4.0 out of 5 stars Old Tech in a New Tech World. Better Latency then Bluetooth, Worse Sound quality
By Kevin G on June 18, 2016
900 mhz speakers that are perfect for living room to amplify voice conversations on TV.
Little Backstory:
Even though I have a nice TV, good sound system, I find that conversations on tv would cause me to want to turn up the TV 5-15 points to hear everything clearly. This was a issue I've been
fighting for years regardless if it was a 2.1, 5.1, or 7.1 encoded movie or stream. I do not have a full 5.1 system but instead have a soundbar along with a a oldschool vinyl top load vacuum tube system that has a RCA in and out connection. Once a song started, I found I would constantly have to turn the volume back down after turning it up to hear people talking prior. I needed something I could have close to the couch to supplement the sound in the room so I would not keep bouncing the sound
on the remote. I did not want to run wires so was looking for a wireless solution.
My first attempt was an avantree priva 2 in 1 adapter and a good aptx bluetooth speaker to hook to it. The system worked but no matter what I set, I would have a slight audio delay between my tv/soundbar and the bluetooth unit. Doing some research online, I found that the best bluetooth systems still suffer from 28-40 ms of sound delay. This is ok if you use solely the bluetooth system as your sound or a headset to the TV but a major issue when you want to add sound to a existing system.
Here is a link to that item: [[ASIN:B0169TWV8O Avantree LOW LATENCY Certified Charge Free Bluetooth V4.1 Transmitter (aptX LL) for TV |
Wireless Audio Adapter | Dual Link for Headphones - Priva II]]
Looking online, I realized I would have to go to older tech so decided to buy these speakers.
Pros:
*- Good sound for my intended purpose. Though picture shows only 1 speaker, I received 2.
Speakers sit around 30 feet from transmitter without any issues
*- Speakers came with the 3.5mm to rca cable. I tried it with a few others I have and found no loss of quality
*- No Sound Delay with existing soundbar and older system.
Cons:
*- My box did not come with secondary power cables for the speakers themselves. Unsure if it was suppose too. Looking on back of the speaker system I found that the speakers have negative polarity and require a 10v 1.5 amp power to operate.
Looking through amazon, I was only able to find this as a good replacement
[[ASIN:B010CBR3CY OMINIHIL AC/DC Power Adapter/Adaptor for AR Portable wireless speaker AWS63 Speaker Unit Replacement Switching Power Supply Cord Cable PS Wall Home Charger Mains PSU]] . Instead of ordering these, I decided to get 2800mah rechargeable AA batteries to see how long they will run before needing a recharge.
*-6 AA batteries needed. Currently have one speaker on cheap batteries and it has run for
roughly 24 hours without shutting off. C batteries would have seemed like a better option considering this speaker is already fairly large.
Other
*- Quality is not gonna be amazing. It gets the job done and I do not get any odd sounds, cracks, cut outs etc. I reminds me of some of the first gen bluetooth speakers that came out. I am unsure how these will fair outside in its intended design fashion. IF you are unfamiliar with this type of technology then remember that it is possible to
run into signals that could interfere with the transmitting or receiving. Since this is old school frequencies, mileage will vary base on what is around you. Some people still have those old wireless phone systems in there home and you will have to fight that issue. Back of each speaker does have 3 channels to vary to frequency a bit for connection.