Music without cables? It's happening. Slowly, agreed – but it’s definitely happening, and at affordable prices

Connectivity in audio systems is changing: these days you’re as likely to be connecting up an HDMI or Ethernet cable to play your music as a conventional phono pair or digital interconnect.

But there are also signs that, just as home computer networking has gone from pulling Ethernet cables to wireless connections, so audio systems are increasingly turning to the airwaves to distribute music.

It’s not hard to see the appeal: freed from the need to wire “zones” together, getting music in another room is now just a matter of having the right hardware connected to your main system and then plugging in a receiver where you want audio.

Of course, there have been systems able to do this for a while: Yamaha’s MusicCAST system seemed a miracle when it was first launched, and Sonos has made a real success of components able to access and control music anywhere you want.

Sonos now has stand-alone receiver/speakers, able to be plugged in for instant playback in extra rooms, or paired up – the intelligent software deciding which is the left channel and which the right.

There’s a wireless dock able to make your iPod or iPhone a music store for whole-house music – or indeed allow a visitor to drop in their player for instant use – and as well as the smart Sonos Controller dedicated hardware, the whole thing can now be “driven” via a wireless network using a free app on an iPod, iPhone or iPad.

By the way, expect to see a lot more of those control apps on Apple devices – and maybe even Android mobile phones – as networked audio devices become more common: once a receiver or system is connected to a home wireless network for streaming or internet radio, its possible for such remote control to be implemented over the network using the built-in Wi-Fi on these mobile devices.

Or they can be controlled directly using even simpler systems, again taking advantage of the mobiles’ built-in connectivity.

A few months back we looked at simple audio connectivity devices from the computer accessory companies, but recent months have seen the same solutions being offered by manufacturers with a more established audio background. They’re doing so both for wireless distribution between rooms and as a means of solving one of the major stumbling-blocks for surround sound at home: cabling for the rear speakers.

German direct-sell speaker manufacturer Teufel is no stranger to these pages and its RearStation solution, selling for around £269, allows existing rear speakers to be run wirelessly. It comprises a stereo transmitter/receiver system, the receiver unit having a 2x30W amplifier.

As well as making wireless rear speakers possible, you can also use it for room-to-room connectivity: it’ll work over 20m, and up to three receivers can be connected to a single “sender”, each additional unit costing a further £179.

From an unfamiliar name comes an even more comprehensive system: Rocketfish is an in‑house brand of US-based retailer Best Buy, which has recently moved into the UK market. Its basic Wireless HD Audio Starter Kit (£160) comprises a transmitter and a 2x22W receiver/amplifier, again able to be used for wireless rear speakers or room-to-room working.

The difference here is that the sender has four-channel input, and can thus, with the addition of an extra receiver/amplifier (£100), make all four rear channels of a 7.1-channel surround system wireless, or deliver different audio streams to two separate rooms, with up to nine receiver/amplifiers able to be used with a single sender.

Suddenly the ability of modern AV receivers to deliver audio into one or more extra “zones” begins to make sense: with the addition of these wireless devices, you really can walk from room to room and continue to enjoy the same music you were listening to on the main system.

It’s taken a while but the home of the future is at last beginning to take shape: next stop, wireless HD video distribution, too.

It’ll never happen? It already is…

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