Got a surround sound system? Got wires running to the rear speakers that are a) running across the room and over a coffee table, b) running along floor boards, or c) taped to the side of a wall? Someone finally has a solution for such a set up: Radio Shack’s 5.8GHz Wireless Rear-Channel Amplifier (product #15-1974).
My sister got a Sony “all-in-one” home theatre system as a gift a while ago. It came with five cube-like speakers, a powered subwoofer, and one module that housed the receiver and DVD/CD player. Cute and compact. I have a bunch of separate components – DVD, CD changer, receiver, etc. (all Sony) – and a Bose Acoustimass Series III speaker system filling up a good part of my living room. When I moved into my place, I drilled a hole in the floor, behind the TV, and another behind the stereo. In the garage – which is under my living room – I put a hammer through the drywall of the ceiling and ran speaker wire from the TV to the rear speakers. Worked well enough for me… my parents twitched when I did it, but they don’t live here, and just muttered in disbelief.
My sister has a living room that sports a ceramic tile floor. Commercial-grade, ceramic tiles that are about eight-by-eight inches and all throughout the room. Very, very breakable tile that gives you the impression that it won’t like being drilled on.
Once we realized that her rear speakers would be problematic – at best – I stopped into a few places, looking for a module that would plug into the receiver and shoot the audio to a box across the room. This box would have inputs for the two rear speakers, and you could have a 5.1 system without drilling (and garage ceiling damage.) As my tour of many stores ended I found nothing that would do this. Nothing. The closest solution would be getting a pair of remote speakers and even there only a few people made them. And so her rear speakers sat for over a year.
Tonight I went to get a haircut at the mall [yes, at the mall: I don’t have much hair left so why go for a $30 cut with a $10 Flobee cut gets you by?] and – while on the phone with my sister – wandered into a Radio Shack. That’s where I saw the Wireless Rear-Channel Amplifier display. Lo! Technology found! “No fuckin’ way” was the reaction.
Basically, you get two modules: a transmitter and a receiver. The smaller box (the transmitter) takes in either a pair of speaker wire inputs or a set of RCA plugs. It also has to be powered, so there’s an AC adapter port; there’s also some random channel setting switches and a knob to adjust the audio quality. A larger box takes in a pair of speaker wire outputs and has two antennas; its also got some settings to set it’s WiFi ID (to avoid conflicts with other 5.8GHz devices) and a volume knob.
At first look, it worked OK, but because I need to get some longer speaker wires to hook up and position the rear speakers before passing judgement. Will it be as good as speaker wires would be? I’m not think so, but since the rear speakers aren’t supplying that much sound, I don’t think anyone would care… For $99 it was worth a shot, especially for a situation that has very few options otherwise.
Bout damned time that someone came out with this little gizmo!
does this work with the bose type of system?
Thanks. I have the exact same story except I never ran across this item ’til now.
Sweet! Thanks for the tip! I wonder how long it will take for the Chinese knock-offs to show up from “Radeo Shakk”
Hi,
I am the sister in the above mentioned rant….lol!! I can tell you that for over two years I didn’t have rear speakers in my surround sound because I couldn’t find anyone to do the deed and drill thru the floor. Going around the room with wires wasn’t an option because of the layout of the room. This is KICKIN’ trust me!!!
@Mehdi – I don’t see why they wouldn’t but I never tried them here so I don’t know… I mean the Sony goes from the back of the A/V receiver directly to the RS transmitter. In the case of the Bose, it should go from the A/V receiver to the Bose bass module and then to the RS transmitter. If that doesn’t work for some reason (i.e. not enough power being driven) you could probably bypass the basee module.
I think. Anyway, Radio Shack has always had a good return policy so it might be worth a look, given the price of the Bose systems – would be painful leaving two double cubes off the system b/c of a wiring problem!
@Dan – As soon as one company makes one, I’m hoping other people jump on it, so it shouldn’t be long at all. Advent has had wireless speakers for forever and this shouldn’t be any different than that, so just a matter of time.
Does anyone know if something similar exists for TV signals? I’d like to avoid having to run my cable wire down a long hallway into another room.
I remember a system called “Rabbit” from a couple years ago that would take a TV signal and bounce it between rooms… I dunno how good it was though, and haven’t looked for anything like it myself…
Check out the Leapfrog from Terk technologies. http://www.terk.com I got mine at onecall.com
sends tv signals/audio/and remote signals through the house…thank you remove TiVO controlling….
