More good news. This month, Rocketfish started selling two new wireless headphone models in Best Buy stores nationwide. There are two models, the RF-WHP01 and RF-WHP02. Each model has Avnera’s first generation wireless audio system, which at this point is popping up in many other places.

Both models are targeted at TV and home AV environments.

Key application usages:

1. Watching TV at night without disturbing house-mates (Killer frickin’ app)
2. Enhancing TV/AV audio for people with diminished hearing
3. Listening to music from iPod dock, PC, home stereo while cooking dinner, doing housework, etc.

The RF-WHP01 and RF-WHPo2 are both very similar models, with the primary difference being:

1. RF-WHP02 is mainly targeted at TV users, so it offers some hook-up flexibility. Including a boom mic option for older sets that don’t have supplementary audio outputs. This is also a quick and dirty way for someone to enjoy music at a higher volume level than others also watching the same TV, without headphones.
2. RF-WHP02 has a spatial enhancement feature to enhance stereo sound.
3. RF-WHP02 also offers some voice enhancement meant for people with diminished hearing who have difficulty picking out speech when watching TV.
4. RF-WHP01 has black trim. The RF-WHP02 has metallic maroon trim.

The RF-WHP01 & RFWHP02 are available now at Best Buy stores. As of the writing of this article, they are not yet available online, though that’s only a matter of time.

UPDATE: They are available now online: RF-WHP01 for $79.99 and RF-WHP02 for $99.99.

To get a sense of what a killer deal this is… compare this to Sony’s 2.4GHz and the 60-some dB SNR 900 MHz junk that is still hanging around…

So forget IR, forget 900 MHz, forget paying north of $200… pick up a pair of Rocketfish headphones that just work.

Digital photoframe… Pokemon lollipop…

Something nasty is lurking in the supply chain.  God forbid we throw some quality standards into our global sourcing efforts.  This is just a microcosm of a larger effect that ultimately will drive some lost jobs back home.   America’s uniquely cynical (read: savvy) consumerists will make sure of it.

Like many others I am sure, Kevin snagged one of the RF-WHTIBs that were on sale last weekend.  He’s declared that it has solved his problem.  Great!

Interesting blog, too.

This Thanksgiving holiday season, I’ve seen more Black Friday chatter on the web than I can remember ever seeing in the past. From Gizmodo, Engadget, Google ads to ad hoc urls like http://www.blackfriday.info, it’s endless.

Obviously some deals are better than others. The one that caught my eye of course is the one offered by Best Buy for the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB wireless rear speaker kit. At $79.99, this is 20% off from it’s normal retail price. At $99, the commentors talk about what a great value this product is… so at $79, this is a steal.

Trolling for Rocketfish write-ups, I came across Bale’s blog.

What I like about this particular article was that he asked users why they needed/wanted a free RF-WHTIB. It’s great to read through the customers’ own descriptions of their pain points… scroll thru the comments in case you are wondering why you may need one.

Gear Diary did a review of the RF-WHTIB.  Best quote:

Once a connection has been established, just start listening to your system and enjoy the full surround sound experience. I was extremely impressed by the quality of the sound coming through these speakers. I did not notice any significant difference or degradation in the sound quality when they were hooked up to the wireless receiver than when they were connected directly to the stereo. I have definitely found my solution to the wireless speaker dilemma.

One of his key negatives is in reference to the “hum issue”.  FYI, the manufacturer has a fix for this issue so current owners can refer to the discussion thread here, and get the fix.  New models also have the fix incorporated.

Rock on.

Not sure who Floppyhead are, but they wrote a pretty good review of the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB. They write with a bit more journalistic tone than AliveMatters, if not a bit less transparency. Who are they, and why do they care so much about HTPCs and getting advertising revenue? Anyways…

Good passage here that sums up the wireless surround sound pain point, and the solution:

The wireless speaker kit is a great idea for apartments or situtations where you cannot run wires through the walls. Several months ago I went to a Superbowl party at a friend’s apartment who had a surround sound system not set-up because the wires would have to run across two door openings. His plasma TV was definitely lonely.

With the Wireless Speaker kit in hand I went over to his apartment last week. We set-up the system in about 10 minutes. The receiver and the transmitter are linked at the factory so there is almost no set-up required. Connect the speakers to the wireless units and turn on your surround sound receiver. That’s about it.

Follow the link to see some pics of the RF-WHTIB in action.

Sorry for the cheesy graphic (click on it if you want a cleaner view). But as I’ve been writing about the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB (here, here, external-review-1, external-review-2) for weeks now, I thought it would be useful to illustrate how I use mine.

Some can call it a poor man’s whole home audio, or party mode speakers, or Zone B, or Zone 2 speakers. Whatever you call it… you want it.

This picture included here is basically what I am doing. I have my secondary R and L speaker-outs connected to my Rocketfish sender. The sender transmits the full rang, uncompressed CD-quality audio about 60 feet away, through 2 walls, and in an apartment building with plenty of WiFi around. It sounds awesome. I can finally listen to my tunes loud and clear while I get ready in my bedroom in the mornings. It rocks.

Many receivers, dating back 10 years or more, have Zone B outs. How many of yours are being used? Well, now you can.

Get creative. The RF-WHTIB has more uses than simply rear surround speakers. It has audio capabilities that make it one of the consumer electronics industry’s most over-achieving $99 device.

This PHTG guy has written a super-thorough review of the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB Wireless Rear Speaker Kit. His results again indicate that wireless performance was excellent, and coexistance with WLAN was acceptable.

We have a WLAN using 802.11b/g/pre-N gear; the sender unit was just a few feet away from the main router. There is also a wireless signal booster in another part of the house; this was just 30 feet away from the receiver unit when conducting the long range test. The use of the Rocketfish wireless speaker system did not affect in any way the performance of the WLAN, and the network speed was up as usual.

Equally important… The Rocketfish wireless speaker system did not show any signs of interference; it just worked fine.

Again, rock on.

Check it out here. Direct link to podcast here. Generally a positive review. Great to hear they are pleased with the wireless. The most telling quote…

The system uses the 2.4 GHz wireless range to transmit the audio signal. In other systems we’ve used, there’s been a ton of interference. We didn’t get any with the Rocketfish… We’ve used systems in the past that would start popping like a bag of Orville Redenbachers when you ran the microwave, answered a phone call or looked at it funny. Nothing like that with the Rocketfish.

Rock on. This is pretty impressive stuff considering these guys typically review gear that costs a lot more than $99.