Pure, the audio company responsible for the Jongo line of wireless speakers, is having an eventful CES week. The company has announced additions to its product lineup, and taken square aim at WiFi-speaker market leader Sonos.
The key differentiator of the Jongo line is its simplicity of setup. Competitor Sonos requires setting up a WiFi bridge which handles synchronizing the audio stream across multiple speakers in different rooms. The Jongo system doesn’t require any such “bridge” — certainly appealing to buyers whose home WiFi systems are already undesirably complicated. Pure shoots a sidelong glance at Sonos with the Jongo marketing blurb: “There are no complicated ‘bridges’ or extras with Jongo, unlike some systems.”
For consumers willing to take the extra setup step required by the Sonos bridge, the advantage might be better audio synchronization — that question will get resolved as the Jongo system hits the market and undergoes review. Sonos’ leading market position as a premium product depends on its reputation for superb performance in both audio fidelity and synchronization. If Jongo can match the performance with an arguably more user-friendly product, Sonos would lose an advantage.
Jongo T2, a lower-end version of Pure’s flagship T4, hits a $149 price point, 50 dollars less than Sonos’ recently released Play:1 ($199), which is Sonos’ acknowledgement that not everyone wants to spend $400 on a speaker.
In other Pure news, the company introduced the Evoke F4 at CES — an Internet-stream radio that also receives FM, and can handle WiFi, too. It can be part of a T4 array.