After listener emails and the news, we go over a few tips on buying speakers.  Then we close it out with a review of the Rocketfish Wireless Rear Speaker System.

 

 

Rocketfish Wireless Rear Speaker Kit

We've been less than satisfied in the past with the performance we've seen from so called "wireless" rear speaker systems.  That was, until we got a demo from JBL at CES last January.  Then, all of a sudden, we thought this whole idea might just work.  We still haven't been able to get a demo of that JBL product, but we may have stumbled on something just as good - or even better, the Rocketfish Wireless Rear Speaker Kit.  You can pick this system up from Best Buy for only $85 - not a bad price at all.

Out of the box you get a transmitter, a receiver and some speaker wire.  As we know, when you're talking about speakers, wireless doesn't really mean wireless, it really means less wires.  You connect the two rear channel speaker outputs into the input of the Rocketfish transmitter.  Then connect your speakers into the outputs from the Rocketfish receiver.  Plug both of those into the wall, power them up, push one button on each so they can discover each other, and you're fully wired for surround sound.  The setup is a snap and took almost no time at all.

The wireless receiver has a volume knob on it that lets you set a reference level so your rear speakers match the fronts.  Once you get the reference level set, you don't need to adjust it again, the volume control on your main home theater system will do it all.  It's just like having virtual wires to the back of the room, except you didn't tear open the walls or rip up the carpet to get them there.  The system uses the 2.4 GHz wireless range to transmit the audio signal.  In other systems we've used, there's been a ton of interference.  We didn't get any with the Rocketfish .  Braden doesn't have a 2.4 GHz wireless phone, so that's one area we'll have to retest and report on, but otherwise everything worked great.  We've used systems in the past that would start popping like a bag of Orville Redenbachers when you ran the microwave, answered a phone call or looked at it funny.  Nothing like that with the Rocketfish.

The audio is transmitted in CD quality - meaning they use a 16 bit, 48 kHz audio stream at a total bitrate of 1.465 Mbps.  For rear channel audio effect this is more than adequate.  It's not as good as just using wires directly from the amp, but in most surround sound mixes, you won't tell a difference.  We did compare the wireless setup with a direct setup for the front stereo speakers and there was a noticeable difference in quality.  Something like a CD versus an really good MP3, not enough to make you sick, but enough to know that something's not right.  Of course this wasn't fair, as the system isn't designed for this, but we tried it out anyways.  It would be a cool way to run audio to a different room, considering the published 100 foot range, so maybe it was a good test.  If you're using MP3 files, you probably won't notice any difference.

After playing with this little $85 setup for a while, we were quite happy with it.  No complaints, and the fact that it comes from Best Buy, so it's easy to return should there be a problem, makes it a slam dunk.  If you've been wanting surround sound, without stringing up the wires, check it out.  It works best if you have a wall in the back of the room with a couch or table or something there that can hide the wires in this nifty wireless system.