Will wireless speakers ever become a reality?

Hantra · « **on:** 18 May 2004, 10:03 pm »

I mean. . . The technology is in place NOW. The demand is damned sure in place, and not just from a small faction. I would kill for some decent wireless speakers. It is a physical impossibility to run cable for rears in my living room, unless I pull the carpet up. And I'm NOT doing that. Besides, I'll probably go hardwood soon anyway, and then what?

Bluetooth, 802.11, 2.4Ghz. . All that stuff is there, so why can't we get it to work?

Someone needs to get on this BESIDES RCA with their 900Mhz bitchin' HT speaker kit.

infiniti driver · « **Reply #1 on:** 18 May 2004, 10:44 pm »

Hantra, I took the guts out of a set of 900mhz RCA's bought on ebay on the cheap (receiver section) and added my own little power amplifiers (60W/ch) and adopted them to a set of Boston Acoustics CR-8's. It is very impressive for what it is. In testing, the transmitter/receiver tracked the signal well and with CD, it sounded better than the FM radio. The transmiter/receiver has a frq response of 40 to 18K and with this experiment, It served fine. Yes, the technology is here but no one seems to be utilizing it with better loudspeakers today. I could be wrong...maybe someone is. I could go to market with this..but I used them outdoors and it sounds mighty good considering...

jgubman · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 May 2004, 10:48 pm »

I saw this system demo'd at CES this year:
http://store.hometheater2u.com/wireless.html

it was in a really noisy, crowded room and the speakers weren't pumping, but from what I heard, it wasn't 1/2 bad.

It's basically a transmitter that you attach to an output on your preamp that sends a signal to an digital amplifier outfitted with a receiver. The digital amp they had was small enough that you could hide it inside a speaker cabinet and wire it directly to your crossover network for seemingly "wireless" speakers. Of course then you'd be stuck with a power cord coming out of your speaker...

I *think* Mark Shifter is working on a similar (maybe the same) product.

Anyways, the guy giving the demo spoke broken english, but I *think* he said he could equip any amplifier w/ the receiving gear.

Hantra · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 May 2004, 10:57 pm »

Quote from: infiniti driver

Hantra, I took the guts out of a set of 900mhz RCA's bought on ebay on the cheap (receiver section) and added my own little power amplifiers (60W/ch) and adopted them to a set of Boston Acoustics CR-8's. It is very impressive for what it is. In testing, the transmitter/receiver tracked the signal well and with CD, it sounded better than the FM radio. The transmiter/receiver has a frq response of 40 to 18K and with this experiment, It served fine. Yes, the technology is here but no one seems to be utilizing ...

Dude, that's awesome! I just need something for rears. . .

Gubman brings up a good point though. . . How do you power your Bostons' amps?

B

Russtafarian · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 May 2004, 11:03 pm »

The technology to transmit and receive audio is there, but you still can't escape the wire!

Speaker cable or AC power cable: you choose.

jgubman · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 May 2004, 11:09 pm »

you could probably throw a hamster and a wheel inside the cabinet to power the thing...

prolly only work for horns though.

Hantra · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 May 2004, 11:12 pm »

Quote from: jgubman

you could probably throw a hamster and a wheel inside the cabinet to power the thing...

prolly only work for horns though.

Yeah. . Too bad Tesla isn't alive, and making amps. We could have it both ways. You'd just have to duck when walking under the imaginary line of VOLTAGE.

infiniti driver · « **Reply #7 on:** 19 May 2004, 12:17 am »

Remember the old Hafler DH200? I took the Power amp sections from them, put smaller heat sincs and smaller P/S and built a little cabinet for them that is part of the speaker stand. I did this about a year ago and they play fine. The DH200 was rated at 100/side but these are limited to a max of 60/side due to the regulation in the PS.

I haul them outside for BBQ's and outdoor activities. Good to about 70 feet before the noise floor gets "swishy"

BTW, in a free field environment, the little Bostons do great...as they always sounded really nice in the bedroom.

Smeggy · « **Reply #8 on:** 19 May 2004, 12:21 am »

We'll never get anywhere until they invent wireless electricity, then we can have some fun.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #9 on:** 19 May 2004, 12:24 am »

Of course, then our room air will need conditioning/treatment.

Smeggy · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 May 2004, 12:29 am »

I'm sure there's some huge bucket of snake oil just waiting in the wings....

infiniti driver · « **Reply #11 on:** 19 May 2004, 02:24 am »

Quote

I'm sure there's some huge bucket of snake oil just waiting in the wings....

You know it Braddah....