Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Wireless Music - Music at Home Minus the Cables
by Andrew Ku on August 8, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Sound Blaster Wireless Music - Cableless Setup
Once the receiver is set up, it can be placed anywhere in the home within the wireless network range (receiver has a range of 98ft, remote has a range of 32ft). The receiver itself has a fairly small profile, measuring in at 6.89 x 5.51 x 1.1 inches, and it is similar in size to some of the newer networking access points that we have seen.
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The RF remote that comes with the receiver, however, is quite bulky and is insanely large for a remote; it measures in at 2.91 x 7.4 x 1.18 inches. This is mainly because of the large buttons, 27 x 55 mm LCD screen (132 x 64 res.), and Creative's choice of using 3 AA batteries to power the unit (it supposedly should last 55 days with normal use). The buttons on the remote have a nice tactile feel and response time, both of which are about the same as the ones on a typical TV or DVD player remote.
Click to enlarge.
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Holes are for the receiver stand
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The design of the receiver is fairly simple. On the front, there is a single button that initiates the RF remote to beep loud enough so that you can find it across the room or under a couch. The back of the receiver is home to the USB 1.1, optical audio out, power, and RCA (left and right channel) ports. Creative only includes a Y left and right RCA to 1/8th inch audio jack cable with the receiver, aside from the USB and power cables, so you will probably have to purchase an optical out cable if you want to use the optical out option. Note that the receiver will only support 2.1 surround sound, which is (in all likelihood) the most reasonable setup since most MP3s have only two channels.
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dalhtech - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
A big difference between this device and the airport express is that you can't control what's being played from the Airport Express with the Airport Express. If the computer is in room A, and the airport express and stereo are in room B, you have to travel from room B where you are listening to music to room A to change the playing track.Airport Express needs a remote.
EdvardGrieg - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
If you can find one, the Turtle Beach Audiotron will scan for network shares and use those.outlaws42 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
The Squeezebox from slimDevices uses opensource server softwarejohnsonx - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
Does anyone know of a media player that doesn't require their proprietary server software to be running?I'd like to find one that can just pull media files from a Windows (CIFS) or Linux (NFS) share.
diehlr - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
Seems to me that the Airport Express does this and a whole lot more for a whole let less money.at80eighty - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
HECK! dunno how the double post happened!!didint even press 'post' yet!!
anyway - ive been planning on picking one of these to accompany my new rig - Cnet had reviewed this product, but i wanted to know what my fave HW site had to say about it!
thx a bunch for the review!
but the 2.1. support sux : /.. i was hoping to use this to stream to my Bose Lifestyle system for pretty much all my uses *ahem*read* games : p
Andrew, any input of this? (forgive me if this is a stupid question : p)
thnx in adv!
at80eighty - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
GREAT!