Are there places in your home where you'd love to enjoy music, but don't want to lay speaker wire or drill holes to get it there? Advent's wireless powered speaker system lets you import music from CD, radio, DVD, or any audio source to nearly any room in the house. Advent's AW870 speaker system uses the FM (frequency-modulation) technique employed in radio to broadcast audio to the two loudspeakers, each of which houses its own 15-watt amplifier. The speakers, which are identical, offer a roll-on power/volume switch and a separate switch for designating either speaker as left, right, or mono--highly desirable when playing with different positions. (If you're listening to monaural material--including anything recorded prior to about 1954--the Mono switch will allow you to cut down on transmission static without compromising music delivery.)
The AW870 system comes with two main parts: the transmitter and the speakers, all of which require close proximity to an AC outlet unless you opt to battery-power the speakers. The transmitter, about five inches in diameter, plugs into a wall outlet and hooks into your desired audio source via a single stereo RCA cable.
We positioned the transmitter's tuner arbitrarily while setting up and were pleased to find that the speakers' tuner zeroed in on the appropriate frequency with little adjustment. In fact, the thing that gave us the most trouble was the fact that the speakers use individual volume controls. With no master "balance" knob, the two speakers have to be manually adjusted for equal volume.
The transmitter range seemed surprisingly large, though static and crackle increased as we got farther away from the transmitter. Listening from across a room worked best, though the omnidirectional transmitter works through walls and floors as well. Powered with batteries (eight "C" cell, not provided), the AW870 speakers make ideal portable deck speakers when you don't feel like moving your whole stereo just to enjoy the nice weather.
The sound from our test CDs closely resembled that of clear FM radio: dynamically compressed and slightly hissy even at its quietest. As speakers go, these are decent but not great. As with any sound system, a boost in convenience often requires a small sacrifice in quality, and this is true of the AW870 wireless system.
Pros:
- Intuitive setup
- Flexible placement
- Battery-power option
Cons:
- Separate volume control for each speaker
- No tone controls (bass or treble)
