Wireless surround speakers (conventional home-theater application.)
 

Consumer electronics crew:

I wish to place my two (unpowered) rear surround speakers in locations which are not easily accessible by direct-wire path to the receiver. Each location has access to AC power. There is also not a convenient wire path between the two speaker locations.

The ideal solution would consist of a wireless transmitter which is located up front and accepts speaker-level inputs from the receiver, and two discrete receivers, one per speaker, consisting of a wireless receiver and a power amplifier cable of driving a rear-channel speaker. 20w RMS is probably more than enough.

Thus far, the ONLY solution which I have found is this: Make your rear speakers wireless with Amphony's Speaker Kit, Model 1800

Reviews on Amazon consist mostly of "It's cheaply-made Chinese garbage, but it works and is pretty much the only thing available."

Any thoughts?

The only thing I've seen in this regard that is "nice and works well" is to buy a dedicated setup.

I'm having the same issue with the house I bought and how I'm going to properly get the two surrounds wired up without it looking like garbage.

http://www.klipsch.com/products/the-sixes for example.

I've looked at systems like that. Two reasons they won't work in my application:

1: They presuppose a Bluetooth source. My audio source is the analog, speaker-level output of a typical home-theater receiver. I can convert it to line-level easily, but not to Bluetooth.

2: They contain the amplifiers for both speakers in a single cabinet, requiring that a wire be run between the two speakers. That's fine for the Alesis powered monitors I have in my office, more of a problem when there's a huge kitchen in between the left and right sides of the rear of my living room.


The thing which irritates me is that I have all sorts of gear at work that would solve this problem easily, but I don't want to spend $3,000 getting it done. And I know little about consumer electronics.

Wireless speakers are severely bitrate limited. I run wires no matter what.

Where'd you hear this?

2 channel digital audio at 16 bit, 44.1 Khz (the "broadcast quality" / CD-Audio format) takes a little under 150 kb/s uncompressed. This has been achievable over short-range wireless since the 1980s.

Add to which, these are rear-channel speakers. No dialogue, just the occasional "Boom / Zap." This is why I'm entertaining the notion of cheaply made Chinese products.

Since you have power available I was thinking of something like this but for conventional audio signals instead. But I haven't found it yet.


Edit: Here's a faster one.

NETGEAR PowerLINE 1000 Mbps, 1 Gigabit Port with Pass-Through, Extra Outlet (PLP1000-100PAS)




https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1350_.jpg

• Next Generation Powerline - Very fast speeds—up to 1000 Mbps
• Reliable Network - Connect multiple adapters to expand your wired network reliably
• Latest Technology - Gigabit speeds through your electrical outlets for improved coverage
• Plug-and-play - Set up in minutes, no need to configure or install software
• Noise-filtered Power Outlet - Provides an extra outlet and improves the overall Powerline network performance

Like this? Using Powerline Carrier Technology to Get Multiroom Audio

Yup, lots of stuff on the market for installed audio (switches in wall plates, multi-room control), and lots of stuff which assumes that a computer-like device is the source of audio.

Literally only one solution I've found thus far assumes that an analog signal is the source, and an un-powered speaker is the destination.

I already have ethernet everywhere I want it, I literally just need to put an air-gap inline with two speaker cables.

Other than a separate FM modulator and then a receiver amplifier at each speaker, got nothing for you

Seriously, Joe should be buying some NRF24L01+ modules and a couple of raspberry pis and coding some way to push it over the air in realtime.

no?

Haha. Seriously, I'm looking for a product, not a project here. If I wanted to build something, I'd just stay analog in UHF block 20 or 21.

(Nice idea you sent me in Gchat tho, y8s.)

Only if it involves replacing the central heating with a gokart radiator at the same time

:bowrofl:

Nah, in this condo I pay for gas and electricity. Only (cold) water is free.

Guess I could use cold water to spin a turbine... :giggle:

im guessing its not much different than the amphony, but:


also:
Top 5 Best wireless speaker transmitter receiver kit for sale 2017 : Product : BOOMSbeat

and you can also buy line-level to Bluetooth dongles if that works for you.

I go through the homework on this once a year or so... some friend of mine knows I'm into such things and asks this exact question. My only answer, based on a couple decades of trying to find one, is "don't bother, instead, invest money in a better front soundstage."

A properly placed L/C/R, plus a tuned sub, AND some bass shakers in the couch, can make up a lot to compensate for a lack of rears.

It's a lot different- it uses a single amplifier for both rear speakers, meaning a cable has to run between them. I've looked at a number of systems (some from reputable manufacturers) which share that limitation.


That was one of the many pages which came up in my searching. None of the devices on it give me line / speaker-level in, and two seperate speaker-level outs.


Seen those, too. But, again, I haven't seen a good receive/amp solution which would justify the added complexity and cost of bluetooth.




Already done that.

But, in all seriousness, there are some films that are mastered in such a way that the absence of the rear channels is really annoying.