A Complete Guide To Wireless Surround Speakers
Wireless Surround Speakers - A Complete Guide in 2011
I have been looking for wireless surround speakers for a long time as I myself is ready to dish out my money on one of the best systems in my living room so that I could get rid of the two long audio cables running to the sitting area from LED television. Which wireless home theater speakers system in the market will I go for? Please allow me to explain in as much detail as I could within this article. Feel free to navigate to any section if do not want to read the entire article on Wireless Surround Speakers. You could also go to the posts area to read various reviews on different wireless surround speakers if you already have some products information in mind.
To find out which wireless surround speakers is worthy of my full investigation, I have done an extensive research on the internet and read some books and magazines related to wireless surround speakers. I found out there are a lot of websites discussing or selling wireless surround speakers, but I have yet to find a single website devoted solely to wireless surround speakers. This article is aiming for easy reading with least technical jargons for wireless surround sound speakers.
Why going for Wireless Surround Speakers?
Some 5.1 or 7.1 surround speakers do not provide long enough cables for rear surround speakers to go around the seats. Even they are long enough, many may have problems in hiding those long cables. Cables connected to front surround speakers are not typically problematic from a Home Theater. If you can not place the front-to-back cables properly, they are potentially hazardous to toddlers, teens or even grown-ups.
For places like pubs, auditoriums, churches or chapels, the provided cables definitely are not long enough to go around to deploy 5.1 or 7.1 surround speakers.
Some people may like to stream music to gardens where they have parties, or to other rooms or rooms in different levels, wired surround speakers are not an answer.
I know an couple in UK who like to listen to BBC Radio 4 all the time. Both of them carries a small battery-powered radio, when they go upstairs, down stairs or to their workshop in the garden. Well, if they have known how to set up wireless surround speakers, they could have BBC Radio 4 around their house all day long without having to carry a radio around.
Why not going for Wireless Surround Speakers now?
I think a lot of people simply do not know there is such a thing called Wireless Surround Speakers System already in the market.
Some people know about the wireless surround speakers technology, they think going wireless is another expensive investment.
Others think wireless surround speakers are not the same as the surround speakers with wires in terms of sound quality.
Misunderstanding about “Wireless” Surround Speakers
A lot of people think, they could simply place several satellite wireless surround speakers wherever they like and expect same sound quality. Well, this is an ideal situation I would like to see, but not now unfortunately. For satellite surround speakers to go complete wireless, the speakers will need to be equipped with signal receivers and powered by batteries. Because of constant power demanded by receiving wireless signals and amplifying them, no batteries could do the job without constantly being changed or recharged which is really annoying.
Complete satisfying wireless surround speakers are not in the market yet. All satellite wireless surround speakers have to be connected to a power source. “Wireless Surround Speakers” is a misleading term and it only means surround speakers with less wires at current stage. Wireless Surround Speakers are not the same as wireless laptop computers which could carry around when powered by batteries.
However, there are individual portable battery-powered wireless speakers you can buy, but they are not part of a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. I will talk about this a bit later.
Wireless Technology for Wireless Surround Speakers
In order to do away with the traditional cables used to transmit audio signal to different surround speakers, the wireless audio signals need to be available instead to do the job. The wireless audio signals are transmitted in the form of radio frequency waves. The radio frequencies employed are used to be 900MHz, now most commonly 2.4GHz. These radio frequencies are powerful enough to penetrate through walls and deliver good quality audio signal up to 100 – 150 feet. This is the technology that majority of wireless surround speakers manufacturers have adopted.
People are familiar with Bluetooth technology which is widely used for mobile phone, wireless mouse, etc. I think I need to mention Bluetooth Wireless Speakers in the market, such as Creative D200 & D100. These speakers are equipped with 2.4GHz frequency-hopping Bluetooth technology which use relatively little power and be reasonably resistant to interference. They are normally powered by batteries and are very mobile. The disadvantages of these Bluetooth wireless speakers are limited wireless range and bandwidth. Bluetooth technology are currently not used to build into wireless 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound systems.
Popular Wireless Surround Speakers in the market
Theoretically there should be three approaches to Wireless Surround Speakers.
