DTS Play-Fi review: makes your home audio devices (a little) smarter

DTS Play-Fi's expanding brand lineup makes it more viable as a smart-audio bridge for your home.

A Philips shelf speaker with the DTS Play-fi logo superimposed over the image
(Image: © Future)

Our Verdict

Although still mostly exclusive to higher-end audio brands, the expanding DTS Play-Fi lineup is now a truly viable option for a lot of people to turn their audio devices into smart hubs. Connectivity is still a little bit of an issue (it has a complicated relationship with certain types of routers, I found), but having a beautiful bookshelf speaker act as an Alexa and Google Home hub and being able to stream from a load of audio services to your home-cinema soundbar without having to turn the telly on has a definite appeal. And it's still growing, so DTS Play-Fi seems like a sound future bet.

For

  • Almost no lag from app to device
  • Connects across different brands
  • Wide range of services already on board

Against

  • Connectivity still fiddly at times

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DTS Play-Fi exists for people who'd like to make their audio experience a little smarter, but either aren't satisfied with it being limited to their Alexa device or don't fancy the look, design or audio quality of bespoke smart devices. 

So DTS has teamed up with a number of audio manufacturers (most of them in the higher-end part of the market) and developed an app to connect those devices wirelessly to turn them into de-facto smart devices that can be controlled from your phone. 

The Verdict
8

out of 10

DTS Play-Fi review: makes your home audio devices (a little) smarter

Although still mostly exclusive to higher-end audio brands, the expanding DTS Play-Fi lineup is now a truly viable option for a lot of people to turn their audio devices into smart hubs. Connectivity is still a little bit of an issue (it has a complicated relationship with certain types of routers, I found), but having a beautiful bookshelf speaker act as an Alexa and Google Home hub and being able to stream from a load of audio services to your home-cinema soundbar without having to turn the telly on has a definite appeal. And it's still growing, so DTS Play-Fi seems like a sound future bet.

Erlingur Einarsson
Tech Reviews Editor

Erlingur is the Tech Reviews Editor on Creative Bloq. Having worked on magazines devoted to Photoshop, films, history, and science for over 15 years, as well as working on Digital Camera World and Top Ten Reviews in more recent times, Erlingur has developed a passion for finding tech that helps people do their job, whatever it may be. He loves putting things to the test and seeing if they're all hyped up to be, to make sure people are getting what they're promised. Still can't get his wifi-only printer to connect to his computer. 

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