Wireless speakers?

[FastCarFan]

Questions for audiophiles....

I have some Bose "cube-type" (I forget what they are called...maybe cube) speakers for the stereo in our family room. I am interested in installing speakers in 1-2 other rooms in the house & I have heard about wireless speakers.

I would think that you lose some sound quality with wireless. Is that correct? And does it matter how far away or whether or not there are walls between the stereo & the speakers?

If they work reasonably well wireless speakers would be a relatively easy & inexpensive way for me to have sound throughout the house.

Thanks in advance for your answers & comments.

[FastCarFan]

"Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?"

[RWebb]

imagine there is some loss of sound quality. Bose is not exactly a high end name to begin with tho.

if the things start to lose data with distance and fill in with error correction then there may be a zone of lower quality sound; otherwise, it either makes sound or not

I'd bet the audiophile market has some thing wireless by now, but if it were me, I'd do it before the speakers in the audio chain.

if not, that will happen sooner or later but may need to rely on the new WiMax std.

[Pat S]

I'm using the bose SL2 wireless system to drive my rear surrounds about 30ft away. I have no interference on them and was surprised at how good they sound. They are not as good as wired but are more than adequate for my home theater needs. I'm not an audiofile though.

[Z-man]

I have a set of Sharper Image wireless speakers in my kitchen, about 30 feet away from my receiver / wireless transmitter. Sometimes we place them outside on our deck, which is about another 20 feet away. In either location, there is minimal loss of sound, minimal interference. And Sharper Image speakers aren't high end by any measure!

I think in my case, I am not going through too many solid objects like walls, so there is less frequency breakup, which can be worse with solid walls in the way.

Personally, I wouldn't use wireless speakers coupled with wired speakers - you may have some out of sync conditions, and while most modern stereos can correct for that, it can be a pain to configure, IMHO. But for putting a set of stereo speakers in another room, I think it makes sense.

-Z-man.

[imcarthur]

To get the signal from a receiver to a wireless speaker you require a digital transmitter at one end & a digital receiver with a built-in DAC & an amplifier at the other end to boost the signal so it will drive the speakers. We are not there yet from a technological standpoint - at least not from a sound quality standpoint. Close but no cigar.

There are some amazing wireless products hitting & about to hit the market. We have one we are marketing starting this month which is like a high-end Airport Express. You can stream from iTunes in your computer to a high-end dac (with real clock & real power supply to minimize jitter) that you plug in as a source in your stereo. Amazing sound quality.

And Bose is a great MARKETING company btw. imho of course.

Ian