Wireless Stereo System

5 great ways to listen to music without the cord

It seems all the latest gadgets come with a central promise: Now completely wireless! Cut the cord!

The chatter this summer centers on wireless music, fueled in no small part by the exciting Sonos Play:3 home speaker, which streams music from a computer or phone wirelessly.

There are a few competing standards for wireless music streaming, including DLNA, Apple's AirPlay and Bluetooth.

DLNA, which stands for Digital Living Network Alliance , is supported by a consortium of manufacturers that has quietly turned the standard into a leader in wireless music streaming.

Many Android smartphones support DLNA, allowing music to be sent from the phone through a wireless home network to a speaker system that supports it.

DLNA is also supported by the PlayStation 3 and several Blu-ray and DVD players, so you may have a wireless music set-up already and not even realize it.

Apple's AirPlay standard also allows music to be streamed wirelessly to speakers on a home network. The iTunes jukebox program acts as command central and can be used to switch between speakers, selecting just one or a combination.

A few AirPlay-enabled speakers are on the market now, with several more planned for this fall.

Here's a closer look.

Sonos Play:3

The $299 Play:3 is the first low-cost speaker from Sonos, which previously catered to high-end consumers.

The Play:3 taps into a home network using an Ethernet port on the back, allowing users to stream music to the speaker from a computer on the same network. Customers can also buy a $50 adapter called the Bridge so the speaker can be placed anywhere in the house without having to be near an Ethernet port.

The speakers also work well with streaming music services such as Spotify or Pandora. If customers buy more than one, the speakers can be linked to play the same music in each room.

An app for Android, iPhone or iPad is available to control the speaker.

www.sonos.com

Sennheiser RS 160

These premium over-the-ear headphones use another wireless standard called Kleer. The perk of Kleer is that it provides streaming of uncompressed music (Bluetooth audio is often compressed before transmission).

Audioengine's Wireless Stereo System - wireless audio transmitters

The Audioengine W1 may be confusing to understand from its photograph but imagine it as a wireless stereo system with only the stereo cable itself made wireless.

It comes in two parts: a transmitter and a receiver. Together, they form a pair of wireless audio transmitters. Both have a mini-jack stereo input on one end and a USB on the other. Plug your music source (e.g. MP3 player or laptop) into the transmitter and your amplifier or powered speakers into the other. Voila! Now you have a wireless stereo system.

Range is 100 feet.

Sadly, the wireless audio transmitters are not self-powered (battery or solar would have been nice) and need to get power from somewhere. That’s why they have a USB cable/dongle hanging off of one end. Thankfully, the dongle on the transmitter can be used for USB audio, so if your computer/laptop is your music source… then you can power the device AND stream the audio from the same USB. However, this won’t be true of the receiver… which is why the kit comes with a USB AC Adapter, so you can plug it into the wall.

When you think about it, there are a variety of uses for this product. For instance, you could use it with your favourite earphones and turn them into wireless headphones – without having to purchase a separate, dedicated pair of wireless headphones (which are probably expensive and not precisely the ones you want anyway). Audiophiles who spend a lot on their headphones (like I did with my in-ear Shures ) will rejoice that we can now make them into wireless earphones, too.

Speakers Wireless

If you purchase a pair of powered speakers, you could turn them into wireless speakers for your PC. This gives you a lot more flexibility and choice, as opposed to having to purchase a dedicated, wireless speaker system.

Audioengine even makes bookshelf, powered speakers that have a USB port to provide power to their W1/W2 products.

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