- A Complete Wireless Surround Speakers System with Wireless transmitter to cover all 5.1 or 7.1 satellite speakers;
- A Semi Wireless Surround Speakers System with wireless transmitter to rear surround speakers, or to a subwoofer;
- A Module with wireless transmitter and receiver for rear wireless surround speakers. No speakers included.
There is no such a thing called Complete Wireless Surround Speakers System in the market at the moment as wireless surround speakers powered by batteries are not the answer. Also a lot of people only need to have rear wireless surround speakers installed in their living room. For people need to place wireless surround speakers in bigger rooms such as auditoriums or restaurants, then two Modules with transmitter/receivers to cover front and rear wireless surround speakers should do the job. 
There used to be several Semi Wireless Surrounds Speakers System in the market, such as Creative Labs GigaWorks 550W, Logitech Z-5450 and Panasonic SC-PT770 which are fading out of the market. Rude Gameware has produced Primal 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System which include two wireless surround speakers. This system was introduced to the market in 2010. This is a system with good balance of sound quality and price.
JVC Home Surround THBA3 comes with a bar speaker, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless rear surround speakers. JVC Home Surround THBA3 is fantastic on all three settings (Dolby Digital, PCM, and Dolby ProLogic II), though some customers reported sound interference and volume problem.
VIZIO VHT510 5.1 Surround Sound Home Theater has only wireless subwoofer, no rear wireless surround speakers. Vizio VHT510 is designed with Dolby Digital, DTS, SRS CircleCinema HDTM and SRS TruVolumeTM audio processing for immersive surround sound quality, but with some complaint of soundbar display failure.
There are several Modules available with wireless transmitter and receivers, such as JBL WEM-1, Rocketfish Wireless Rear Speaker Kit RF-WHTIB, KEF Universal Wireless System, Sony Wireless Rear Speakers System WAHT-SA20 and Bose SL2 for Bose Wireless Surround Speakers. Any of these modules can be used to set up wireless rear speakers. Click through to read more reviews of these Modules.
KEF Universal Wireless System has a impressive AAFHSS (advanced frequency hopping spread spectrum) processor which constantly monitors several channels at a time and continually switches to the strongest available. But this system is far too expensive in setting up rear wireless surround speakers.
Polk Audio F/X takes a slight different approach by coming up with a single rear wireless surround speaker. Polk Audio F/X is equipped with Controlled Dispersion Array (CDA) technology which permits the F/X to project sound toward reflective surfaces and produce an immersive, spacious surround field. It is a handy system which will bring rear wireless surround sound to your room with easy setup.
If you are looking for wireless surround sound stereo speakers and wireless surround sound computers speakers, Audio Unlimited Wireless Stereo Speakers System is good choice.
Sound Quality & Interference for Wireless Surround Speakers
The feedback from customers are generally good in terms of sound quality for wireless surround speakers they have purchased or installed. Many reported no difference between wired and wireless systems, or humanly undistinguishable.
There are a wide variety of devices operating in the frequency of 2.4GHz, devices such as cordless phones, Wi-Fi home internet, and even your microwave oven.
In order to reduce the interference coming from channels conflict, you could assign different channels to different devices. For example, wireless surround speakers at channel 1, Wi-Fi internet at channel 11. To reduce the interference upon wireless surround speakers most effectively, it is best to set the channels different as much as possible.
Conclusion & Recommendation for Wireless Surround Speakers
Wireless Surround Speakers Systems have been around for a number of years. The advancement of wireless technology has made Wireless Surround Speakers or wireless surround systems better and cheaper. I don’t think complete Wireless Surround Speakers will be around in the near future simply because of limited battery power.
If you have the need to go for wireless solutions and you don’t want to let go your existing surround sound system, then go for one of the Modules which will help you to set up rear wireless surround speakers.
If you have not owned any surround sound system and don’t want to buy anything extra, I would suggest go for a Semi Wireless 5.1 Surround Speakers System with rear wireless surround speakers included.
If you are looking for an upgrade and with wireless feature, then it is better to buy a top quality wired 5.1 or 7.1 surround Home Theater and an extra Module for rear surround speakers to set up your wireless home theater. You have more options in choosing wired Home Theater than Home Theater with wireless rear speakers.








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