The Utter Convenience of a Wireless Surround Sound System
Manufacturing companies that design high-tech products occasionally get so involved in the exciting things that their gadgets accomplish that they can often forget about how daily people care about regular mundane things like convenience, beauty and color. Manufacturers of the old-style projection TV sets sometimes had a hard time getting their products into living rooms, for example. The woman of the house oftentimes found a five-foot shiny black box an eyesore in a nice pink living room with a floral thing going on. And then there is the matter of the wiring that any modern home theater needs. With time, manufacturers keep upping the ante. At one time, it was just 2.1 stereo. Now that 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound is everywhere, running wires across the entire room for the rear speakers, and the ones on the side can be a real inconvenience.
What precisely are you supposed to do with those wires running across the floor? Some people get so tired of with tripping on those wires and sending their speakers flying that as thrilled as they are with the sound effects when they watch the latest blockbuster, they just feel they cannot be bothered. They pack the whole thing up and go back to 2.1. Would you believe that three out of four people who buy surround sound home theater systems just never hook up the rear speakers? It’s just too much trouble. Speaker manufacturers have been trying to push the wireless surround sound system for quite a while now; but not only were their offerings always high-priced, they were totally susceptible to all kinds of interference, dependent on old-style radio technology as they were. But not anymore.
Consider Railtones: a wireless surround sound system for your home theater.
To start using your Rail tones speaker system, you install a track lighting rail on your wall or your ceiling. The speaker attaches to it and draws power from the track. You attach a transmitter to your home theater, and you beam audio signals to your wireless speakers. The speakers sound quite solid, and the way they are meant to be mounted to a lighting rack makes them completely vanish from view. The problem though is that they only have a solution for the rear speakers (and it costs $500).
Aperion’s Zona is a great no-nonsense wireless surround sound system. Here too, you only get wireless speakers to hold up the rear. This Is not an all-wireless home theater system. The front speakers, you still need to connect through conventional wires. The speakers themselves look boxy and pretty solid – like any hi-fi speakers you have always seen. A set consisting of a transmitter and a few speakers go for $500. These are purely wireless speakers and don’t even accept a regular wired connection. You place them wherever you want in the back of the room, plug them in, and you are good to go. The problem is though that nearly no true wireless surround sound system exists that handles every speaker in your room. There is just one product on the market now that does that at this time – it is the $2500 Intimus 4T Summit. And it’s a system that pretty much packs a punch.
When setting up a wireless surround sound system you probably want to place the front speakers pointing towards you. The front speakers will not be wireless and will plug into your receiver. If not just try rearranging your speakers until you have the home theater surround sound system that you desire..One note on wireless rear speakers there are a few problems with setting up a wireless surround sound system.