My sister wants my advice about wireless audio but I've never even seen a demo of the beasties. If some of you use them, I'd love to hear feedback about what to look for and what to avoid.
One Amazon review said they had problems with the bluetooth fading from side to side on a Visio 5.1 soundbar setup with sat spkrs. Others love it.
A "good" bluetooth system works well. So does a good Wifi sytem. The standard 24mhz? systems are junk.
It appears that all the 5.1 setups have a bluetooth connection to the "amp" but the speakers are actually hardwired. Once you get up to the $1k sets, they go bluetooth to the speaker, but the speakers still are wired to the 120v outlet for power. "Wireless" is a misstatement, it would appear.
It appears that the 2.1 systems are seldom stereo, meant mostly for output from things like iPods and phones. Can you point out any true stereo or surround systems? When I search for wifi speakers, it leads me to individual speakers or pairs of mono speakers using bluetooth.
These guys are playing fast and loose with the term 'stereo', as in wifi stereo speaker (singular) Bastids!
Some of the high end "wireless" speakers are also "cordless" , having a high capacity battery built in.
Some of the single unit speakers ARE technically stereo - with one driver on each side, each handling one channel of the stereo sound. Terrible sepparation - but still "stereo"
Almost entirely monaural.
What was your point in posting those 3 links?
-I just got off the phone with CenturyLink, the local phone company. It seems that screwing me out of $300 for retiring wasn't enough. Now they decided that since my other contract ran out on the home phone with slow (5mbs) internet, they now want $90.12 per month for the basic services. I had been paying $59.99. Where's a good thermonuclear device when you need one, huh?
The cable company doesn't service my address, and I won't go back to Dish or DirecTV since I don't watch TV. I'm running out of options. FSP!
Dialup is fast enough for text sites like email, Usenet and Wiki. It's my backup if the cell service goes down. .
--jsw
Bluetooth is good for 10 feet or so; why would you want a source and speakers so close, but not wired? Headphones, maybe?
WiFi uses TCP/IP protocols, takes a lot of software at each end to make work. Apple iTunes and the Airport Express receiver work OK, but sharing a big music folder between multiple computers is better: you can choose the music from any machine, not just listen to the lancast.
Most video streaming (like, as supported by WiFi-equipped bluray players) will do stereo, of course. Again, it assumes you sit at the computer to set up the playlist...
The Bluetooth Core Specification mandates a range of not less than 10 metres (33 ft), but there is no upper limit on actual range. Many bluetooth devices are good for up to 100 meters (328 feet).
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