Interesting, will the Terk Leapfrog interfere with my 802.11b wireless network, which also operates on 2.4ghz?
I use a Leapfrog to beam the signal from the TiVo in the family room to the bedroom above. This is an older Leapfrog, so I’m using some X-10 Powermids to send back the IR remote signal. (I think the newer Leapfrogs support IR.)
I often use my 802.11b network in the bedroom while I am watching TV. The network works fine, but during lots of network activity (such a copying a file from a server) you’ll likely get some static on the TV. But just checking email or surfing the web causes minimal interference.
You should be aware that the Leapfrog is directional and fairly sensitive. It took me awhile to get the transmitter and receiver properly aligned to minimize noise, and I still get static if I stand in the path of the signal. But it is acceptable for me.
Oh yeah, a 2.4 GHz phone can mess with this. We still use 900 MHz phones to avoid interferance with the Leapfrog and the network. Why can’t all my wireless toys play together nicely?!?
Yea i got one at Radio Shack as well. It’s called Digital Audio Link. At 99 bucks it has very good quality. Much better than running wires on the floor like what I used to do. I’d recommend it to everyone.
It’s now available for $79. Installed it in a snap and it works like a champ. The THD rating is pretty high on the unit, so don’t expect super sound quality, but for rear channels, it really doesn’t matter. Highly recommended.
Booyah! Makes me wonder if I should just bite the bullet and pick them up now, since they’re cheaper… I’m nearly 100% certain I’ll need them for the new place(s).
HELP!!!!
I got the radio shack wireless audio link, but can’t get it to work. I’ve tried every wireing setup I can, still no sound. It’s driving me nuts!
What connects to what? Maybe I missed something. I have an Onkyo 502 6.1 channel surround sound reciever and cambridge sound work speakers. I would like to connect my rear center or rear surrounds with this unit. PLEASE HELP!!!!
I dunno what to tell ya, really. The biggest thing for me to over come was the LCD light: red meant on and green meant standby. Aside from that, I hooked it up and it worked outta the box.
I can say that I’ll be moving into my semi-permenant housing soon and I’ll be setting up a WiFi AP, cordless phone, AND one of these gizmos… should be interesting to see if I run into any problems, myself.
Thank’s Randy. I figured it out…. and you’re right. That little light on the transmitter is very confusing. Green is no link and red is link. How stupid. But, other than that…. it works great! The sound is awesome and you even get some extra volume control on the reciever. I’ve got my new speakers tuned in perfectly now, including a rear center speaker. Wow! surround sound from good speakers is like going to heaven.
Alan M
Booyeah!
Now I gotta go buy one myself, seeing as I’ve moved into a new place :)
Oh great! I read all of this and I am thinking “Freakin’ awesome, man. Now I can put surround sound in the new place without a fish tape!” and I find out it has a two-tone status light.
I am color-blind on the red-green spectrum.
All the servers I manage have Green/Amber/Red status indicating power LEDs. Do you know how tired I am of having to ask people to tell me the color?
So I won’t have a flippin’ clue as to if it’s linked or not, since I can’t tell the difference.
…maybe if I take a pic with a cam and adjust the contrast and saturation I will be able to tell…
Oh well, I am patient. I’ll just try until oblivion comes.
Whoa. That’s a design bug. A BIG design bug. Someone should file that with Tandy!
Hold on there… Just picked up the RS setup and it did work out of the box – great signal strength, OK sound. But lots of annoying pops and clicks. I tried all the channels. BTW, I’m not running anything else at 5Ghz in my house. Also, I’m only xmitting across 15 feet – direct line of sight. This just won’t do… Can’t wait for someone to make this work reliably though!!!!
Thats odd – I picked one up for my new place here in WA… a very VERY technologically advanced area – as in I heard a lot of techno WiFi/computer babble while in a bar tonight, if you can believe that – and have had little trouble… no interferance and while I was getting a little whistle originally, once I raised the input level and lowered the receiver volume, it was fine afterwards… you might want to get another kit, just to be sure…
I purchased this system in late June, and I’m having the same problems as Bill – random pops and clicks. Radio Shack customer support suggested separating the speaker wire and power cord for the receiver (interference), and trying all channels. Neither option appears to solve the problem. Just when I thought Radio Shack had actually produced something unique and useful…
Just saw these tonight at Radio Shack. Yeah, I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but decided to do a little research to see how people liked them. Thanks for the reviews and suggestions.
