# Are there any non-home theater Bluetooth receivers out there?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 10, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516 "2020-05-10T04:12:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/1 "2020-05-10T04:12:27Z")

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I’m looking for something that can play four or more speakers that can connect to a receiver. Everything I see is surround sound home theater stuff, which of course divides the signal into different parts, and that’s not what I’m looking for. To offer a more concrete example, I want a system that will play exactly the same thing in the living room, bedroom, outside, and the bathroom without wires. Is there anything out there that can do that?

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**Author:** ![Saturn\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Saturn\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saturn_Dreams)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/2 "2020-05-11T01:55:07Z")

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Why don’t you just daisy chain the required number of Bluetooth speakers?

There are receivers/amplifiers that will do what you want but they require WiFi.

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**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/3 "2020-05-11T03:18:39Z")

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Does it have to be a “receiver”?.

Just buy as many BT speakers as you need and connect them to your phone.

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/4 "2020-05-11T03:48:49Z")

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Sonos.

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/5 "2020-05-11T04:12:12Z")

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I have two Bluetooth speakers. Normally they each play the same thing; if I flip a switch, each one plays a separate channel.

Kind of a novelty to put them in different rooms… (weird on early Beatles vinyl, where they just shoved John’s vocals onto the left speaker, and George’s guitar onto the right).

But 99% of the time, they do what you want. Mono input from turntable, TV or phone.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/6 "2020-05-11T17:17:17Z")

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You almost need to step back to analog radio to do what you want, especially if you want to move around and not have one room be a second ahead or behind the other. I haven’t run across a consumer-grade digital system (such as Bluetooth) that can play at multiple in exact synch.

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**Author:** ![icantdraw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@icantdraw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icantdraw)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/7 "2020-05-11T17:41:01Z")

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The JBL Charge 4 wireless speakers can be connected together via bluetooth. They work great, and I think you can connect up to 100 of them or some ridiculous number like that.

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**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/8 "2020-05-11T18:13:26Z")

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+1 Sonos

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**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/9 "2020-05-11T19:09:26Z")

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Ultimate Ears Boom speakers. I bought a pair from Costco and paired one to my device and then paired the speakers together. I used them when I went camping and we were cooking on two fire-pits that were at adjacent camping sites.

//i\

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**Author:** ![Remember\_me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/82dd89/32.png) [@Remember\_me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Remember_me)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/10 "2020-05-11T19:19:10Z")

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There are multiple multi-room music systems that seem to be able to do what you want.

Among others:  
Sonos (has been mentioned)  
Bose Soundtouch  
Yamaha Musicast  
Denon Heos

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-non-home-theater-bluetooth-receivers-out-there/853516/11 "2020-05-14T15:08:35Z")

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> [@icantdraw](#):
>
> The JBL Charge 4 wireless speakers can be connected together via bluetooth. They work great, and I think you can connect up to 100 of them or some ridiculous number like that.

I mentioned Sonos earlier, but this is also a good solution (I have a JBL Link 10, and it has great sound for its size). There are any number of speakers on the market that connect via wifi, and then connect to each other. Additionally, smart speakers (Google Home, Alexa, etc.) can also be put to use in this fashion. If you’re unconcerned about the big brother aspects of having smart speakers in your home, this is likely a good solution. Most of them now have a switch that will turn off the microphone/sound detection on them.

Now the question is - what sort of source are you wanting to use for your music? Most of these speakers are going to be controlled by your phone (my iPhone will connect to my google speaker, and play something from iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, etc.), or through voice-controls (“Alexa, play ‘Living on a Prayer’”). Are you looking to hook up a CD player or something to your system? That might be a tad more complicated.
