A Few Guidelines To Help Decide On A Cordless Surround Sound Kit The latest series of wireless surround sound transmitter devices claims streaming of music throughout the house without limits. We will research if these newest devices are suitable for whole-house audio. Also, we will give vital tips for choosing a wireless audio system.
A growing number of wireless surround sound transmitter products claim the ultimate freedom in streaming audio all over the home. We will look at the most common technologies for wireless audio and give some tips for choosing the best wireless audio product. Getting audio from your living room to your bedroom can be quite a problem especially in houses which are not wired for audio. There are a number of technologies solving this problem. These include infrared wireless, RF wireless, wireless LAN (WLAN) and powerline.
Infrared products send the audio as lightwaves. Light can't penetrate walls. Consequently devices utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless products will send the signal as RF waves. These waves can without problems penetrate walls. RF wireless audio devices either make use of FM transmission or digital audio transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to noise, audio distortion and susceptible to interference. Products utilizing digital wireless audio transmission, such as Amphony audio transmitter products, employ a digital protocol in which the audio is converted to a digital signal prior to transmission. This method ensures that the audio quality is fully preserved. Some transmitters use some sort 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 maximum fidelity.
WLAN products are practical for broadcasting audio from a PC. However, wireless LAN was never designed for real-time audio streaming. As a consequence, products utilizing WLAN will introduce some amount of delay to the signal. WLAN receivers frequently do not have built-in network access. As a result, such devices often require buying separate LAN cards. These cards are then plugged into every receiver.
Products utilizing wireless LAN are practical when streaming audio from a PC. Their drawback is that they typically have some fairly high latency, i.e. the signal will be delayed by some amount since wireless LAN was not particularly designed for real-time audio streaming. WLAN receivers ordinarily require purchasing a separate LAN card to be plugged into each receiver.
Now we'll give you some suggestions for shopping for a wireless system: Pick a system that supports numerous wireless receivers if you plan to stream audio to several rooms so that you don't have to buy a separate transmitter for each receiver. Some products have some sort of error correction built in which will help guard against dropouts in case of strong wireless interference. Digital RF audio transmitters will be able to preserve the original audio quality. If you have time-critical applications where sync of the audio is crucial then you should get a transmitter with a low audio latency. An audio latency of smaller than 10 ms would be appropriate for most scenarios.
Make sure the wireless transmitter offers the audio inputs you need. You may need amplified speaker inputs, RCA audio inputs etc. Make sure that you can buy individual receivers later on as you expand your system. Verify that you can get receivers with speaker outputs for connecting regular loudspeakers as well as receivers with line-level RCA outputs. If you go with a digital audio transmitter, pick one with an input audio level control knob to prevent the music 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 provide maximum sound quality. Verify that the amplified receiver is able to drive speakers with the preferred Ohm rating and that it is small and easily mountable for easy installation. Devices which work in the 5.8 GHz frequency band will have less trouble with wireless interference than devices utilizing the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
A growing number of wireless surround sound transmitter products claim the ultimate freedom in streaming audio all over the home. We will look at the most common technologies for wireless audio and give some tips for choosing the best wireless audio product. Getting audio from your living room to your bedroom can be quite a problem especially in houses which are not wired for audio. There are a number of technologies solving this problem. These include infrared wireless, RF wireless, wireless LAN (WLAN) and powerline.
Infrared products send the audio as lightwaves. Light can't penetrate walls. Consequently devices utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless products will send the signal as RF waves. These waves can without problems penetrate walls. RF wireless audio devices either make use of FM transmission or digital audio transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to noise, audio distortion and susceptible to interference. Products utilizing digital wireless audio transmission, such as Amphony audio transmitter products, employ a digital protocol in which the audio is converted to a digital signal prior to transmission. This method ensures that the audio quality is fully preserved. Some transmitters use some sort 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 maximum fidelity.
WLAN products are practical for broadcasting audio from a PC. However, wireless LAN was never designed for real-time audio streaming. As a consequence, products utilizing WLAN will introduce some amount of delay to the signal. WLAN receivers frequently do not have built-in network access. As a result, such devices often require buying separate LAN cards. These cards are then plugged into every receiver.
Products utilizing wireless LAN are practical when streaming audio from a PC. Their drawback is that they typically have some fairly high latency, i.e. the signal will be delayed by some amount since wireless LAN was not particularly designed for real-time audio streaming. WLAN receivers ordinarily require purchasing a separate LAN card to be plugged into each receiver.
Now we'll give you some suggestions for shopping for a wireless system: Pick a system that supports numerous wireless receivers if you plan to stream audio to several rooms so that you don't have to buy a separate transmitter for each receiver. Some products have some sort of error correction built in which will help guard against dropouts in case of strong wireless interference. Digital RF audio transmitters will be able to preserve the original audio quality. If you have time-critical applications where sync of the audio is crucial then you should get a transmitter with a low audio latency. An audio latency of smaller than 10 ms would be appropriate for most scenarios.
Make sure the wireless transmitter offers the audio inputs you need. You may need amplified speaker inputs, RCA audio inputs etc. Make sure that you can buy individual receivers later on as you expand your system. Verify that you can get receivers with speaker outputs for connecting regular loudspeakers as well as receivers with line-level RCA outputs. If you go with a digital audio transmitter, pick one with an input audio level control knob to prevent the music 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 provide maximum sound quality. Verify that the amplified receiver is able to drive speakers with the preferred Ohm rating and that it is small and easily mountable for easy installation. Devices which work in the 5.8 GHz frequency band will have less trouble with wireless interference than devices utilizing the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.
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