The campaign to liberate speakers
(Credit: Avega Systems)We generally maintain a no-gloat-zone policy here at Crave, but sometimes we just can't help ourselves. Case in point: Just yesterday we wondered aloud why manufacturers were still touting hard-wired speaker systems for the home. If there's any digital consumer product that begs for wireless connections in multiple rooms, it's the entertainment system. And speakers would seem to be the easiest place to start.
Today, News.com ran a story that addressed this very point, focusing on an Australian company called Avega Systems that promised wireless speakers a year ago but then pretty much dropped off the map. (It's promising to trot out a product again at CES in January.) Anyway, the main reason for this item is to underscore this quote from one of the company's rivals, Neosonik, which plans to unveil a competing product: "Wireless speakers are the holy grail." Amen.
friendliness. That thought extends to in-ceiling & in-wall speakers. Some
present reality is just embarrassing. Yes, we hate that many of the world's finer
speakers demand fussy positioning.
Huh?? Sure it can. What would you call HDTV and HD Radio broadcasts? Low-def? Okay, maybe the extreme purist with golden dog ears may not call that "high fidelity", but those formats are limited by government restrictions on bandwidth usage, not by available technology.
There are several adequate wireless headphones too - some work in 400-900MHz range and do not suffer from the 2.4GHz clutter woes. High-end bluetooth headsets are emerging as well.
So the technology is readily available and has been for years. The problem is, always was, and always will be, "power"! Since these speakers will not be sitting on top of your ears, they have to move a lot more air for you to hear them, loudly. That takes a lot of energy. That's just physics.
You can't send that kind of power by RF or light without burning holes in people's heads, so you must have a built in amp, and the receiver. You are not going to set the speakers in the charger every night to recharge their car size batteries, so you need AC, either a nearby wall outlet, or pre-wired in the wall.
So, okay, you have wireless signals sent to the remote speakers, but you still have to get AC house current to power the electronics to convert and amplify that signal to feed the power hungry speakers. So you are still tearing out walls, tripping over wires, or both.
Additionally, the science and "art" behind designing and building "audio" reproducing "electro-mechanical" devices, such as a speaker system, is quite different from that of designing and building the electronics that processes electrons flowing in a conductor. Wireless forces the speaker design industry into the electronics design business, and the other way around - or it forces a merger of two related, but not previously competing, companies. Maybe the speaker maker does not want to design amplifiers - or partner up with someone else that does not quite have his "ear". He should not have to. If they want to, fine. But then one, the electronics or the speaker, will be the weaker link.
I for one, am for keeping the electronics out of the speaker cabinet - with the exception of the sub. I'll take a top-end wireless subwoofer, which will still be tethered to the wall. But for the remaining speakers, keep the electronics separate, and give me more choices.
It is not, IMO, the electronics makers responsibilties to get the audio signal to the speaker. Nor is it, IMO, the speaker makers responsibility to provide a signal source.
That responsibility belongs to the installer/facility manager - or in this case, me, the home owner.
Lucky for me, the cealing in my 50 year old basement fell down. It was the perfect time to run Cat-5 and wire the HT and wire remote room speakers between the floor joists.
-b