The Audio Pro A10 sees the Swedish audio brand take a different tack with its wireless speakers. Made with smaller rooms in mind, the compact A10 can be used as part of a multiroom set-up and offers a number of different avenues for playing music, as well as a degree of voice support.
It joins a growing trend of wireless speakers that have ambitions of meshing stylish design and great sound.
With the wireless speaker market becoming a popular and crowded one in recent years, the A10 pokes its head above most of the rest with a strong offering.
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Design and build − Mixing Scandi design chic and a modest footprint, the Audio Pro A10 is an attractive proposition
The A10 marks a departure from the rest of Audio Pro’s wireless speaker lineup when it comes to design.
For one, it’s cylindrical rather than rectangular. That means it takes up less space and makes speaker positioning easier thanks to its smaller footprint. As it’s not a portable speaker, you’ll have to keep in mind its proximity to a mains plug or extension lead when moving it about.
Secondly, its aesthetics are more in-keeping with modern tastes. While the speaker grilles on the brand’s Addon range gave them the amusing look of a Koala bear, the A10 is less conspicuous and more elegant.
The textured fabric that wraps round most of the speaker’s circumference looks great, although brush it with your hand and you’ll find it coarse to the touch. It’s a solidly built unit too, heavy enough at 2.7kg to feel substantial, but not too heavy to feel like it’s a drag moving it from room to room.
On the rear is a notch for a wall bracket, with one included in the box if you want to plant it on a wall. Available in two colours − or two shades of grey as Audio Pro calls it − I’m rather partial to the light grey variant, but the dark grey version is fetching too.
Features − The Audio Pro A10 has you fairly well covered in terms of features, though multi-room requires Audio Pro speakers
Whatever source you have, the A10 should be able to wring a tune out of it thanks to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Airplay support.
There’s also a 3.5mm jack located to the rear for physical connections. Switching through sources is as easy as tapping a button on top of the speaker, or tapping your preferred source in the Audio Pro Control app. For file support, the Audio Pro A10 is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC and Apple Lossless, so if you have designs on High-res audio playback, you’re out of luck.
Bluetooth is limited to v4.0 and AirPlay support is first generation, and not AirPlay 2, so you lose the Apple multi-room functionality.
That said, if you have more than one Audio Pro speaker in the house, you can set up a multi-room network through the app – assigning zones to each one with the ability to play music to a speaker or all of them.
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The control app is fine to use, and that’s just about all there is to say about it. If you want to control playback, tweak audio settings or sort out multi-room grouping, the app is the place to do so. However, apart from setting the speaker up, I spent little time using it since I was using native apps to play content rather than the control app.
In terms of support for streaming services, the A10 has the big ones covered in Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Qobuz, with the app working as a launcher to open your music streaming app of choice.
Related: Best music streaming services
Physical controls are nestled on top, with controls for playback, volume, Wi-Fi presets, Bluetooth pairing, switching inputs and power. There’s also an LED indicator, but we haven’t deciphered what real significance it holds other than the number of LEDs lit up when changing between inputs.
Switch to the Wi-Fi input and you can tinker with the four Wi-Fi presets available. Playlists or radio stations can be assigned by pressing one of the numbered buttons for three seconds until you hear a tone – it certainly helps for quick, no fuss access.
Adding to this speaker’s list of talents is Amazon Alexa support, although it’s of the ‘Work with Alexa’ variety rather than built-in support for the voice assistant.
Performance − While it doesn’t boast a particularly wide soundstage, the Audio Pro A10 is a free-flowing and engaging performer
Slotting in a BMR (Balanced Mode Radiator) tweeter driver and a woofer into its compact form, the A10 delivers a thoroughly engaging performance.
It doesn’t produce a particularly wide soundstage. However, there were plenty of times where I’d stop whatever I was doing and just listen to the music being played. No matter where I placed the speaker, so long as it was facing outwards, it sounded great.
When it comes to sifting through the detail of a track, the A10 puts in a composed performance. Flinging at it an orchestral composition in the form of Danzon No.2, the Audio Pro A10 emerges with its composure intact, sticking doggedly to its task despite the track’s varying shifts in tempo, as well as showing some dexterity when dealing with that particular song’s dynamic range.
Bass performance is decently done, and while it does feel restrained it at least doesn’t overspill. Midrange clarity is resolved well, with voices clearly rendered and detail communicated well, right down to the hushed tones of Sam Sparro’s vocals in Black & Gold.
A play of Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ By the Way and the free-flowing character of the A10’s sound becomes apparent, never missing a beat or a strum of a guitar. Prince’s When Doves Cry left me totally engaged in the track, as the beats flow with a sense of purpose and accuracy, the track’s composition came across as never less than tight and compelling with a good sense of timing thrown into the mix, too.
Should I buy the Audio Pro A10?
The wireless speaker market is a competitive one, with speakers of all shapes and sizes offering plenty of choice.
Rivals appear in the guise of Apple’s HomePod, which is considerably more expensive and restricted to Apple’s ring-fencing. The Audio Pro A10 misses out on AirPlay 2, but Audio Pro has its own multi-room set-up, though you’ll need Audio Pro speakers to take advantage of this.
And there’s the Sonos One, which is slightly more expensive than the Audio Pro A10, but it brings to the table Sonos’ excellent multiroom system, Google Assistant, Alexa features, and great sound. It’s perhaps not as stylish as the Audio Pro A10, but it offers more functionality.
In the Audio Pro A10’s favour, it sounds great across a number of musical genres and is fairly well stocked in terms of features. If you’re after a speaker that plays your music library in a compelling fashion, the A10 is a great pick.
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