Philips Izzy BM50 review – multiroom, Bluetooth, CD and FM radio

Sound Quality

The BM50 is easily capable of filling a medium- to large-sized room. There are two 2.5in woofers inside outputting 40W total. Its sound stage is slightly narrow, however. The BM50 is not the most detailed sounding speaker out there, either, occasionally erring towards the overly-warm side, making it difficult to pick out individual instruments. The delicateness you would expect from a violin or the pluck of a guitar is slightly lost, for example. There’s a certain level of presence that’s missing. The BM50 isn’t as emphatic-sounding as a larger speaker, due in part to its relatively thin cabinet.

However, the sound quality is within what we would expect for a speaker of this price and size. Obviously, listening to a poor audio source like FM Radio is never going to sound particularly good but the listening experience from Bluetooth devices or CDs was still enjoyable.

Conclusion

As a budget-friendly, multiroom-capable speaker, the Philips Izzy BM50 acquits itself well enough. Its strength is its easy setup. For anyone who wants a multiroom system that can be set up in mere seconds, the izzylink system is hard to fault. With the additions of CD playback and FM radio, you’re well covered as an all-in-one music system. However, the izzylink-only Wi-Fi means that there’s no built-in internet music streaming, and no way to stream music from a NAS.

However, using a Bluetooth audio source does mean you can access music from pretty much any service or source. Compared to some well-established multiroom audio rivals, the Izzy BM50 is keenly priced, making it great value for its feature set and versatility. If you place a high priority on sound quality you might find it lacking. If you find yourself rarely listening to CDs or the radio, a more standard multiroom speaker might be a better choice. For a little less money a Sonos Play:1 is a great entry into multiroom audio and is worth considering.