MOON 681 Network Player

The MOON 681 is a network player from Simaudio, the Canadian manufacturer that trades as MOON. It combines a streamer and a digital-to-analogue converter, feeding a separate amplifier.

MOON’s North Series is the company’s mid-to-high range, built around its own MiND streaming platform and its own conversion, with the long warranties Simaudio is known for.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 device rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can put it in a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

Power, input selection and volume stay with the unit, its remote and its own app. The Home app does not control those.

Before you buy

The 681 sits at the entry point of MOON’s current network players. Moving up the range buys a better power supply and output stage rather than more features, so the question is whether your amplifier and speakers can show the difference.

The MOON 791 and MOON 891 sit above it.

Specifications