UniFi PowerAmp

The UniFi PowerAmp is not a hi-fi product. It is a network amplifier from Ubiquiti, the company that makes UniFi networking equipment, and it is designed to be racked alongside switches and access points rather than placed on a shelf.

Its purpose is distributed audio in a building already running UniFi: ceiling speakers in several rooms, powered and managed from the same interface and the same rack as the network.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker 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 assign it to 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.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker and its own app.

Before you buy

The argument for it is administrative rather than sonic. If you already manage a building’s network in the UniFi console, managing the audio there too is genuinely convenient.

If you do not run UniFi, there is little reason to choose this over a conventional multi-room amplifier.

It expects structured wiring to ceiling or wall speakers, so it belongs in a building being wired rather than one already finished.

Specifications