Also did a search and it appears Kenwood makes something just like this now…at twice the price. The Kenwood is called the RFU-6100 and runs between $190-$270. Might be something to look into for you guys with better ears than mine.
i bought one a radio shack yesterday. i’m returning it tomorrow!
the setup was very easy and the audio quality was fine except…
i get a sublte but persistant high pitched whine. sort of like a bad dimmer switch on a light. not acceptable on an audio device. my wife agrees that it would drive her crazy, too. this happens even if i put the units five feet away from each other and don’t connect the audio source. none of the adjustments on the device fix it. too bad!
ok …. i have a question on volume knobs…….
if you have broken off your volume knob on your speaker right down to the nitty gritty……how can you by pass having to use the knob….is there any way it can be fixed? have the problem need an answer?
please………help.
Um, I’m thinking that if you’ve pulled the entire volume assembly off (knob, shaft and module) then the only fix is to get a new one or send it in for repair to the manufacturer. If you’ve only snapped off the knob and part of the shaft shine a flashlight in there and see if there a way to grip it with plyers or something… sad to say but it sounds like it’s pretty screwed.
The radioshack unit sucked! It didn’t work 90% of time after numerous settings! I returned it, got the Kenwood and am very happy about it!
I’ve been using the unit for a while now for my left-rear speaker only. I was able to reduce the high-pitched digital whine to an acceptable level by cranking my receiver’s output on that channel, cranking the input on the transmitter, and lowering the volume of the receiver. What I haven’t been able to resolve is the annoying clicking and popping. Sometimes it’s only 1 pop per hour, other times, it’s about once per minute. It’s driving me crazy! Has anybody found a solution for this?
Curt,
Return or ebay the radioshack unit. U really have to test out the Kenwood. It was simply plug and play. The audio quality is also top notch. No buzz, no noise.
I got my RadioShack 5.8 GHz Digital Audio Link for $75 and found it to be a pretty good product. I have it hooked up to my Xbox 5.1 Surround Sound System and let me tell you gaming has never been the same ever since. Halo 2 which supports 5.1 is amazing and has given me a slight competitive edge. The only thing I dislike about the design was that there weren’t any RCA output on the receiver module, but they have them on the transmitter module. No biggie as I ended up cutting my wires and plugging them straight in.
I’m starting to lose hope – it’s been almost 6 months since my first post and I’m still having the same problem. The popping sounds like it’s probably a static discharge.
Here are a couple more details:
• The receiver is only 15′ from the transmitter
• Placing the transmitter in standby stops the popping
• Walking between the transmitter & receiver usually prompts a pop
Things I’ve tried:
• Changing the channel – same problem on all channels
• Playing with antenna angles – 0 change
• Adjusting the gain structure – levels seem to have no effect other than the popping being directly proportional to the receiver’s volume
• Tried different cables – I’ve tried very high quality shielded cables from my receiver’s pre-amp outs to the RCA inputs
• Tried both RCA & speaker level inputs – same deal
Does anyone have any constructive advice? (sry CK – “return” and “ebay” aren’t really fixes)
Curt,
Its a NON-WORKING product. There’s no fix. As I said, i returned mine quickly and got the Kenwood..which has been EXCELLENT for me. I don’t see why u can’t ebay it.
So I bought this unit yesterday at the clearance price of $55. I got it home, hooked everything up and couldn’t get the green light on the receiver portion of the unit to stop blinking. According to the instructions, this means it’s searching for a signal. I was reading above about the red/green light thing on the transmitter – just wanted to clarify, you push the power button on the transmitter and when it glows red it means it is on, right? Then the blinking green light on the receiver will stop blinking when it gets the signal? So basically red means on – Green means off
CK – my post is asking if anyone had found a FIX. Selling the unit and gettin another one is NOT a fix. How do you know “There’s no fix”? I’m sure the Kenwood unit is a fine product, but that’s not what I asked so please stop selling.
Trip – yes… red is on, green is off. Go figure. :)
I have had this product for over a year now and that clicking and popping is very annoying! I’ve looked everywhere online to trouble shoot this with no luck. Other than the clicking and popping noise, this is a good sounding, well priced product. I am certain that there must be a logical explaination for this annoyance.
