Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Music
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Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Price at amazon.com: $177.99Usually ships in 24 hours
Used & new from $197.36
- Listen to the MP3's on your PC in another room of your home over your 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network
- View and choose songs and playlists from your entire MP3 collection on the remote control's built in LCD screen
- Place the music receiver anywhere since the remote uses RF transmission it doesn't require line of sight
- Works with home stereo and standalone speakers featuring digital optical (SPDIF) and standard RCA connectors
- Compatible with Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, and XP
Product Description:
Average Customer Rating:
Comment: Early product but ready for prime time Rating:
I had a few hiccups trying to get the Creative Wireless Music to operate consistently with my wireless network. In the end, I adjusted my network to accomodate the Sound Blaster. My network was WEP encrypted and configuring the SB to fit in, it would often not communicate with the wireless router, a D-link DI-624 502.11g router. My laptop connection which was previously stable now started to flake out. I am not sure what the interactions were but after playing with a lot of settings, the whole network just worked a lot better without the WEP encryption. To protect my home network somewhat, I disabled SSID broadcast and also enabled MAC address filtering to allow only my wireless devices access to the network and no other. The SB Wireless Music receiver remote has the MAC address in the "info" section. All seems to work flawlessly. I should add though that I don't live in an urban setting where my wireless network needs pretty stiff protection.
My large MP3 collection doesn't have the best ID3 tags. This is really a big problem as it's hard to navigate without proper tags. I'm currently in the process of using Ultra Tag Editor to get my collection in order. I think the navigation on the SB Wireless Music is pretty great with a lot of different options to find just what you want.
Firmware 5/04, works great. The remote is a lot more responsive. What I don't like is that sometimes the remote freezes or doesn't do anything and their is no error message. In some cases, the location of my Mp3's changed or file names changed but it would be nice to know why the device is freezing up.
Sound is excellent. I use the optical SPDIF output to my digital decoder preamp.
I have been waiting for a product like this for quite some time. The SB has some quirks but is nonetheless more or less what the doctor ordered. Best of all, I got it for $160 at a major online retailer.
Comment: This Box Rocks Rating:
I felt a responsibility to share my experience with this unit since it differs considerably from other reviews. Many have complained of lag when calling up long play lists or when dealing with a large number of MP3 files. Apparently Creative Labs has been listening.
I got one today, and I couldn't be happier. No doubt this is due to the new firmware I downloaded from the product site. I have over 6000 MP3s, and I can browse and call them up without a hitch. There is a 2-3 second gap of silence after pressing play while the first file buffers, but it's no big deal.
I am a computer geek, and some network savvy is required to configure the unit if you're using WEP encryption. If your network is not encrypted, it's fairly plug-and-play, save for the firmware download which is straight forward.
Regarding the range of the unit, my 802.11b router is 3 floors above the Wireless Music receiver and I haven't heard a single dropped bit all night. I am also controlling the unit 1 floor above the receiver, so the RF remote is pulling its weight.
If you've been on the fence about this due to the lag issues, fear not. Download the firmware, and you'll be in heaven. This is truly great technology, and the sound quality is superb. For me, it was a crucial link in my home audio chain that I didn't even know was missing.
Comment: Great concept, flawed implementation Rating:
The idea of having access to my computer music collection anywhere in the house was very appealing. In my case, "anywhere" was the bedroom. With no LAN connection in the bedroom, wireless was perfect. Unfortunately, the Blaster must be connected to the computer acting as server by a usb cable (supplied). During configuration, the Blaster console software searches for wireless networks. This means the server must be in range of a wireless access point. In my case the bedroom has wireless access but the server's wireless access is marginal. (I don't normally need wireless access at the server - I have a wired connection there!) This is inconvenient, but temporarily moving the Access Point got the thing setup initially. Unfortunately, the Blaster managed to "forget" its configuration settings several times over the 5 weeks I used it, requiring moving the thing back to the server, moving the access point and reconfig. For what ever reason, I couldn't even reconfigure this last time. Now it may well be that my problem was compounded be weak wireless access in the bedroom (my wireless laptop reports weak access - but it does work). If the Blaster didn't work, I could understand it. I don't understand it forgetting its settings and the subsequent requirement to reconfigure.
I really wanted this to work. It almost did but in the end I returned it.
BTW, while the interface was not zippy, I found it adequate for the playlists I used (about 100 songs out of a 3000 song library, YMMV). I also found it very convenient to have the entire user interface on the remote's LCD. Bottom line: if you want this gadget, realize that you are an "early adopter" and you may have some problems. In the end, if it works for you - great; if not, you too may be returning a Great Concept with a flawed implementation.
Posted at November 11, 2003 07:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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