Wireless Speakers – Now With Sound Quality!

Filed under: Home Audio



A new tech company called Avnera claims to have cracked the issue plaguing wireless speaker systems – the horrible sound quality caused by signal dropouts and interference from other wireless devices. Their AvneraAudio processor is able to transmit uncompressed music in 48kHz/16-bit PCM form with "no audible or perceived interference." Dynamic frequency selection uses one of forty possible 2MHz-wide channels, automatically scanning to find the clearest one. It keeps other clear channels in reserve, and switches if any interference is detected.

A MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) antenna system is used for the best possible signal transmission quality. The last trick the AvneraAudio processor has up its sleeve is forward error correction and interpolation, which prevents distortion from other 2.4GHz devices by sending redundant data and interpolating lost data, similar to the error correction systems used in the CD standard. Maximum transmission rate is about 45 feet, which can be extended with a signal boosting chip. The AvneraAudio processor is currently available in a Rocketfish (Best Buy) wireless kit for home theater surround speakers ($99), a pair of Acoustic Research wireless headphones ($199), and a Polycom wireless USB Internet phone ($179), and will be appearing in several PC and MP3 accessories, including an iPod dock.