Experience Sound Blaster Wireless ?


Does anyone have experience with Sound Blaster Wireless Music System?

I saw the short write up on CNN.com. It's a wireless network receiver that has a LCD remote and can playback mp3 and wma format. The output of the receiver is either RCA stereo or optical digital output. You can select playlist or song directly from remote while a server is running and connected to the wireless network.

Sounds very interesting. I am just wondering about the quality of output. Also, any chance that it will play back wav files instead? I am in the processof ripping every single CD I have to a 250gig HD.

Any other device like it? Even better one perhaps?

Eric
ejliu
I didn't know Sound Blaster has a wireless version. I will look into that.

Another one I know of is AudioTron from Turtle Beach.
http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/

AudioTron can play wav files as well as mp3. It does not have wireless built-in but you can hook up a Ethernet to 801.11b/g bridge (e.g. Linksys WET11 or WET54G) to it. If you want to play wav files you will need 801.11g to avoid signal drop out.
There is some material on the Sound Blaster system at:

http://www.creative.com/

The site explicitly references mp3s encoded at rates up to 192 kbps, and wma files. Nothing about wav files. I'm guessing its not part of the package for the reason Sidssp noted--the SB system is 11b, and the common wisdom is that an Audiotron over an 11b won't transmit at rates sufficient to transmit wav files. Since its the same concept, I'm assuming the same limitations would apply to the SB system.

There are some other options too--I think c3do makes a couple boxes, and there is also the slimp3. I would look for features, not 802.11 compatibility, since if its ethernet out you can hang an access point on it. You will be stuck with the transmission limitations of 802.11 in such cases--those limitations may not even be fixed with an 11a or 11g system if the Tx and Rx are too far apart, have too many walls in between, whatever.
Sounds like the better option is still to run a balanced XLR digital cable.

The main thing I liked about Sound Blaster Wireless is the RF remote with LCD. It's very similar to a MP3 player format in which there is a playlist and etc. So I would definitely checked out the other options you talked about.