Review: The Phorus PR5 Receiver – Music Everywhere!

In a recent blog, I talked about the DTS Play-Fi music streaming technology.  Today I want to cover a product from the Play-Fi creators, Phorus.  That product is the Phorus PR5 Receiver. 

At home you likely have a home theater system, stereo, whole-house audio, or some combination thereof.  Can you connect it to the endless universe of Internet tunes? 

Now you can..! Simply, easily and elegantly.

The Phorus PR5 is a clean and affordable way to drag your existing audio gear into the Internet age.  All you need is a home wireless connection.  Connect the PR5 to your audio system with the supplied RCA cable and connect the power adapter.  The PR5 powers up automatically and with the built-in 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi in setup mode, you are almost ready.  With your Android or iPhone, download the Phorus app and fire it up.  The app will search the network, find the receiver, prompt you for some information, and you are now ready to roll with rock…   or jazz…  maybe some R&B… whatever suits your fancy.  You can even run the app from your PC or laptop and connect to any media server you may have running.

The Phorus app is simple to use and allows you to tap into Internet radio, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, Deezer, NPR and more…  And don’t forget streaming music files from your phone or tablet via Airplay or Bluetooth. 

I used the PR5 connected to my B&K home theater processor and ran tunes through zones 1 and 2 in different configurations.  Performance of the built-in Wolfson DAC was up to snuff, with good sound quality.  I even ran 24/96kHz FLAC files from a Logitech media server just fine.

The downside…   not much of anything, quite frankly.  I do happen to have a rather archaic home network and did experience a few dropouts when my controlling device (cell phone or tablet) ventured a bit too far away from my router, say in the garage or out in the back yard. 

The Connoisseur’s bottom line here is that this is a well thought-out, user-friendly and inexpensive way to add a great amount of flexibility to your enjoyment of music at home.  For an outlay of $179.00 you get a lot of performance for the buck.  I recommend a look-see at the Phorus PR5 and Play-Fi.  You will like what you see…  hear..!

**Next up, a review of the Phorus PS5 speaker…  No stereo required..!