Wireless amp for surround speakers... (1 Viewer)

[WillY]

I recently moved in with my girlfriend, and brought my modest home theater set up with me. My girlfriend absolutely refused to let me run speaker wire from my amp to the surrounds, and this obviously led to a somewhat heated argument. Of course, in the end, she won (I was moving into her place, after all). Anyway, I couldn't resign myself to live without surround sound, so I searched the internet, leading me to...

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...t%5Fid=15-1974

I have it in the trunk of my car, waiting to be set up. I am a little curious as to how it is going to work. Quality of signal aside, if I turn up the volume on my receiver, will the surround level be turned up as well? I don't think so, but who knows. The power is modest, but I have Gallo's, so it should be alright for my purposes.

Thought this might be useful for anyone facing similar decor issues with their significant others. I can't wait to buy a place and run speaker wire in the walls. I will post a follow up if anyone is curious on how well it works with my system, Denon 3801 with 6 (will only use five now, I guess) Anthony Gallo Nucleus Micros (great speakers, and they look cool).

 

[WillY]

Just read the manual, which states that it tracks the volume setting of the source, and that the link's connected speakers adjust accordingly.

 

[CalvinCarr]

Did you look at the distortion?

 

[Elbert Lee]

WillY - Please let us all know how this performs! I'm very much interested in this!
Thanks!
Elbert

 

[WillY]

I haven't been able to get a signal to the surrounds yet, d'oh. I will give you guys an update when I can devote some time to it. 10% THD, not so good though...

Edit: K, I was trying to use the pre outs on my Denon 3801, but I was getting no signal (anyone know why?). I switched to line level, and everything works. It sounds okay. Definitely better than no speakers at all. I am going to balance the levels and such tomorrow, I guess, but I am happy that the wireless amp works as advertised.

 

[Nathan W.]

Pre-outs are line level.

 

[CalvinCarr]

You have me curious now. I was going to get a wireless speaker set for the patio when were out there but if this thing works it would be better. I haven't seen any speakers rated at that much power. I wonder how it does through walls? Also does that say 10% or .10% ?

 

[WillY]

Sorry, I don't know the right terminology. Basically, when I was using the RCA cables to hook up to the pre out on my receiver, I was getting no signal. Using the speaker output/input, it worked fine. Although, now that I think about it, I had two problems, and the other could have caused the first (the LED is red when it is on, and green when it is off, which is highly counterintuitive, so I thought I had it on the whole time it was off and not working). Hmm, maybe I will try it with the pre outs again.

The range is about 30 feet supposedly. I am hoping this works as well as my router through floors and walls and such. The distortion is 10%, unfortunately.

I bought this with the intent of returning it if it didn't work too well, so you could always try it out I guess. I am running a passive 8" woofer and 2 satellites off of the wireless amp and so far everything is copacetic.

Edit: I tried with the pre outs again, with no luck. Also, now that everything is wired, I have this high buzz that is noticeable. Anyone know if this buzz will damage my speakers if I continue to use the wireless amp?

Overall, it works, but not that well. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are really hard up.

 

[CalvinCarr]

I bought an A/R wireless speaker from BB and needless to say it sucked. I had it 10 feet from the transmitter behind a sliding glass door and it faded in and out and hissed wne someone would walk between the 2.

I went to Radio Shack and they have an Advent that I had the guy hook up on the other side of the room behind a wall and it worked well. Actually well enough for a patio anyway. I'm buying it his weekend and I'll let you know how it works.

 

[MichaelTa]

I use a wireless made by RCA transmitter going from inside my house to my garage. In the garage I have it plugged into an old Pioneer RXV 504S that had been in the attic. I had been using it to transmit movies and such from downstairs to upstairs in the bedroom but with having to spend way too much time in the garage rebuilding a motor for my Audi 200 Quattro I needed to get music out in the garage. I can throw 5 discs into my sony SACD/CD player and listen for 5+ hours out there without coming into the house. It works as advertised as far as I am concerned and I will say that I notice no loss of quality when listening to music. It is set up on the Zone 2 on my Yamaha RXV1300 so the kids can watch a movie or tv and not interrupt my listening.

 

[CalvinCarr]

I returned the A/R and got an advent at Home Depot. The thing works great. I think the problem with the A/R was that you had 3 channels to choose from and the Advent has a tuner to tune in the frequency.