Riva Audio’s multi-room Sonos competitor launches in the US
Riva Audio is best known for its Bluetooth speakers, but earlier this month, the company released its new multi-space wireless speakers much later than originally planned. The WAND series is comprised of two speakers: the Arena and the Festival. Both include multiple ways to play music, including Wi-Fi, DDMS, Spotify Connect, AirPlay, DLNA, Bluetooth, and Chromecast. The more expensive Festival has an optical input, too. You can also distribute analog inputs over Wi-Fi to other speakers. For comparison, Sonos only works over Wi-Fi.
The larger Festival costs $499 while the Arena costs $249. Because it’s smaller, the Arena is portable and can be bought with an optional battery pack that Riva says should last for up to 20 hours. (That...