Polk Omni S2R Rechargeable Compact Wireless Music Streaming Speaker with WiFi

I decided to go down the DTS Play-Fi route for multi room wireless music, instead of the closed Sonos system, and the Polk Omni series are all compatible. This means you can use any of the Omni speakers as well as Play-Fi speakers from other brands like the cheaper Phorus brand or the more expensive Definitive Technology, and do the same things as you would with Sonos.The Omni S2R is the rechargeable version. I decided to start out with one of these and the Omni Receiver so I can also listen through my existing stereo setup (it connects via optical).Pairing was quick and easy, and although on first attempt there was crackling and skipping, after a reboot, a move to a different wifi band, and a firmware upgrade it has been very smooth sailing.I use Spotify for all my music, and it sounds great on this speaker. The bass is much stronger than I expected, and it has good upper ranges. Aphex Twin and Leftfield were suitably punchy, and Dave Brubeck's Greatest Hits sounded nice and clear.Playing the same music out of this speaker and my stereo via the Omni Reciever is also perfectly in sync, so I now plan on getting some more speakers for around the house (Black Friday sale is on now!). You can also set two speakers as a stereo pair.The speaker's battery also came charged out of the box, and it really is great to able to move the speaker around the house freely.

Let me start by saying this is a well-built speaker that puts out great sound. It's particularly nice to have a rechargeable wireless speaker that's part of a larger whole-home system. This is one area where Sonos falls short. They really need to release a rechargeable Play 1.Now, though this speaker puts out great sound, I was disappointed by the technology that supports it. The iPhone and Android Apps are functional but a bit unwieldy and not entirely intuitive (and I'm an IT professional).The Windows Play-Fi app was a little more functional and would allow the redirection of any audio on your PC (Netflix, YouTube, etc) to the speakers. It was annoying that the Free version of the software wouldn't allow streaming to more than one speaker at a time. For that, you need to buy the *premium* version of the software for $15. That, or if you register your speaker(s), you get sent a one-time activation code for the premium version. I found that when I registered my second speaker separately, I was NOT sent an additional activation code. I found the activation code I received wouldn't work on my second PC. Some of us have more than one PC, y'know -- are you listening, Polk? Also, if you need to reload your OS and re-install, you're sort of S.O.L. Conceivably, you could use something like 10-minute email (or similar) for temp email addresses to register fake serial numbers to get extra reg. codes. This is a lot of work. They should just give the darned software away.Now that I've vented, I'll continue. I really REALLY wanted to like these speakers and feel like a shrewd consumer for getting something comparable to Sonos for 30% less. I just never reached that level of satisfaction. These speakers required frequent reboots and would sometimes fall out of sync, with a significant echo from room to room.These won't be difficult for someone that's reasonably tech-savvy to set up or support. I've noticed that my *wired* home-theater speakers just work without being finicky of requiring any fiddling. Always. Period. Even my Acoustic Research wireless speakers don't require any TLC. Instead, they just sound like crap, motivating me to upgrade. You shouldn't need to reboot the speakers and they shouldn't be finicky.The Polk system was just annoying. I bought three speakers (1 rechargeable and two standard S2s) as well as a P1 to presumably use as a source, utilizing the aux-in (so I could stream CDs or other legacy sources). I was profoundly disappointed that feature is not supported (why on earth does the P1 have the aux-in then?). Perhaps that was the start of a grudge I was going to hold against these.Still, in their defense, the speakers sound absolutely wonderful. Great, rich, deep sound. Perhaps in a few years, this will be an exciting alternative to Sonos. At this point, I'm returning mine to go with Sonos and a Connect unit to accomplish what I want.

This is the second Polk Omni S2R. We have a very large main room that is filled with music by these Polk products. The sound quality is great. My favorite feature is that you can take it to any room or out on the deck and hearing same music that is playing in the house.

I can't tell you enough how much i hate this product. Wanted so bad to love them. They don't work. Plain and simple. I have worked with two pair of these. So four speakers. One couldn't charge at all. You would plug it in over night. No charge. The other charged, but its lights flashed continuously warning of an impending battery failure even though it would be fine? The last one the wireless didn't work at all so you could not connect to it or configure it. So 3 out of 4 speakers were broke out of the packaging. Then there is the software. They are so hard to configure. You get them connected play through them and the sound is all broken up. You erase config on speaker. Try again. Sound all broken up. Try again, and then again, and again and again. Should i say again another time. Then finally on the 15th try. It works! Even though you did nothing different. Join a second speaker at a later date and the first one starts getting broken up in sound again and you have to resync it over too. After the 15th try it is configured again. Don't touch anything. It works. Oh wait the battery light sequence is blinking for no reason. Polk Audio should be ashamed. These are crap. Complete crap.

Best sound I could expect for my outside patio. Great WIFI reception for my wifi router all the way the other side of the house. Great speaker for Spotify.

It sets up easily and sounds as good as any, but the Polk App only finds the device and will not update some apps, mostly Sirius and Spotify. Further, wthout updating it will not play those apps wirelessly within the program. I can, however, play those apps directly and use the bluetooth adapter to stream them, so it sort of worked out. Easy to set up and use and the sound is acceptable to say the least.

Great Items. Sound is Excellent. I did not have any luck using my router with them. I ordered Bluetooth devices and all turned out well.