Russound SMZ16-PRE

The Russound SMZ16-PRE is multi-zone distribution equipment, not a hi-fi component. It is a sixteen-zone preamplifier for whole-house audio, installed in a rack cupboard and feeding power amplifiers that drive speakers in every room of a building.

Russound has made this kind of equipment for decades, and it is specified by installers rather than bought over a counter.

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.

In a system this size, AirPlay 2 is one source among many. The point of the SMZ16-PRE is that any source can be routed to any zone, so a phone streaming to it can play in the kitchen while something else plays in the study.

Before you buy

This is not a domestic purchase in the ordinary sense. Sixteen zones implies a large house or a commercial building, structured wiring to every room, and an installer who will configure and support it.

If you want music in three or four rooms of a normal house, AirPlay 2 speakers or a pair of HomePods per room will cost a fraction as much.

Specifications