Ideas For Choosing The Perfect Wireless Audio Transmitter Device For Whole-Home Audio Streaming

Recently more and more wireless audio transmitter devices have appeared which claim to bring the ultimate freedom of broadcasting music throughout the house. We will check if these latest products are suitable for whole-house audio. Also, we will give crucial tips for choosing a wireless music system.

If your house is not wired for audio then you face quite a problem when you want to get your music from your living room to your bed room. Often the audio source cannot be moved. Running speaker wires between rooms will be costly and for that reason many people are searching for alternatives. The following technologies are used by devices solving this problem: infrared, RF, wireless LAN and powerline.

Infrared wireless audio products are restricted to line-of-sight applications, i.e. only work within a single room because the signal is sent as infrared light which can’t go through walls. This technology is frequently found in wireless speaker kit products.

RF wireless products will broadcast the signal as RF waves. These waves can without difficulty go through walls. RF wireless audio products either utilize FM transmission or digital audio transmission. FM transmission is inexpensive but quite prone to noise, audio distortion and susceptible to interference.

Products which use digital wireless audio transmission employ a digital protocol. Such products include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, prior to transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This method ensures that the audio quality is entirely maintained. Some transmitters employ some form of audio compression, such as Bluetooth transmitters, which will degrade the audio to some extent. Transmitters which send the audio data uncompressed will achieve the highest fidelity.

Wireless LAN (WLAN) products are practical when streaming from a PC but will add some amount of latency or delay to the signal because wireless LAN was not originally designed for real-time audio streaming. WLAN receivers typically require purchasing a separate LAN card to be plugged into every receiver.

Powerline products employ the power mains to distribute music and provide great range but run into trouble 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.

Here are some tips for choosing a wireless audio system: If you plan to stream audio into several rooms of your house, be certain to go for a system that permits streaming to several receivers at the same time. That way you don’t have to purchase a separate transmitter for every receiver that you are streaming to. Products with some type of error correction will be more resistant against radio interference from other wireless transmitters. Pick a digital RF transmitter to preserve the original audio quality, preferably one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.

Select a transmitter that has all the audio inputs you require, such as speaker inputs, line-level RCA inputs etc. Choose a system where you can add receivers later on which provide all of the required outputs, e.g. amplified speaker outputs, RCA outputs etc. If you go with a digital audio transmitter, pick one with an input audio level control knob to avoid the music signal from clipping inside the transmitter audio converter. This will ensure optimum dynamic range regardless of the signal level of your equipment.

Check that the system provides 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 offers low audio distortion. This is important for good sound quality. Choose a system which offers receivers that can drive speakers with the desired Ohm rating. Make sure the receivers have a small form factor and are easily mountable. This will help during the installation. Products which operate in the 5.8 GHz frequency band will have less problems with wireless interference than devices utilizing the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.