Various Tricks To Help Select A Cordless Surround Sound Product The latest range of wireless surround sound transmitter products claims streaming of music throughout the home without limits. We will have a look at different products and technologies to find out in how far these products are practical for whole-house audio uses and what to look out for when purchasing a wireless system.
Lately more and more wireless surround sound transmitter devices have emerged which promise to bring the ultimate freedom of sending music throughout the house. We will have a look at various products and technologies to find out in how far these devices are practical for whole-house audio uses and what to look out for when purchasing a wireless system. Running music in your home can be a daunting chore. Many homes are not wired for multi-room audio and getting the music from your living room to your bedroom can be quite a problem. There are several technologies solving this problem. These include infrared wireless, RF wireless, wireless LAN (WLAN) and powerline.
Infrared products send the audio as lightwaves. Light cannot go through walls. Therefore products utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless music devices send the audio signal via radio waves. These radio wave signals can easily go through walls. The signal is broadcast either by using FM transmission or digital transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to static, audio distortion and susceptible to interference.
Products which utilize digital wireless audio transmission use a digital protocol. Such devices include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, prior to transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This method guarantees that the audio quality is entirely preserved. Some transmitters use some type of audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters, which will degrade the audio to some degree. Transmitters which broadcast the audio data uncompressed will attain the highest fidelity.
Powerline products broadcast the audio by means of the power mains and provide great range. They run into trouble in homes where there are separate mains circuits in terms of being able to cross over into another circuit. Another challenge confronting powerline products are strong power surges and spikes. Such surges can bring about dropouts in the audio due to errors in the transmission. To safeguard against these errors, powerline products normally build a delay of several seconds into the transmission.
Now we'll give you some pointers for shopping for a wireless system: Go for a system that supports multiple wireless receivers if you plan to stream audio to a number of rooms so that you don't have to purchase a separate transmitter for every receiver. Some products have some form of error correction built in which will help guard against dropouts in case of strong wireless interference. Pick a digital RF transmitter to maintain the original audio quality, ideally one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.
Make sure the wireless transmitter offers the audio inputs you require. You may need amplified speaker inputs, RCA audio inputs etc. Get a wireless system where you can buy separate receivers later on. You should check that you can get receivers for all the different applications you have. Such receivers may include amplified receivers for passive speakers or line-level receivers for active speakers. If you go with a digital audio transmitter, choose one with an input audio level control knob to avoid the audio signal from clipping inside the transmitter audio converter. This will guarantee optimum dynamic range regardless of the signal level of your equipment.
Ensure that the amplified wireless receivers contain built-in digital amplifiers with low distortion figures. This will keep the receiver cool due to high amplifier power efficiency and offer maximum sound quality. Pick a system that offers receivers that can drive speakers with the preferred Ohm rating. Make sure the receivers have a small form factor and are easily mountable. This will help during the set up. Products using the less crowded 5.8 GHz frequency band will normally have less trouble with wireless interference than 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz devices.
Lately more and more wireless surround sound transmitter devices have emerged which promise to bring the ultimate freedom of sending music throughout the house. We will have a look at various products and technologies to find out in how far these devices are practical for whole-house audio uses and what to look out for when purchasing a wireless system. Running music in your home can be a daunting chore. Many homes are not wired for multi-room audio and getting the music from your living room to your bedroom can be quite a problem. There are several technologies solving this problem. These include infrared wireless, RF wireless, wireless LAN (WLAN) and powerline.
Infrared products send the audio as lightwaves. Light cannot go through walls. Therefore products utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless music devices send the audio signal via radio waves. These radio wave signals can easily go through walls. The signal is broadcast either by using FM transmission or digital transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to static, audio distortion and susceptible to interference.
Products which utilize digital wireless audio transmission use a digital protocol. Such devices include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, prior to transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This method guarantees that the audio quality is entirely preserved. Some transmitters use some type of audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters, which will degrade the audio to some degree. Transmitters which broadcast the audio data uncompressed will attain the highest fidelity.
Powerline products broadcast the audio by means of the power mains and provide great range. They run into trouble in homes where there are separate mains circuits in terms of being able to cross over into another circuit. Another challenge confronting powerline products are strong power surges and spikes. Such surges can bring about dropouts in the audio due to errors in the transmission. To safeguard against these errors, powerline products normally build a delay of several seconds into the transmission.
Now we'll give you some pointers for shopping for a wireless system: Go for a system that supports multiple wireless receivers if you plan to stream audio to a number of rooms so that you don't have to purchase a separate transmitter for every receiver. Some products have some form of error correction built in which will help guard against dropouts in case of strong wireless interference. Pick a digital RF transmitter to maintain the original audio quality, ideally one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.
Make sure the wireless transmitter offers the audio inputs you require. You may need amplified speaker inputs, RCA audio inputs etc. Get a wireless system where you can buy separate receivers later on. You should check that you can get receivers for all the different applications you have. Such receivers may include amplified receivers for passive speakers or line-level receivers for active speakers. If you go with a digital audio transmitter, choose one with an input audio level control knob to avoid the audio signal from clipping inside the transmitter audio converter. This will guarantee optimum dynamic range regardless of the signal level of your equipment.
Ensure that the amplified wireless receivers contain built-in digital amplifiers with low distortion figures. This will keep the receiver cool due to high amplifier power efficiency and offer maximum sound quality. Pick a system that offers receivers that can drive speakers with the preferred Ohm rating. Make sure the receivers have a small form factor and are easily mountable. This will help during the set up. Products using the less crowded 5.8 GHz frequency band will normally have less trouble with wireless interference than 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz devices.
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