Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Home theater surround sound systems are a great way to enhance watching movies and television at home. The only drawback to such a system is the mess of wires connecting the rear speakers to the AV receiver. For the hardcore audiophile, this means fishing wires through existing walls. Not everyone can be so adventurous though.

Rocketfish, Best Buy’s internal brand, offers a unique solution to eliminate wires in your living room or den: the Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit (which sells for $99 at Best Buy). From Rocketfish’s website:

With the new Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit and your “home theater in a box” or component home theater system, you can enjoy full, enveloping surround sound with fewer wires. This affordable system lets you wirelessly connect almost any rear-surround speakers to any home theater receiver, allowing you to place your speakers for optimal surround performance while maintaining a clean, organized appearance.

The kit comes with a small wireless transmitter unit that connects to the AV receiver rear speaker outputs, and a larger black box that houses the wireless receiver and amplifier. The receiver must be plugged into a wall outlet for power. The picture below provides an illustration of the advantage of the wireless speaker kit.

The wireless speaker kit is a great idea for apartments or situtations where you cannot run wires through the walls. Several months ago I went to a Superbowl party at a friend’s apartment who had a surround sound system not set-up because the wires would have to run across two door openings. His plasma TV was definitely lonely.
With the Wireless Speaker kit in hand I went over to his apartment last week. We set-up the system in about 10 minutes. The receiver and the transmitter are linked at the factory so there is almost no set-up required. Connect the speakers to the wireless units and turn on your surround sound receiver. That’s about it. Below is a picture of the wireless transmitter.

The wireless speaker kit does have some limitations, espcially since it is not entirely wireless. Both rear speakers connect to the wireless receiver, which also must be plugged into a power outlet. This means there are still three wires running in the back of a room.

The set-up I tested had the couch almost against the back wall, which offered a place to hide the receiver and the speaker wires. The kit may not work as well in larger rooms in which a couch is not against a wall. In some ways, the system would be better if the rear speaker receiver was split in two, one for each speaker.

One thing to keep in mind is the latency delay between the rear speakers and the front speakers. Since the rear speakers are connected wirelessly, there may be a slight delay. Although we did not experience any noticeable delay, most surround sound receivers should be able to compensate with the right settings.

Overall, the Universal Wireless Speaker Kit is a very convenient and practical product that eliminates cable clutter with a very little downside. The Universal Wireless Speaker Kit is something both you and your significant other can enjoy. During our set-up we were joking that the kit could save a lot of marriages.

For a price of $99, the kit is relatively cheap. In the right situation, this product is almost a no-brainer, especially in apartments. My friend was very excited to have surround sound after almost a year of not having it.