A Look at Some of the Latest Wireless Audio Gadgets

Lately a large number of wireless audio productswireless receivers simultaneously. Due to the fairly
have emerged such as latest-generation wirelesshigh power consumption it is rarely used in
headphones, iPods, cell phones and wirelesswireless headphones though. WiFi is convenient for
amplifier products which promise to cut the cord. Istreaming audio from a PC however since almost
will take a look at some of the newest gadgetsall PCs have WiFi access.
and technologies to find out how well they workWireless speakers and wireless amplifier products
and in which situations they work best.for home theater speakers typically use their own
Products can be categorized into products withproprietary protocol. Entry-level wireless
built-in and those with optional wireless capability.headphones and speakers typically still use FM
Streaming audio products will often have a plug-intransmission which offers low cost but is prone to
slot for adding a wireless LAN card. Latestnoise and audio distortion.
generation iPods and cell phones already comeMore advanced wireless protocols are based on
with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth support.digital formats which eliminate audio degradation
Bluetooth is a fairly low-cost solution but hasand incorporate advanced features such as error
some drawbacks which are often overlooked.correction to cope with interference from
1) Limited rangecompeting wireless devices.
Bluetooth devices typically only have a 30-footAdvanced wireless amplifier devices support
range which limits Bluetooth to single-roomuncompressed digital audio streaming to preserve
applications.the original audio quality. Some of these protocols
2) Low data rate - audio compressionallow streaming to an unlimited number of wireless
Bluetooth reliably supports data transmission ratesamplifiers which is convenient for whole-house
of around 1 Mbps only which is not enough foraudio distribution.
uncompressed CD-quality audio. ThereforeThe audio latency ranges from below 1 ms to up
Bluetooth applies audio compression. This is lessto 20 ms. A small latency is important for wireless
critical though for compressed audio such as MP3surround sound applications. These wireless audio
audio but excludes Bluetooth from use intransmitters typically work at 2.4 GHz. There are
high-quality audio applications.also some products which work at 5.8 GHz.
3) Audio latencyProducts that operate at 5.8 GHz have less
Due to audio compression, Bluetooth will introducecompetition from other wireless devices than
a signal delay of at least 10 ms which will causethose using the crowded 2.4 GHz frequency band.
the audio to be slightly out of sync in case ofThese wireless amplifiers also differ in terms of
video and real-time applications. This is again lessamplifier output power, standby power
of a problem for MP3 players.consumption and audio quality. A high-quality audio
4) No multiple headphone supportamplifier is vital for optimum sound quality. Digital
Bluetooth does not support any number ofamplifiers typically offer a power efficiency of at
headphones which may be a problem if you haveleast 80% and standby power consumption of
a larger number of people who want to listen toless than 5 Watts which keeps them cool during
headphones from a single transmitter device.operation and helps save energy. However, some
WiFi is another widely used wireless protocol thatClass-D amps have fairly high audio distortion.
is also suitable for audio streaming. WiFi doesAudiophile wireless amplifiers offer an audio
support uncompressed audio but will havedistortion of 0.05% or less.
problems transmitting to a large number of