Wireless speakers have recently started to become popular. This increase is partly due to the revival of portable music systems (aka mp3 players) becoming popular again. There was a point in the mid 80’s where everyone had a personal cassette player (or walkman) -then Sony attempted to introduce the mini disk as a replacement. it was around this time that the waters became a little muddy and the future direction of portable audio was uncertain. It wasn’t until the iPod bounced on to the scene that ‘music on the move’ came back in to fashion and along with it plethora of mp3 players also emerged.

There always were speakers that were intended to be used with portable music systems, but they were always connected via wires. I had issues with them. Now this may not seem like much of a problem but those of you that owned a set of ‘personal speakers’ I’m sure that you can identify with this occurrence that annoyed me beyond belief; I remember positioning the speakers in just the right position on a patio table and sitting back to relax and listen to all 45 minutes of the single side of a tape. It was at the end of the tape that the problems began, you’d have to pick up you walkman eject the tape and turn over. This would be fine if the speakers you’d plugged in to your walkman had any weight to them. But no, they didn’t and hence when you picked up your walkman you invariable ended up taking the speakers with it would all end up in your lap. Next task, untangle the mess of wires sat in your lap. Great.

The cause of all this, wires. I hate wires and if you hate wires but like your gadgets check out the wireless surround sound page.

Thankfully, now that there are wireless speakers, this is no longer a problem and the wireless solution has brought with it possibilities that are greater than ever. The days of the two speakers systems for personal use seem to have been superseded by one large speaker so I suppose the correct term should now be a ‘wireless speaker.’

What’s great about the wireless speakers now is that with solar technology advances you can have a sun powered wireless out door speaker that will keep going for as long as the sun is in the sky and there is power in your music player.

It also means that you don’t have to take you music player out of the house to listen to your music in the garden. You can leave your mp3 player on the window sill and take your wireless outdoor speaker outside; you no longer have to worry about dropping or getting your mp3 player wet.

Wireless technology has opened up a whole host of opportunities and one of those I touched on above. You can have your tunes playing in a wet environment where usually you would have had to have risked your music player. Perhaps you lucky enough to have a pool of outdoor hot tub, well you can get floating wireless speakers which I think is a great idea.

Wireless speakers work through two technologies – radio frequencies and blue tooth. The later technology brings with it the most opportunities. For example if your laptop has Bluetooth then you will be able to stream music to your wireless speaker. If your mp3 player has Bluetooth then the same applies. If you have a mobile phone that can store music it can also be used with a Bluetooth speaker. Although Bluetooth is the most exciting option it also has a few drawbacks, the range that you player can be from the speaker will be limited to 15 – 25 ft depending on conditions and the audio range of frequencies playable will not be as great as that of radio frequency connections. If you’re a true audiophile then you may be disappointed, but if you’re after some sounds outside one could argue that with the ‘outdoor’ background noises your never going to be able to appreciate a good sounding speaker.

Speakers that work on radio frequencies will come with a transmitter. This transmitter will connect to your mp3 player using the socket that you would normally plug your headphones in to – the 3.5mm jack. You can also get wireless PC speakers that will work with either radio frequencies or Bluetooth.

Power sources for wireless speakers vary, but almost all of them will be powered by battery. In addition to battery they will usually come with a main adapter so that they can be plugged in. There are now also a few solar powered speakers creeping on to the market.

Sony, Logitech, Yamaha and Parrot all have wireless speakers on the market that are worth further investigation.