Wireless Speaker Kits – will they end the cable clutter?
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010An increasing number of vendors has started to offer wireless speakers for home theater systems or a separate wireless speaker kit. Multi-channel audio is still a relatively new phenomenon. As such in older homes which are not pre-wired for rear speakers, not to mention 7.1 speakers, a wireless option seems like the logical conclusion. But how reliable are these wireless speaker kits and do they really eliminate the dreaded cable clutter?
Some wireless speaker kits, such as the LG or Rocketfish allow to connect 2 speakers to a wireless receiver unit. This eliminates the cables from the front to the back. However, still cables need to be run from the receiver to each speaker and as such the amount of cables is just reduced but not eliminated. Another wireless surround sound product from Amphony comes with separate receivers for each speaker which in comparison to the other products does reduce the cable clutter, albeit not eliminate cables completely.
Will the wireless have any effect on performance? Audio quality is a main concern. In picking a wireless system, one should choose a system where (a) the transmission itself does not pick up any noise or degradation in order to maintain the audio quality and (b) the wireless amplifier itself should be a high-quality amplifier with minimal distortion. Also, the size of the wireless speaker amplifier is a consideration as the receiver should be invisible.
In a surround sound application, such as a home theater setting, the audio from each speaker naturally should be in sync with the video and also with the audio of the other speakers. Some wireless speaker kits, such as the product from Rocketfish, will introduce a significant delay to the signal. Therefore when choosing a wireless speaker kit, it is important to look closely at how much latency the wireless unit will introduce. The Amphony product adds a little less than 1 ms delay which should be sufficiently low for pretty much any application.
The final consideration is how reliable are these wireless speakers and speaker kits in a real-world scenario. A problem facing any wireless device is interference from other wireless devices. Especially consumer devices in the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz frequency bands, such as WiFi or Bluetooth devices, have become more and more widespread and cause an increasing challenge for any wireless device. Choosing a product that works in a less crowded frequency band, such as the 5.8 GHz frequency band, reduces the impact of interference.
Aside from using a wireless speaker kit in a home theater environment, another useful application for wireless systems is streaming audio between different rooms of the home where wiring would be difficult to install or for outdoor applications. Just imagine being able to set up your speakers in your backyard in a matter of minutes. The possibilities are endless.