A Number Of Helpful Hints To Help Select A Cordless Surround Sound Package The latest series of wireless surround sound transmitter products 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 guidelines for picking the best wireless audio product.
Running music in your home can be a daunting chore. Numerous buildings are not wired for multi-room audio and getting the music from your living room to your bed room can be quite a problem. The following technologies are used by devices solving this problem: infrared, RF, wireless LAN and powerline.
Infrared is limited to line of sight because the audio signal is broadcast as lightwaves and consequently devices using this technology, such as infrared wireless surround sound products, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless audio devices broadcast the music signal via radio waves. These radio wave signals can without problems go through walls. The signal is sent either by utilizing FM transmission or digital transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to hiss, audio distortion and susceptible to interference. Digital wireless audio transmitter products, such as products from Amphony, utilize a digital protocol. The audio is first converted to digital data before being broadcast. Some wireless audio transmitters will utilize audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters which will lower the audio quality to some extent. Digital wireless audio transmitters which broadcast the audio uncompressed provide the highest audio fidelity.
Products which employ digital wireless audio transmission use a digital protocol. Such products include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, before transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This conversion and transmission in the digital domain will ensure that the original audio quality is preserved. On the other hand, this is only the case of the data is sent uncompressed. Some wireless audio transmitters will apply some sort of audio compression. Such products include Bluetooth audio transmitters. Audio compression will degrade the quality of the audio to some extent.
Products utilizing wireless LAN are useful 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 specifically designed for real-time audio streaming. WLAN receivers often do not have built-in network access. As a result, such devices often require purchasing separate LAN cards. These cards are then plugged into each receiver.
Here are some suggestions for selecting 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 purchase extra transmitters when you begin adding receivers in several rooms of your home. Selecting a product with some sort of error correction will help mitigate against strong RF interference. Such interference can be caused by other wireless transmitters. Pick a digital RF transmitter to maintain the original audio quality, preferably one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.
Pick a transmitter that has all the audio inputs you require, such as speaker inputs, line-level RCA inputs etc. Get a wireless system where you can purchase additional receivers later on. You should verify 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. Select a transmitter that can regulate the audio volume of the input stage. This will give you the flexibility to connect the transmitter to any kind of equipment with different signal levels. Otherwise the audio may get clipped inside the transmitter converter stage or the dynamic range is not fully used.
Ensure that the system offers amplified receivers with a digital amplifier to guarantee high power efficiency. This will help keep the receiver cool during operation. In addition, make sure the amplifier provides low audio distortion. This is vital for good sound quality. Make sure the receivers can drive speakers with your desired Ohm rating. Picking a product where the wireless receivers have a small footprint and easy mounting options will help during the set up. Products 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.
Running music in your home can be a daunting chore. Numerous buildings are not wired for multi-room audio and getting the music from your living room to your bed room can be quite a problem. The following technologies are used by devices solving this problem: infrared, RF, wireless LAN and powerline.
Infrared is limited to line of sight because the audio signal is broadcast as lightwaves and consequently devices using this technology, such as infrared wireless surround sound products, are limited to a single room.
RF wireless audio devices broadcast the music signal via radio waves. These radio wave signals can without problems go through walls. The signal is sent either by utilizing FM transmission or digital transmission. FM transmission is cheap but quite prone to hiss, audio distortion and susceptible to interference. Digital wireless audio transmitter products, such as products from Amphony, utilize a digital protocol. The audio is first converted to digital data before being broadcast. Some wireless audio transmitters will utilize audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters which will lower the audio quality to some extent. Digital wireless audio transmitters which broadcast the audio uncompressed provide the highest audio fidelity.
Products which employ digital wireless audio transmission use a digital protocol. Such products include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, before transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This conversion and transmission in the digital domain will ensure that the original audio quality is preserved. On the other hand, this is only the case of the data is sent uncompressed. Some wireless audio transmitters will apply some sort of audio compression. Such products include Bluetooth audio transmitters. Audio compression will degrade the quality of the audio to some extent.
Products utilizing wireless LAN are useful 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 specifically designed for real-time audio streaming. WLAN receivers often do not have built-in network access. As a result, such devices often require purchasing separate LAN cards. These cards are then plugged into each receiver.
Here are some suggestions for selecting 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 purchase extra transmitters when you begin adding receivers in several rooms of your home. Selecting a product with some sort of error correction will help mitigate against strong RF interference. Such interference can be caused by other wireless transmitters. Pick a digital RF transmitter to maintain the original audio quality, preferably one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.
Pick a transmitter that has all the audio inputs you require, such as speaker inputs, line-level RCA inputs etc. Get a wireless system where you can purchase additional receivers later on. You should verify 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. Select a transmitter that can regulate the audio volume of the input stage. This will give you the flexibility to connect the transmitter to any kind of equipment with different signal levels. Otherwise the audio may get clipped inside the transmitter converter stage or the dynamic range is not fully used.
Ensure that the system offers amplified receivers with a digital amplifier to guarantee high power efficiency. This will help keep the receiver cool during operation. In addition, make sure the amplifier provides low audio distortion. This is vital for good sound quality. Make sure the receivers can drive speakers with your desired Ohm rating. Picking a product where the wireless receivers have a small footprint and easy mounting options will help during the set up. Products 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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