MikroTik

While researching Mikrotik wifi coverage performance I found the following three reviews on a site called batna24.

Judging from the heatmap, it seems the Audience is not a good option for a single-router solution in a multi-story setting from a coverage perspective.

Here are the three reviews:
ac2 - https://www.batna24.com/uk/mikrotik-hap ... mance-test
ac3 - https://www.batna24.com/uk/mikrotik-hap ... mance-test
Audience - https://www.batna24.com/en/mikrotik-aud ... mance-test
I must admit that I did not expect this result. From what I've read I expected the Audience to have the best coverage of the three.

I have seen these reviews as well. Nice information .... however I would have preferred to see the heat-map for the receive level at the AP, not at the client.

It has to do with antenna gain. hAP ac3 and Audience have better antenna (higher gain) than the hAP ac2. This is nice for an outdoor (free field) signal level at the client if one is not limited by the regulatory domain EIRP level. That EIRP limit is usually the case ! This means that the power in the best direction is equal to the EIRP level (20dBm, 27dBm, 30 dBm ... depends on the regulatory domain and frequency used). This also means that the TX power of the radio is lower with the high gain antenna, so the signal level in the rest of the directions is lower than the allowed EIRP ! The real "gain" in coverage comes from the fact that the antenna amplifies the received signal (just as it does with the sent signal), and makes the receiving more sensitive. You "hear" the client from further away.

Indoor looks as a different story. With the walls and ceilings the actual path is rather unknown. (I never managed to have a good connection through a wall with a SXTsq as expected). The path is complex and not the straight line like in LOS setups. The radio has to work hard to combine the different reflected and delayed signals. A pure omnidirectional device (we only have dipoles , that is somewhat directional) sends out the most signal energy (if the EIRP limit is used). By an experiment between 2 floors, the best outcome was wAP ac, then Omnitik ac, then SXTsq ac. Another setup learned that a hAP ac2 was much better than a wAP ac (old MIPSBE model) in a house with very thick wall's. Replacing that wAP ac with a cAP ac improved the connectivity. (Owner didn't like the "black" hAP ac2 on a white wall) The hAP ac2 not fixed to the wall has proven to be a very strong AP indoors in those houses.

So the heatmap says something, but the interpretation in wifi performance is contra-intuitive (as usual in wifi).
What it means for the user experience, also depends on what communication is the limiting factor AP-client, or client-AP

PS: the Audience has 2 separate 5GHz radio's. The weaker EIRP level band is used for the clients, the stronger EIRP level band is used on the other radio for the mesh connection. (Which one did they test ??? 1300Mbps = 80MHz/3S , so it was the QCA9984 ?)

I had run my Audience as a cap for a few months here and there.

But since I updated to routerOS 6.48.3... I am convinced Mikrotik screwed up something WORSE in their wireless.

I have been critical of the lousy radio performance for a while now. I had found the small sandbox they could function in. This time... With no other changes... The audience performance has dropped to unusable.

Take a look at those errors...

My experience with Audience.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=176569#p865669

Actually, all Router used for Cambium toys and default suggested router for our users are hAP ac²

Anyone that says a single consumer AP is adequate for a multilevel HOME is on serious hallucinogens!
By that I mean to differentiate as the OP seems to want a single consumer WIFI router to be cover off a multi-story home.
At least with an AP, the likelihood of optimal placement is higher.

I have sam issue with AC3, compared to old devices like 951ui-2hnd ,AC3 really bad in coverage area. Today, im facing slow bandwidth on 2G. Even moving away about 5M and separated by single wooden wall, it loss all it bandwidth. From 20MB/s ( My ISP Total BW ) drop to only about 3MB/s. While 5G not facing same issue, but it very annoying since my most of my devices always selected 2G rather than 5G even if 5G is always preferred.