AppleTV about 6" away. Even when connectivity was strong, there seems to be a 2-6 second delay between sound being played and sound starting to play from the speaker. This is a deal killer for me since the Indigo home automation system may speak to me through AirFoil saying "There is someone at the front door" or "Don't forget tonight is trash night". By the time the sound kicks in, the phrases have often already been spoken and the entire phrase is lost. Sound: Overall the sound quality is excellent for a speaker of this size and price. During periods of sporadic connectivity I was very pleased with the bass, highs, and lows. Conclusion: I understand that the WiFi connectivity issues may be caused by a number of variables both environmental and technical so I'll continue to work those tweaks and retest. However, this device is not intended for network professionals and therefore I have to lower my rating to a 3. Only because the speaker sound quality and aesthetics are excellent for this price range did I rate this device as a 3 rather than a 2. If I cannot solve the AirPlay spotty play I'll be sending this back for a refund. UPDATE: After using this product for some time I'm still disappointed with the network connectivity and the firmware. The unit forgets its hostname and requires DAILY reboots to keep it on the network. Hostname resets make it worthless when attempting to use with AirFoil and a manual reboot daily means that it's not available when my home automation system needs to access it dynamically. This evening it "forgot" all settings and I'm having an impossible time re-syncing it to the network. Although my router has assigned it an IP address and I saw the web based configuration screen once, entering my information on it and pressing submit has sent it into never never land. I cannot get it back on the network now. I'd like to see Philips fix the network configuration issues because airplay appears to work well and the speaker performance is quality. My previous airplay issues appeared to go away when sourcing the audio from a plugged in source, and not my iPhone.

I installed the unit on October 4, following the quick start guide very closely. My intent was to be able to stream music from iTunes on my desktop to the SoundAvia. My wireless router has a WPS button, so there were no problems connecting the unit to my network--went like a breeze. But I couldn't get any music from the unit. Finally, I noticed an icon in the lower right corner of the main iTunes screen on my desktop that said "Choose whuch speakers to use". The choices were My computer, Philips Fideleo, or Multiple. I selected Philips and the unit sprung to life. Multiple works also. After 2 days use, I have had no drop outs. I couldn't find any help about air play in the iTunes help function, nor in the Philips installation quick start about streaming from my desktop. I give them both an F for installation, but I give the unit itself an A-. Sound quality for a unit that size is excellent, but the placement of the volume and on/off controls on the back of the unit leave much to be desired. Update for October 12, 2012: The unit is great while it is connected to my net. However, it constantly drops off the net and I usually have to power it off and back on again to get it to reconnect. It is only about 20' and 2 walls from my router. not good news. I have no plans to stream from my iPod at this time. One final comment: When I went to the Philips website specified in the quick start guide to register the unit, I got a real surprise. The first thing I had to select was language. I chose "United States/English", pressed continue and up came SPANISH. I tried several more times, but could only get SPANISH. I got around the problem by choosing "United Kingdom/English". Has SPANISH become the language of the United States???? An update--Otober 13. The unit continues to perform well, with one MAJOR exception. It frequently drops off my net, and to restart it I must power it down, power it on, and restart iTunes. It is only about 25' from my router. I haven't found a way in iTunes to restart it without a restart of the software. BAD NEWS.

I previously had a Pioneer Elite that I simply loved, but it would drop AirPlay signal every 20-30 minutes and was subject to freezing up. I bought the Philips in hopes that it would keep the connection better. I'd almost describe it as "bulletproof" on the connection - it clearly has a larger buffer and handles WiFi/AirPlay interference much better. It does occasionally have problems if I leave the house with my iPhone playing via AirPlay then try to connect again, but it's not much of a problem. The audio quality would be "good" in my opinion. It's quite small, and it sounds great for it's size. The low end is a little underpowered, but it works fine in the main room of my 1BR apartment. I don't crank it up, but it stays solid even at the top end of what I like to use. The setup was absolutely simple, even without WPA on my router. The software that runs it and lets you access the setup (via your iPhone by setting up a local WiFi network!) is really well designed. I have my turntable plugged in via the 3.5mm jack (turntable has a built in pre-amp), and it seems to automatically sense signal from the 3.5mm, which is pretty cool. No "mode" button. Just a "power" and volume up/down located in the back. Definitely recommend this for things like dorm rooms (having AirPlay means no connection necessary), apartments, bedrooms, offices, workplaces, or small homes.