AUDIOLAB 7000N PLAY

An affordable, well-made music streamer, but does the 7000N Play give enough in terms of sound?

STREAMER £549

Audiolab has an impressive track record with regard to wallet-friendly hi-fi designed to give musical satisfaction for a sensible price. The Audiolab 7000N Play sits relatively low down on the network-streamer price scale, no bad thing considering how impressed we were with the refinement and insight of Audiolab’s entry-level 6000N Play. That budget streamer gained a What Hi-Fi? Award a few years ago, so we are hopeful a similar trick can be repeated with the slightly more costly 7000N Play.

There’s certainly tough competition at this level, courtesy of the Award-winning Bluesound Node (2021) and the recently introduced Cambridge Audio MXN10, both of which feature in this group test.

Not a risk-taker

If you are choosing the 7000N Play music streamer over the 6000N, you probably want to know what you are getting over the cheaper model. Like the 6000N, the 7000N comes equipped with optical and coaxial digital outputs and a pair of RCA line-level outputs, and you can connect to your home network using wi-fi or wired ethernet. The 7000N Play is kitted out with a newer ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC, a step up on that used in the 6000N. You also now get AirPlay 2, an updated version of the Play-Fi streaming module, and enhanced power-supply circuitry.

Aesthetically, the Audiolab 7000N Play doesn’t exactly take many risks. It’s a broad, rectangular unit without many flourishes or add-ons, although you do get a full-colour display with a Graphical User Interface so that you can control and change things such as brightness, display time-out, 12V trigger function and language.