A Beginner’s Guide to Wireless Media Streaming at Home

The era of setting up a home theater is changing: wired connections between speakers to a receiver and to an audio or video source is becoming hopelessly outdated. There are now so many easier ways to attain home theater sound and now even video, and none of them involve little white, red, and yellow cables, let alone speaker wire or HDMI cables…

But we’re living in a time of flux: the wireless media streaming options are varied, complex, and constantly evolving. It can be very difficult to stay on top of the latest standards and choose the best one for our home and family. Here’s a guide to the state of wireless media streaming as of mid-2013:

Bluetooth
This is the one you think you already know. Examples include the stylishJawbone Jambox, and of course theBeats By Dre Pill:通过蓝牙音频流扩散like crazy in the last year, though the first speaker actually showed up about five years ago. You know, of course, that photos can be shared via Bluetooth, but video streaming isn’t really an option. You can’t go too far from your audio source, either—Bluetooth is for smaller homes. Bluetooth adapters have become popular recently. You can turn an existing speaker system into a Bluetooth one with an adapter; Logitech, Aluratek, Auris, and Monster (this one even ups the audio quality) all offer adapters for this purpose.

TheAptX codecis a new form of Bluetooth available on very high-end speakers that improves quality a great deal by eliminating nearly undetectable glitches in compressed music files often noticeable during wireless transmission. If you decide to pay a lot of money for a Bluetooth speaker in the next year, make sure it comes with AptX.

AirPlay
AirPlay is an audio and video streaming technology that works only with licensed enabled speakers, Apple AirPort Express hubs, and 2nd-gen or newer Apple TVs paired with Apple iOS devices with iOS 5 or higher, Macs from 2011 or newer, or PCs running iTunes. The wireless technology operates on top of your home wireless network. Once the devices have been added to your home network, you activate AirPlay by tapping the AirPlay icon that appears on the screen from media apps—a dropdown list of devices shows up, and you choose the one you want to stream to. You can stream to multiple AirPlay speakers at once, in different rooms, making it ideal for larger homes.

SonosNet
Sonosis the most famous of these product lines (check out our recent review of the Sonos Playbar to see another way to integrate home audio into home theater). TheSonosNetmesh network, pictured above, is created when a special device component connects to a wired network, creating a signal for all the other wireless audio devices to latch onto. The wireless protocol improves upon a standard wi-fi network by utilizing each Sonos component to extend wireless coverage, making their systems ideal for larger residences without many of the deficiencies of single stream wireless or even multi-unit playback via Airplay (where millisecond audio delays can be evident between speakers).

Another similar system is the one from Danish speaker company Dynaudio, but it costs several thousands of dollars for all the components on the private 2.4 GHz wireless network. A new, cheaper option from the UK is the colorfulPure Jongoline—it uses wi-fi, but the company hasn’t yet made clear exactly how.

(Images:Sonos,Audyssey,McIntosh,Apple,Phorus,Rocketfish,Wi-Fi Alliance,Jongo)