Several Good Tips To Help Select A Wireless Surround Sound System

By Scott Humton


Some Guidelines To Help Choose A Wireless Surround Sound Set

The newest series of wireless surround sound transmitter devices claims streaming of music throughout the house without limits. We will take a look at the most popular technologies for wireless audio and give some tips for selecting the best wireless audio product. If your house is not wired for audio then you face quite a challenge when you want to get your music from your living room to your bed room. Frequently the audio source cannot be moved. Running speaker wires between rooms will be expensive and therefore a lot of people are looking for other options. Products which resolve this challenge are mostly based on the following technologies: infrared wireless, RF wireless, wireless LAN or powerline.

Infrared products broadcast the audio as lightwaves. Light cannot penetrate walls. Consequently products utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are restricted to a single room.

Infrared products send the audio as lightwaves. Light cannot penetrate walls. Therefore products utilizing infrared, such as wireless surround sound kits, are limited to a single room. RF wireless products send the audio as RF waves - either by utilizing FM transmission or digital transmission - and can therefore without problems transmit through walls. FM transmitters are the cheapest alternative. They provide good range but the music signal is prone to audio distortion and hiss and is very susceptible to interference from other wireless transmitters.

Digital wireless audio transmitter products, such as products from Amphony, make use of a digital protocol. The audio is first converted to digital data before being transmitted. This method guarantees that the audio quality is completely maintained. Some transmitters employ some form of audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters, which will degrade the audio to some degree. Transmitters which send the audio data uncompressed will achieve the highest fidelity.

Powerline devices use the power mains to distribute music and offer large range but run into problems if there are individual mains circuits in the home in terms of crossing between circuits. Also, these products build in a delay of a number of seconds to safeguard against transmission errors during power surges and spikes which prevents their use in applications where the audio from wireless loudspeakers has to be in sync with other non-wireless speakers or video.

Powerline products broadcast the audio by means of the power mains and offer large range. They run into problems 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 typically build a delay of several seconds into the transmission.

Here are some pointers for choosing the perfect wireless audio system: Try to find a system that can run several wireless receivers from a single transmitter. Ideally an unlimited number of receivers should be supported. That way you don't need to buy additional transmitters when you begin adding receivers in different rooms of your house. Some devices have some form 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 maintain 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 less than 10 ms would be appropriate for most scenarios.

Make sure that the amplified wireless receivers have 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. Make sure the receivers can drive speakers with your desired Ohm rating. Selecting a product where the wireless receivers have a small footprint and easy mounting options will help during the set up. 5.8 GHz wireless products usually have less problems with interference from other wireless transmitters than devices operating at 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz.




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