This product stinks….don’t waste your money on it. Between the crappy instructions, popping noise and confusing LED strategy (Red on, green standby, like that makes sense) I’d rather run the wires or try another system. Maybe that’s why it was on clearance, I returned it the next day.
Just hooked up this unit to send remotely fron my computer, and it does nothing, just sits there blnking green. The info regarding red/green lights was helpful, but still no sound. The literature claims it works for ipods, computers etc. Will probably return it tomorrow. The price was only 39.95 for the display unit. I thought I got a deal.
I have been using the RadioShack 15-1974 for more than 18 mos and find it to be very satisfying. I do get some po/crackle now and then. Living in a desert area i expect some static but it’s very infrequent. I have it place in another part of the one story house with two walls between the transm/recvr and works well. It feeds my (MK) 2 small speakers+ subwoofer. My question is– can I connect this to a computer (G5 or G4PB) to feed music via iTunes to the speakers (MK) or does it have to be thru a powered amp?
Tks,
Tim
What RadioShack are you people going to? I have been trying to find this item for over a year and have been calling and visiting RadioShacks across North FL with no luck. I found it on their site more then a year ago and went into the store a week later to purchase one in the store, they had never heard of it, I went back home to order the item online about a week later and it was no longer on the site. Thanks
Bose makes one now too, actually.
Also, you might want to check eBay – I mean this thread started over two years ago… obviously RS stopped making it.
Hi,
These guys have it…
http://www.shoptronics.com/wi5spamrechd.html
Hello,
For all of you that are hearing a popping noise, try taking the audio ground that comes out of the receiver and tap that to an earth ground such as the screw on the wall outlet. I had a similar experience and found that doing this cleared it issue up.
Same pops and clicks here. I got mine from shoptronics about 8 months ago and the first one was DOA. I obviously got a replacement.
I used to have no problems until a month ago, but that could be an AC wiring issue I guess. I’ll try the grounding thing. But you really shouldn’t have to do something so stupid.
WOW, Do I feel lucky! I found one of these sets in Brand New Condition at a local flea market for $10.00 ! The girls that were selling it clearly had no idea what it was that they had! They work AWESOME!
If amyone has Radio Shack 5.8 GHz Digital Audio Link 15-1974 that they are not using I would be interested in buying the set or just the receiver if that is all you have. I would like to find a couple receivers! Email me if you have and want to sell, leta talk deals!
We have a 15-1974 Digital Audio Link from Radio Shack that belonged to my wife’s brother, who died recently.
We would like to sell it; anyone interested?
purchased 3 of the AUVIO 2.4GHz Wireless Speaker Kit 1500044 online recently, while all three work the lights are different. They turn blue on a link. They are paired. The three arrived with one new, fresh, and the the other two both were re-packed. One had smaller wires included with dry rubberbands, the other had a replacement enercell power adapter, and it did work.
For the price paid – no complaints, except seems like an image wound.
Have been using my 15-1974 since I bought it new. Mainly use it if I show a movie outside using a projector. It amp finally died. Would like to buy another one if anyone has an old one or get this one repao\ired if you know of a place. Great piece of merchandise!
RS 15-1974
Please let me know if you have success in repairs. I have a unit that will not locate the transmitter. It powers on but no “green” blinking LED. I love this system! Why hasn’t some company picked up on this design? Simple and very reasonable priced at the time I purchased the system ($99). I to live in Southern AZ. Any ideas, I’d greatly appreciate you telling me,
Thanks,
Tim
Radio Shack 5.8 GHz Digital Audio Link 15-1974
I have the same unit and have used it since the product came on the market. Several weeks ago I purchased the unit via eBay. When I connected the units the receiver’s “red” LED light will come on but no “green” LED. Can’t find the transmitter. I tested using both of my systems and have determined the issue lies within the receiver. I too would like to find a solution to fix this issue. Please, if any one has an idea of what to do … please let me know. It has to be a simple “fix”. I to can not understand why some one or company hasn’t picked up on this design. The the advancement of technology, this should be a easy development. No where can I find anything that comes close to this idea.
Thanks,
Tim
always i used to read smaller articles or reviews which also clear their motive, and that is also happening
with this paragraph which I am reading now.