Wireless audio modules to replace speaker cables

[OwlHoot]

Any ideas on a reliable high-spec Bluetooth or even 802.11 wireless dongle/gizmos that can be plugged in at the amp end and the speaker end to replace loads of thick and ugly (and expensive) cables.

I was thinking it might not be hard to build these using Bluetooth RN-52 chips, although not being a solder head the prospect of following wiring diagrams and rigging everything up reliably is somewhat daunting.

I imagine the main difficulty might be to configure the things, e.g. select a separate 2.4 GHz (or 5 GHz) channel for each pair, especially if this info had to be in volatile memory and would thus need resetting after a power cycle.

[doodab]

Any ideas on a reliable high-spec Bluetooth or even 802.11 wireless dongle/gizmos that can be plugged in at the amp end and the speaker end to replace loads of thick and ugly (and expensive) cables..

The amp-speaker connection is a) analogue and b) carries significant power. You would need* to digitise the signal before transmission and then convert it back at the speaker end, and you would need additional power amplifiers (which would need power cables) somewhere between the bluetooth dongle / DAC and the speakers to actually drive the speakers.

* especially if you wanted to use a digital protocol such as bluetooth, but generally to maintain fidelity you wouldn't want to do this using analogue technology.

[yasockie]

Have you looked at Sonos product range?
I did a little research and it has some features that can't be easily matched...
Failing that a lot of existing devices such as ampli-tuners are capable of receiving Airplay and DNLA audio streams.
If you insist on Bluetooth which I have found too far from perfect, just plug a BT dongle with audio-out into sth that has audio-in or equivalent.
I bought this shizzle as one of my older devices had a fancy iPhone dock (which includes analog audio-in, but not simple audio-in jack...

[OwlHoot]

Have you looked at Sonos product range?
I did a little research and it has some features that can't be easily matched...
Failing that a lot of existing devices such as ampli-tuners are capable of receiving Airplay and DNLA audio streams.
If you insist on Bluetooth which I have found too far from perfect, just plug a BT dongle with audio-out into sth that has audio-in or equivalent.
I bought this shizzle as one of my older devices had a fancy iPhone dock (which includes analog audio-in, but not simple audio-in jack...

Good find, and thanks/likes duly given

But I don't like the fact that those are advertised as working only with i-Junk

Also, having to buy their speakers wasn't what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a pair of dongles or small "units" that could be plugged into any amp and speaker to simply replace the cable between them.

If these don't exist today, I'd say they'd be a great opportunity for an enterprising person to design and sell, if the quality could be made good enough and a suitable power supply could be incorporated in/with them.

But of course purists and audio snobs would go on claiming that cables were better.

[v8gaz]

I use sonos, and it's great. I stream from my Synology NAS, Spotify, whatever device I am holding as a controller (the app is available on every platform), tune-in radio, and lots more besides. It is most definitely NOT tied to apple in any way.

[doodab]

If these don't exist today, I'd say they'd be a great opportunity for an enterprising person to design and sell, if the quality could be made good enough and a suitable power supply could be incorporated in/with them.

The main issue is that you wouldn't be replacing the speaker cables per se. You simply can't transmit that sort of power wirelessly very easily and if you could you would probably end up breaking the law as OFCOM limit the power you are allowed to radiate in particular bands. You would need to be military, civil aviation, a broadcaster or similar to get away with it.

So you would need to attach, in addition to the small dongles, amplifiers + power supplies to your existing speakers, with power cables, effectively creating an active speaker. These amps needn't be especially large, depending on power perhaps little bigger than a fag packet including a switch mode PSU, but they would need attaching to & cabling to the speakers so as an add on solution they are unlikely to be tidier than using speaker cables. You could cobble something battery powered together but then you would need to charge it.

I just don't think there is a market for them TBH. If there was then as you say someone would fill it.

You're better off looking at an all in one solution. These are about the best I'm aware of

Q Acoustics - BT3 Wireless Hifi Speakers

[OwlHoot]

So you would need to attach ... amplifiers + power supplies to your existing speakers, with power cables, effectively creating an active speaker. ...

Absolutely - That's what I meant by a "dongle", a word I was using in the general sense of "gizmo".

Obviously the wireless part would transmit only the sound data, e.g. via a high-speed 802.11ac connection, and the dong^D, um, gizmo would provide the power and modulate this with the received sound signal.

[doodab]

Absolutely - That's what I meant by a "dongle", a word I was using in the general sense of "gizmo".

Obviously the wireless part would transmit only the sound data, e.g. via a high-speed 802.11ac connection, and the dong^D, um, gizmo would provide the power and modulate this with the received sound signal.

Yeah but you're going to be asking people to part with a hundreds of pounds for something that either goes power cable - line lump - speaker cable or screws / glues to existing speakers, plus you'd need a range of different powers for different speakers. You might get away with a box that sat under the speaker for a given speaker design but given how fussy "hi-fi" people can be about matching amps and speakers it's just not something with a mass market appeal.

What sort of power rating of speakers are we talking about?

A lowish power power amp is fairly easy to knock up from a kit or IC amp, the hard bit is really the PSU as for several reasons it would have to be a fairly complex design i.e. not off the shelf. For higher power you need quite high voltage rails as you need to cope with the fact that 8 ohms is nominal and the impedance of a typical hifi speaker is actually all over the place, a problem caused almost entirely by the use of passive crossovers. +/- 80 or 100V rails isn't unusual for a 50W rated amp. You would also need to power the digital gubbins and some sort of preamp to match the output of the digital gubbins to the input of the power amp. The digital side would need a separate regulated supply and the preamp would be +/-15V or 18V based on common opamps (at least, it would if I designed it...).

The other thing is that switch mode PSU aren't generally considered to be ideal for audio applications due to the amount of noise (largely bollocks by all accounts, I think it's cos they are harder to design), which is why expensive amps usually make a fuss about their highly regulated linear power supplies designed around toroidal transformers and massive reservoir capacitors, which are bulky once you're into sensible power output levels. You also need to pay attention to magnetic isolation of the transformer, so you end up with a "dongle" the size of a shoebox or bigger for say a 50W amp.