Great Concept

My PC contains my entire CD collection on hard-disc, plus the music I've downloaded from eMusic.com, and this is the perfect device to play that in the living room. The ability to compose playlists, stack up a whole party's worth of music without having to flip discs, or to be able to listen to an internet broadcast in the rest of the house is great.

What is it?

A transmitter box plugs into your PC headphone or speaker jack, and transmits the audio signal on a 900MHz band, (similar to cordless phones).

The receiver box picks up the 900MHz transmission up to a few hundred feet away and offers a line-out hook up to your stereo system. If you don't have a line-in (e.g. tape, or aux), the receiver also rebroadcasts the audio on the FM band at 91.3, at extremely low power (maximum a couple of feet of range).

Both boxes have external power bricks, or can be run by batteries.

Setup

Setup is simple; the transmitter plugs into the PC, the PC speakers plug into a tandem socket on the back of the transmitter, and the power adaptor goes in the wall (vampire number 27 in my office!). The receiver power adaptor plugs into the wall. The receiver line out comes on a 3.5mm jack (small headphone style) and the device comes with a cable with phono-plugs for connection to a stereo system, or another 3.5mm jack for computer speakers or similar.

Choose one of the 4 channels on the transmitter. The receiver seems to tune any of them in automatically, or you can hit the "scan" button on the receiver which takes a second or two to scan and refind the signal. Presumably if your neighbor has one of these too, the scan button allows you to pick your transmitter instead of his.

If you are using the FM rebroadcast feature, a small slide-switch chooses between two FM frequencies, and you tune your radio to match. The FM rebroadcaster appears to be quite stable in frequency; I've played with similar devices where it is necessary to retune the radio as the transmitter frequency drifts as it warms up. Not the case with this device.

A key step is to turn up the volume at the PC. With the volume control on my laptop set for nominal sound out of the laptop speakers, the signal going out of the headphone jack is so small that it gets swamped with hiss and noise as it is rebroadcast by the Soundlink. Turn the headphone volume up to the maximum, then trim the sensitivity knob on the Soundlink broadcast unit so that the LED signal level indicator occasionally touches the top red level. Then turn on your stereo or receiver, with its volume set low, and turn it up to work.

Sound Quality

The basic sound quality is good for a sub-$100 device. Keep in mind this isn't going to be like a high-quality stereo component! There is a low level of static hiss, but its not too objectionable, and the distortion is minimal (not audible at background listening levels).

The negative is that the Soundlink appears to be vulnerable to interference. About half the time I try to use it at home, the signal is overlaid with a rythmic thumping that sounds exactly like the effect of a large radial scratch on a 33rpm vinyl disc. A sort of "be-DOPP" noise about every two seconds. It is loud enough that it's not feasible to listen.

I've tried to debug where the interference comes from. Its not my own cordless phone; I've tried unplugging the base, as well as waving the phone directly at the receiver antenna while on. I've also tried waving my cellphone near the receiver. I don't run wireless networking in my house, and I don't think either of my immediate neighbors does either.

On the other hand, it might not be interference. I usually notice the thumping noise in the morning if I've left the Soundlink powered on all night. But more often than not, if I power on the Soundlink in the evening, it is clean, although about one night in four it is immediately unusable. It could be a glitch in the electronics which is more prevalent when the device warms up. Once the thumping starts, simply powering down for a few minutes and trying again does *not* kill it. The thumping noise affects all four 900MHz channels, and both the FM rebroadcast channels about equally. Another reviewer describes a thumping noise in similar terms, so if it is interference, it seems like it could be a common household device that causes it.

I'm going to lend my unit to a friend who lives out in the desert - we'll see if he gets the same interference issues. On the other hand, he's a radio ham - so he has plenty of other RFI sources to hit it with...

Range

I've been unable to get my reciever out of range of the transmitter at home. The advertised range of a few hundred feet is easily good enough for home and garden use.

The FM rebroadcaster useful range is at most a couple of feet. The package implies a ten foot range, but in my setup at least, my stereo receiver loses the signal at less than 4 feet away. Don't plan on having the receiver inside your house and expecting to pick up the FM signal in the garden, for instance.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 50