Please recommend some sensibly priced surround sound WIRELESS speakers/system to use with?
an LCD TV here in UK. A link would be appreciated.
My recommendation? Don’t go wireless. Something no one tells you about wireless systems is how they affect sound quality. Unless you go real expensive and get the wireless digital transmitting system.
You see, all wireless speaker setups broadcast the signal to the rear speakers on the 2.4 gigahertz bandwidth. I am not sure if for some freaky reason they’d do it differently in the UK, but there is a host of other devices that use the 2.4 gigahertz frequency. Mainly:
Cell Phones
Cordless Phones
Wi-Fi systems
Microwaves
TV broadcasts (in places where its still found analog)
Radio broadcasts (again, in analog areas)
and last but not least, Bluetooth Devices
This means that just about any wireless electronics you have either on your person or in your house will interfere with the broadcast of the sound channels from the receiver to the speakers.
I would never recommend you get wireless front speakers: most wireless systems require you to run speaker wire to a transmitter hub, which then interfaces with another hub inbetween the two speakers you want hooked up, which are wired to that unit. So in other words, the speakers are still wired, just in the case of rear speakers there won’t be wire running across the room. Front speakers will still have to be wired to an area behind the TV, where the wireless unit sits and communicates with another wireless unit right in front of it.
In other words, the best Audio quality is still had with wired speakers. I’ve even been to a party once where a guy on his cell phone (remember, it also uses the 2.4 gigahertz frequency) had his conversation go through the back speakers. And it was not a conversation for the public.
Even if in the UK there would be a system that used a different frequency, the chances that another type of device uses the same frequency is high. Unless you couldn’t give a crap less about the quality of your sound, skip wireless for now. The only systems I’ve heard of that keep your audio quality are a digital driven, data broadcast. But these require speakers with built in decoders, basically a small computer. It gets really expensive.
If you are having trouble getting surround sound, and cannot get speaker wire either through the wall or under the carpet or hidden in any fashion, try this:
http://tinyurl.com/9y49b
Thats a link to Bose’s 3-2-1 system, if it does not work just go to Bose.com and click "Home Theater system," then "3-2-1." Its not true surround sound, but it does get a sort-of surround experience without the need to run wires everywhere or degrade your audio quality. So its pretty much the king of stereo (and I do not say that lightly).
One thing I would not do is use that built in DVD player: it only plays DVDs in standard definition. Likelyhood is your LCD is a High Definition display of some sort. If that is the case, get an upconvert DVD player or Blu-Ray or HDDVD player to go with this.
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My recommendation? Don’t go wireless. Something no one tells you about wireless systems is how they affect sound quality. Unless you go real expensive and get the wireless digital transmitting system.
You see, all wireless speaker setups broadcast the signal to the rear speakers on the 2.4 gigahertz bandwidth. I am not sure if for some freaky reason they’d do it differently in the UK, but there is a host of other devices that use the 2.4 gigahertz frequency. Mainly:
Cell Phones
Cordless Phones
Wi-Fi systems
Microwaves
TV broadcasts (in places where its still found analog)
Radio broadcasts (again, in analog areas)
and last but not least, Bluetooth Devices
This means that just about any wireless electronics you have either on your person or in your house will interfere with the broadcast of the sound channels from the receiver to the speakers.
I would never recommend you get wireless front speakers: most wireless systems require you to run speaker wire to a transmitter hub, which then interfaces with another hub inbetween the two speakers you want hooked up, which are wired to that unit. So in other words, the speakers are still wired, just in the case of rear speakers there won’t be wire running across the room. Front speakers will still have to be wired to an area behind the TV, where the wireless unit sits and communicates with another wireless unit right in front of it.
In other words, the best Audio quality is still had with wired speakers. I’ve even been to a party once where a guy on his cell phone (remember, it also uses the 2.4 gigahertz frequency) had his conversation go through the back speakers. And it was not a conversation for the public.
Even if in the UK there would be a system that used a different frequency, the chances that another type of device uses the same frequency is high. Unless you couldn’t give a crap less about the quality of your sound, skip wireless for now. The only systems I’ve heard of that keep your audio quality are a digital driven, data broadcast. But these require speakers with built in decoders, basically a small computer. It gets really expensive.
If you are having trouble getting surround sound, and cannot get speaker wire either through the wall or under the carpet or hidden in any fashion, try this:
http://tinyurl.com/9y49b
Thats a link to Bose’s 3-2-1 system, if it does not work just go to Bose.com and click "Home Theater system," then "3-2-1." Its not true surround sound, but it does get a sort-of surround experience without the need to run wires everywhere or degrade your audio quality. So its pretty much the king of stereo (and I do not say that lightly).
One thing I would not do is use that built in DVD player: it only plays DVDs in standard definition. Likelyhood is your LCD is a High Definition display of some sort. If that is the case, get an upconvert DVD player or Blu-Ray or HDDVD player to go with this.
References :
I work at an American consumer electronics store, with specialization in home theater.
Short version – wireless speaker systems are utterly rubbish.
They are prone to interference from the weather, your fridge, passing taxis, mobile phones and even people just walking around the room.
Ask yourself one question, "What is more important when watching a movie – a lack of cables, or decent sound quality?" If the answer is "Decent sound quality", then you need cables to all your speakers.
(By the way, Bose is utter rubbish, too. But that’s another story…)
References :
go for the Y….. magic box
References :
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