CES: Wireless Sound Devices

There were quite a few new wireless speaker products that were introduced at this years CES show. In this post I will be highlighting some of the ones that have caught my attention that have a particular interest to me. There is a mixture of connectivity methods so you will need to look at your particular needs to see which device fits your particular budget, sound quality and connection type.

Altec Lansing Live 5000  and inAir 5000 WiFi music systems

One of the many new high end speaker systems that now support network connectivity over your WiFi network you can have iOS connectivity through AirPlay®. The inAir™ 5000 allows iOS devices to stream music wirelessly over a Wi-Fi network to any room, and with iTunes® multiple devices can be linked throughout the home or office, providing a seamless listening experience. Enjoy your music the way the artist intended with Altec Lansing's legendary sound quality. Your ears will hear the difference with this high-performance, all-in-one, networked speaker.

Altec Lansing has also created another device that uses its own separate networked ecosystem that will support a variety of devices. Connected to your network using WiFi connectivity, you can use any Android, iOS device or computer running the company's Live controller app to setup up a central playlist of your tunes. The music isn't sent to the cloud, but rather, streamed directly from each device's local catalog of music. This saves you from aggregating your files to one central storage hub. There is also support for services like Rhapsody, ensuring you'll be able to load up your music from wherever you normally would.

Engaget reports that:

We checked out an early build of the iPhone app (on an iPad), and the interface was simple and intuitive, but we're told to expect more polish in the final edition -- along with that missing tablet-sized version. Notably, the app allows playback to multiple speakers, giving you the option to set up various linkable "stages" to stream independent playlists to. We gave the unit a quick listen on the noisy show floor, and while it got plenty loud, the bass was on the anemic side, despite its 4-inch woofer. Highs and mids were alright, although, at times things felt a bit tinny to our ears. Of course, the hustle and bustle of CES isn't exactly the best spot for hearing how speakers like this sound, so we'll have to reserve final judgement until the unit ships this summer (not to mention that the testing material was streaming from Rhapsody). For now, hit up the gallery below for a closer look, and you'll find a press release past the break with more details.

These devices should be available in the early part of this year. Rumor puts the price at or around $500.

In the summer my wife and I enjoy each other’s company outdoors on sunny days floating around in the swimming pool. Behringer has introduced a spherical wireless waterproof speaker that floats in your pool. It is called the Splash 100 and will be priced around $99. Scheduled for release later this year it will be interesting to hear more about this product once it is released. This $99 speaker has a 230-foot range from the sound source and 3.5-hour rechargeable battery. They were not showing a working model at CES so I don’t have any reports on sound quality at this time.

Bank & Olufsen is known for their wonderful home theater systems and related gadgets introduced its new B&O Play brand. Hoping to entice the younger crowd with money to burn ($800 to be exact) they showed off their Beolit 12 AirPlay-enabled speaker. It is configured in a portable Picnic Basket form with handle and tray to hold your iPhone.

The 7-pound wireless sound system features a swappable leather carrying strap (color options are planned for the future), and its soft-touch top section is molded to serve as a tray for you device when you'd like to set it down -- this is also where you'll find buttons for power, network setup and volume up and down. Behind the 120-watt mini-rig's aluminum grill, you'll find one 4-inch center woofer, along with a duo of tweeters for stereo separation, not to mention a rechargeable battery rated for 8 hours using its inline connection and half of that when streaming to it using AirPlay. On the bottom front there's an IR receiver compatible B&O's Beo remotes, while on back is hinged door that opens to reveal a storage storage compartment for its power cable, as well as an Ethernet port for wiring directly into your home network -- perfect for firmware upgrades. See Engaget video overview below:

On a slightly different note, NuForce was showing a product that allows you take advantage of your in-place audio system by providing a device you connect into one of you input ports of your receiver and provide connectivity of iOS devices over the air. Details were not made available but it looks like you can have multiple receivers being controlled by single or multiple transmitters. It is designed to allow you to control your audio output in a self-designed environment. Expected to be very reasonably priced we should see more information on this later this year. Again, a brief interview with NuForce’s Ceo is shown below.

When looking at a lot of these devices, I can’t help but remember that SONOS has been out there with Mesh based wireless speaker systems that have been working with iOS devices for several years now. Priced in the same range that we have seen above, these products are available now and allow you to plunk down a speaker in any room and begin enjoying your music instantly. Place a bridge unit on your network to connect your music locally stored on any of your systems as well as internet radio and streaming services. This device then allows you to connect SONOS speakers and place them where you need them to provide a great audio experience.