Wireless rear speakers simply means that the rear channel audio speakers of a 5.1, 6.1 or higher configuration are connected to the sound system network components without the use of wires. It therefore provides the opportunity to get rid of lengths of speaker wires traversing the length and breadth of the room and allows the speakers to be placed anywhere in the room at the convenience of the listener to get optimum surround sound experience from the surround sound system.
Wireless rear speakers can be either installed by purchasing a complete wireless home theater solution or by installing wireless speaker kits, which emits radio frequency (RF) signals to the rear channel speakers. To install the kit, the transmitter unit has to be connected to the amplifier’s rear speaker output slots and the RF receiver to the wireless rear speakers. However, the rear speakers and the receiver unit will still need to be connected to a power source which is necessary to operate the RF receiver circuitry and the amplification unit housed within the speakers.
The radio frequency transmissions are made over the 900MHz or 2.4GHz band widths to send across audio signals making use of digital technology to the wireless rear speakers and are therefore prone to signal interferences from other domestic gadgets which also operate on the same band widths. Transmission over a higher band width may however reduce or eliminate this problem since there will not be too many other gadgets suing that frequency. There are also a few options that make use of infra-red light instead of radio frequencies (RF), but their biggest shortcoming the is the limited range that they offer. Just like your television’s remote control needs to be in the same line of sight as the television, these speakers need to be around the receiver and the transmitter that way.
Apart from interferences in the transmission, the audio quality may also degrade on account of converting the sound format multiple times. The digital signals played out from the DVD player are converted to analog when it’s put out to a multi-channel receiver, which is then reconverted to a digital signal of a lower quality or into an analog signal for transmission using RF to the remote rear speakers. The remote wireless rear speakers upon receiving the digital input signals further transfer the format into analog to play over the speaker cones. The sound quality of your speaker system can be affected by the type of rear wireless that you use, so choose the speaker system carefully.
A few examples of wireless rear speaker kits are the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit (Rocketfish universal wireless) and Kenwood RFU-6100 Wireless Speakers Solution with operating range of 100 feet and featuring active noise reduction circuitry and four user-selectable RF transmission channels within the 900MHz band. The Bose SL2 Wireless Link for Rear Speakers, which has been designed just to provide a wireless connection for the surround speakers on Bose’s 5.1-channel LifestyleTM and AcoustimassTM home entertainment systems. KEF’s wireless system for rear speakers operate on 2.4GHz frequency.
There are also solutions offered by Panasonic, Sony and Samsung for wireless rear speakers, home theater systems, wireless surround and home audio.. All of these speakers, and more can be bought online at Amazon.
Here are links to many specific pages of information to help you decide which type of wireless speaker system is right for your needs.