Generally I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to new gadgets.
They usually come trussed up in pretty boxes, covered in promises that they’ll revolutionize my life and I’ll forget what ever came before them.
So far only my TiVo has ever lived up to that promise. And if you know TiVo, you’ll know that it’s a pretty tough act to follow.
So imagine my surprise when I received the Rocketfish Wireless Rear Speaker Kit to review – and found that, in line with the promises on the box, it just works.
The promise is that you’ll hook up the transmitter to your sound system using simple speaker cables, then place the receiver within 100′ and hook your rear speaker cables into it. The “CD Quality” sound is transmitted over a 2.4GHz wireless signal, and voila – you can hear a mustang MiG-28 scream across your room as Iceman and Maverick duke it out in the skies. It literally took me 10 minutes to set the whole thing up. And I really mean me! Even I – who normally foists these kind of things off on Neil because I just can’t be bothered – found it really, ridiculously easy to figure out.
There are only a couple potential issues with this solution:
1. If you have truly open concept living, it may not work super well for you. Both components require DC power to operate, so while the units don’t require direct line-of-sight to work, you do want a power outlet pretty darned near where you’re plugging things in to avoid unsightly wires – the problem you’re trying to solve in the first place. If your couch is smack dab in the middle of a loft, you’re going to have to run cables anyway.
2. The sound is good, to me, on my system. I have basically destroyed my upper register hearing, and my surround sound system is one of those $100 combo units (dvd-player, receiver, 5 identical speakers in a box) – so there’s not a lot of fine tuning going on in my audio visual experience. If you’re a die-hard audio-snob, I can’t vouch for the unit’s performance on your $1500 speakers.
At about $100 USD, the kit is completely reasonably priced for those who purchase high quality AV products. Personally – while I don’t know that I’d spend that kind of money on my own system (because generally I don’t care enough), it got me using the rear speakers that had been sitting in a box for over a year, because I couldn’t be bothered running ugly cables around my room.
And that’s pretty awesome as far as I’m concerned.
Mustang? So much for being MY wingman anytime. :p
Also be aware that 2.4Ghz is a pretty crowded frequency… your wireless router, some cordless phones and microwaves all operate in the 2.4ghz band and can cause interference with each other. Not so much FOR the microwave, but BY the microwave definitely.