Wren Sound V5US Wireless Speaker with AirPlay, Bluetooth and DTS Play-FI - (Anigre with Almond Crème Finish)

I was looking for a better speaker for my kitchen as I was currently using a Jawbone Big Jambox. I first bought another higher quality bluetooth speaker but ended up returning it because it was not that much better than the Jambox. I decided to scrap the battery powered bluetooth to go with a larger speaker that requires power. After some research I selected the Wren and am very happy with the purchase. I considered the B&W Zeppelin as I have had B&W monitor speakers for a very long time. However, the Zeppelin would have been to obtrusive on a counter, and a few reviews rated the Wren as better than the B&W. The light colored Wren blends right in and looks at home in the kitchen. The sound is great for a speaker of its size. Much better than a high end blue tooth battery powered speaker, but not as good as a high end speaker that requires an amp.I think the sound is excellent and it more than adequately fills a 20 by 20 room. I listen to wide variety of music and the speaker is versatile enough to accommodate it all. I have all Apple devices so I decided to give Airplay a try instead of the bluetooth option to take advantage of the higher audio sample rate of Airplay. Setting up airplay took about 5 minutes and was very easy. The Wren with Airplay works very well with Spotify and has worked flawlessly for over a week now. I just select Wren as the audio selection on Spotify and music instantly plays through the speaker. I have also streamed music stored on an iMac. I may consider buying a second speaker for another room as you can set these up as multi room speakers. Overall, this a great looking and great sounding speaker.

Sound is not $400 good, no bass response. Couldn’t get it back on wireless network and Bluetooth mode didn’t work either so waste of cash, don’t buy. Also, no firmware, support is just an email link with no reply. Manual doesn’t explain how to reset internet connection.

Remote control won’t turn on or off speaker. WIFI connection doesn’t work. To turn off unit you must hold down off button for about 10 seconds. Annoys the “heck” out of me each time I use it.

Really disappointed with this. Got it because the Wirecutter recommended it but I’ve found it totally unreliable and a pain in the butt to set up.

Works great with Spotify great sound! ! I have music throughout my whole house.

The Wren V5US is an excellent streaming speaker, and is probably the best speaker I've owned for use with AirPlay.The speaker is very well made and constructed of quality materials. It's heavy and exudes a sense of quality. The power cord is very long (thankfully), and the rear panel is logically laid out, which makes physical installation in a variety of spaces a breeze. Configuring the speaker is accomplished using an iPhone app that must be acquired via Apple's App Store. While a little wonky and clumsy when following the "overly-helpful" instructions, I was able to get the speaker operational an advertising via AirPlay in under five minutes.Initially, the speaker sounded very trebly or tinny. I was a little concerned about it, but decided to use it for a few days to see if we would get used to the sound. However, my wife and I noticed that the speaker warmed up considerably in that time, and now it sounds positively rich and warm. I suspect that the trebly sound was simply due to new, small drivers, and that they needed a little work out. I played this next to the 12-year old Bose desk radio/CD player it was replacing, and this was how I was able to judge the change in timber.Of key importance to us was using AirPlay without drop-outs or connection loss. Fortunately, the V5US is the ONLY speaker that we've used that maintains a solid connection via AirPlay and we've experienced no problems with time-outs (where the iDevice drops the AirPlay connection). Also, Wren did the world a service when they did not include a power-off timer with this device. We use it all the time and don't want to have to get up or use the remote to turn the thing on ten times a day. Now, we see the V5US advertised via AirPlay, we connect, and we listen. Pure and simple.In the end, I have very high expectations with streaming speakers and was terribly let down by other brands (e.g. Jawbone Big Jambox lack of airplay and desire to power down all the time, Polk's beautiful but seriously flawed Woodbourne that has a stupid 15-minute EnergyStar timer that cannot be disabled, etc.) The Wren V5US is the only speaker we've used to date that simply hits a run out of the park with ease of use, solid performance, and beautiful aesthetics.Solid five stars.

This is a great product. You may have read my other review on the V5AP, also a good choice but the V5US offers a number of improvements. First the Anigre wood veneer is beautiful, its very light in color and is really stunning when you see it; the grill is white. The sound is wonderful and about the same as the V5AP but you can now change the amount of bass by using a switch on the back. The best improvement is the WiFi is now dual band 802.11n, easy to connect and has been very reliable for me. I use it mostly with Spotify Connect and airplay but the Play-Fi capabilities let you control multiple speakers, tones of radio stations, and many other streaming services (Songza, deezer, internet radio, Sirius XM, etc) It has been rock solid on my network and a real joy to have in my home.I should also mention it has bluetooth, which is great when people come over and want to connect without downloading an app or anything. It really make the system very complete.