Wireless Home Audio

What about Wireless Home Audio?

With all of the wireless home networks, phones and gadgets in the home, it is natural to consider wireless home audio for your home theater as well.  A wireless system is a natural solution for:

• those who want to hide ugly wiring throughout their home theater
• those looking to avoid the need to run wires through the walls, under the carpet or along the baseboards
• those looking for an easy, quick connection to their speaker

Is wireless the perfect solution or an idea ahead of it's time?

While the idea of adding a wireless system to your home theater may be a good one, the reality is that at this point in time, an affordable, high quality solution suitable for home theater is still a few years away.

For one thing, even "wireless" speakers need to be plugged into an outlet for power, so it is not necessarily a case of wireless as opposed to less wires. 

Quality issues

One of the biggest issues with today's wireless solutions is the issue of quality of the sound.  The early solutions have struggled with: 

• hissing, humming and popping sounds
• interference from other wireless devices and household appliances
• latency, or a delay in the sound
• limited frequency response

Simply put, if you place sound quality above all other factors, then you will still want to go with a wired system. 

If building a new home theater room from scratch, you will certainly want to run an ample amount of wires and cables throughout the room when you are framing the room as the cost and effort is minimal.  If you already have a room that is completed, it will be a bit more of a challenge, however there are many options and techniques to help you with a wired solution such as flat speaker cable, or wire channel to help reduce the clutter of speaker wire. 

Technological advancements

Although currently, wireless may not be the ideal solution for most home theater owners, there is certainly hope for the future.  Recent advances in wireless technology have led to more affordable solutions with better transmitters and receivers, with less interference.  At the same time sound quality has increased to the point where it rivals CD quality sound.  With the increased reliance by consumers on wireless products, it is inevitable that the future of wireless home audio is bright.  The next few years will see many examples of new wireless home theater options on the market.

But I really need something now….     Are there any wireless options that might work for my home theater now?

There are a number of options, one of the leading options is an affordable option called the Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear S...available for under $100. It uses 2.4GHz technology and offers a range up to 100 feet. It consists of a transmitter, a receiver and speaker wire. Note that even wireless speaker kits have wires as the speakers are plugged into a receiver unit which is then plugged into an outlet.

The Rocketfish is easy to install.  Simply connect the receiver speaker outputs to the transmitter with the included wires and then connect your rear speakers into the receiver unit at the back of your room.  Plug in the receiver and you should be ready to go.  The receiver also includes a volume control to fine tune the audio levels. 

The system performs well as a solution for those who do not want to run speaker wire to the back of the room.  The Rocketfish offers cd quality sound with very limited to no interference issues typically associated with wireless home audio systems.  It is a good, affordable solution for use with a home theater in a box system or for systems where running cable is just not an option.