Wireless Speakers

For speakers without messy speaker cables, consider wireless speakers as an option. There are two main types of wirless speaker, namely those using an RF transmitter / receiver, or the better quality type which create their own wireless network, similar to wireless broadband.

The RF type of wireless speakers have an RF transmitter near your hi-fi or home cinema system which takes it's audio input via a stereo audio interconnect cable. The wireless speakers need to be pluged into a mains wall outlet, and then positioned up to 20m away. The quality is good enough for many rear surround sound speaker applications in home cinema systems, but not ideal for hi-fi music systems.

Sonos and Simple Audio have launched very high quality wireless audio systems that utilise music streaming over wireless network or powerline technology, which gives much higher sound quality, with a much greater transmission range.

Wireless speakers sound great - who needs messy wires hanging around? However, the only true wireless speakers would need batteries as a power source, so for high quality use, wireless speakers in the home still need a mains cable connection - which is often easier to hide than a speaker cable. Ideal applications are as rear surround speakers of a 5.1 home cinema system.