We're living in an age where wireless networks and hotspots are increasingly common and broadband doesn't even stop at our grandparents' door (they just love the MSN Jewel Quest, don't they?)

This allows us to use this pipeline of information to pump loads of music into our homes, and into our lives. Why would you settle for buying a CD anymore? You can sign up for Yahoo Unlimited, Rhapsody, Napster, etc, for $10ish dollars a month and consume music like it was popcorn! Which is great for those of you who live at your computer desk.

But what about the rest of your living area? How will you provide music to your living room? A state-of-the-art 5-CD changer media center? Amazing - for 1997! Let's get serious. Why wouldn't you want to expand your pipeline of information and music to the rest of your house? You would, if you could. So what's stopping us?

The technology exists, and the unlimited music source is there. What's stopping us? Tech companies just won't climb on this bandwagon.

What is quite obviously the future of the music listening experience is still considered on-the-edge by most tech companies that do provide some amount of wireless audio.

Available today are different wireless devices - some big, some small. Some have little screens, some connect to your TV. What's something similar about all of them? Limited functionality, poor implimentation, and high prices. A punishment for the early adapters who could be the base for a potentially huge market.

Let's look at some of the options -

D-Link DSM-120
Similar to the D-Link DSM-320 that I reviewed earlier this year in this column - but with no video, and more expensive??? Interestingly, this device grabs your wireless network, streams off a standard UPNP server (such as yahoo music unlimited), and has a nice remote.

Unfortunately, the reviews mention that this device will download a firmware update when it sees the internet, and will brick the device (that is - kill it). Even worse, if you avoid the update, it will continue to hassle you. And even worse, it doesn't even work that well, with apparently downgraded audio quality (everything downsampled to 128kbps), and poor connectivity issues, it's just not worth the $150ish that they want for it. Oh did I mention you need your own speakers?

The pros: It does take a usb drive or internal laptop drive. That's cool. Still useless junk.

Logitech Wireless DJ
This one has some good potential. It has a remote that has the screen that controls the audio. Pass the remote around at a party and watch a dynamic playlist grow and make everybody happy with the music selection. So what could possibly go wrong here?

Well turns out it doesn't utilize the ever-so-common wireless network. It creates it's own with it's own USB transmitter. At 2.4Ghz, it apparently has trouble interfering with your existing wireless network and telephones.

Again, another device with reportedly poor quality of connection and drops out intermittently.

And as if someone could deal with these issues, the worst part is, you can't purchase additional recievers seperately. Not like that would help- as you can control multiple receivers with one remote, but you can only play out of one receiver at a time - making it pointless.

Is it possible to purchase multiple kits and just control them all seperately? Who knows. Chances are they'll interfere with eachother. Expensive? Yes and no. It's junk, so the price has dropped to around $100. Too bad though, cause logitech already ditched the product for a more expensive an theoretically less-featured product. (I say theoretically only because the advertised feature for the wireless DJ don't actually work).

Almost a good product, but again- horrible execution.

Roku Soundbridge
No terrible reviews of this product. However no great things to say either. It's $150, ugly, and not big on the features. It will receive music from a UPNP server and it will play them. Control with remote. Play internet radio. It's so damned ugly. It's got the features down, but the price just says - eh.

Linksys Music Bridge
Everybody who has one of these is happy with it. Running at about $100, this does what it advertises, with very little complaints. It streams audio from a computer to it, out to speakers (not provided).

What's wrong with that? It acts as a sound capture device. Anything that should go out to speakers will go out to this.

What does that mean? No remote control. You have to go to your pc to control the audio, the playlists, and whatnot. And if you have outlook open, and you get an email alert - you'll be sure to hear it over the music bridge. This option completely eliminates the option of multiple zones, and because it doesn't deal with the audio files locally, makes it useless to actually use unless you really like putting together a playlist and walking away.

Because of a short lag between your computer and this device, it's useless to sync to video or games.

Sonos
An amazing option allowing full control of multiple independent, or synchronized zones completely from an easy-to-use handheld wireless controller. Completely integrated with rhapsody, so you can access not just your library, but the whole catelog, from the controller.

No complaints, only raves about this one! No setup hassles- just plug it in, and it works.

The problem? The price. For the basic kit - 2 zone players and a controller - $1000. The only good implimentation, and a decent idea. But for just plainly too much money. I'd consider spending $600 on this, but the fact is it'd be cheaper to build miniature computers for each room and control your audio that way.

Additional Zones are around $400 each, making this the rich-man's way out, but not practical for most people. Is it worth the money? Not really. It's the best there is, but it outprices itself verses the actual technology that's available. Make the controller $400 (let's face it, it's like an Iphone, so reasonably priced). Make the zone players (IE wireless receivers with speaker out ports) $50. That's all they should be.

What's the bottom line?
The bottom line is - this stuff just isn't here yet. Early adapters are unfortunately feeling the hiccups of the industry. This is, I believe, the future of this industry, and it will progress in a few years. I believe a decent system with zone players will be between $200 and $500 when it goes mainstream. Until then, just pick up a few Sansa Connects (mp3 players with wireless capability), and stick them in each room with $15 sound blaster speakers. Connect to Yahoo Unlimited - problem worked-around for now. Ugh.

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ThatSam @ 10/15/07 "I just hum by favorite tunes to my self. works great!" Riev_Mordred @ 10/15/07 "If I had my pick, it would be the Roku sound bridge, personally. However, as you said, most of this stuff just isn't there yet." the_legacy @ 10/15/07 "Andy I had no idea you hat the humming capability!! =o" the_legacy @ 10/15/07 "This stuff is sick!! Compinies need to learn how to market better though. " FredFredrickson @ 10/16/07 "Just so you know- I ended up with the Sansa Connect, and I couldn't be happier!" GGagnon @ 10/17/07 "I checked out Robbie's Sansa, for the price and effort involved it seems like an A+ way to go." Login to comment...

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