Wireless Speakers Review: Wireless Speaker Systems Right For You?
I love music – in fact, I am listening to music as I type this post, so a good pair of speakers is quite necessary in my opinion. Speakers have come a long way, and there is now technology that allows sound to pass through a good set of speakers as if it actually made the noise around you. Not only is there a way to make sound actually sound as realistic as possible, but do so without any wires whatsoever. The technology is catching on as you can now buy wireless computer speakers, outdoor wireless speakers, wireless laptop speakers and the list keeps growing. So how does this technology work, and is the quality just as good as a set of wired speakers? I’ll answer those questions and more as well as tell you why I absolutely love wireless speakers.
First, you have to understand how speakers actually work before I get to wireless speakers. Though I am not a technical guy, I do know a thing or two about speakers from all those music classes in college so I’ll give you a rather rudimentary – yet brief -understanding of how speakers work. Obviously, speakers are opposite to a microphone, so a microphone is used to capture audio and a speaker is used to play the audio captured; This audio is called impulses. Our ears cannot hear impulses, so that is where speakers come in. They translate those impulses into vibrations (using awesome technology) that our ears can understand. Therefore, we have music which is pleasing to the ears — sometimes. 
That is basically how speakers work. Of course, there are much more details involved, however, I will spare you from boredom. Whether the speakers are wired or wireless, the technology behind playing music through them is generally the same. However, the technology behind making a speaker wireless or wired is, as you might expect, a little different. Wireless speakers must come with a transmitter that sends the audio signal to the wireless speakers. Most transmitters have a standard input connection in the transmitter that allow you to connect any audio device to it. You can connect a CD player, an MP3 player or any thing that has audio output. There are several frequencies at which wireless speakers operate: 900Mhz, 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz and even 1.9Ghz using DECT 6.0 technology. Generally the less congested frequency band has better reception and sound quality based on the environment you are operating the wireless audio speaker. Another type of technology around wireless speakers is bluetooth which is a unique and complex wireless speaker method, but a technology that has flourished and will continue to do so.
Once the sound source is plugged into the transmitter, you should be able to take your wireless speakers any where within the specified range and turn them on, and listen to your audio source. Some transmitters or speakers have a frequency nob that you can adjust to change the channel get the best audio quality and some wireless speakers change the channels automatically.
Do wireless speakers work well?
Yes. Audio quality from your wireless speaker is the most important factor. Advanced technology has limited horrible quality wireless speakers fortunately. Bose is one of my favorite audio companies who have produced hundreds of high quality products for years. Bose wireless speakers come with a small ‘USB key’ that’ll allow you to insert it into you computer to play music from you computer through the speakers anywhere in the home. They have had great reviews. CNET reviewed four nice wireless speaker systems that used a number of technologies and range from $199 to $600. Last year, I was given the opportunity to review a marvelous multi-room wireless speaker system by Sonos and was blown away with the results. There are wireless home theatre systems as well, such as the Sony Bravia systems, or the brilliant Harman Kardon systems that all have good reviews.
There are advantages and disadvantages to owning wireless speakers. To be clear, a wireless speaker system is not truly wireless. In the audio world, it simply means less wires. Still, this in itself can turn out to be a great advantage. I remember when I was younger, my father and I spent countless hours hooking up his new entertainment system. You should have seen the mess of wires we had to fight with and try to conceal so my sister and I would not inadvertently trip over them one day and send his pride and joy crashing down. Today, you have wireless speaker systems and though you have to deal with a few wires, they are pretty easy to maintain and that is what I love about wireless speakers. Mobility is another reason why I love wireless speaker systems. Want to listen to your music outside by the pool? Now you can. Despite the misunderstanding that all wireless speakers don’t have good range – they do, and that is why I love wireless speaker systems.
However, there are some disadvantages such as batteries. Most wireless speakers systems (if not all) come with rechargeable batteries. Therefore, it is important to always make sure you have fully charged or new batteries. The battery on wireless speakers is very important, and it has a direct impact on the quality of the sound. To me, i feel this is the biggest disadvantage to wireless speaker systems, but something that can improve in the future. These days, all of us are all about getting rid of the clutter so as technology advances and wireless systems become even more prevalent, I think we will see an even more wireless world with better battery technology to back up the demand.
