VSSL SX Speaker

The VSSL SX Speaker comes from a Canadian company that builds multi-room audio for custom installation. Its equipment is normally specified by an installer and lives in a rack, and the SX range is its more visible line.

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

VSSL sells through dealers and installers rather than retail, so pricing and support work differently and part of what you buy is the configuration.

The argument for it is consistency with a wider VSSL system. If the rest of the house already runs on VSSL amplifiers and one app, a matching speaker keeps a single system rather than two.

If this would be the only VSSL product in the house, a retail wireless speaker will be easier to buy and support, and cheaper.

The VSSL SX Soundbar covers television audio in the same range.

Specifications