Welcome to the party, Bose. SoundLink joins a cool crowd.

From Bose press release announcing the Bose SoundLink Wireless Music System.

“Many people use a computer as their primary source for music,” said John Roselli, category business manager for Bose Corporation. “But that convenience and experience is diminished by having to be at the computer to hear it. The Bose SoundLink system unlocks that music, streaming it almost anywhere in the home –- even outside –- quickly and easily.”

Yes.  This has been the premise around numerous entry-level applications that Avnera has enabled with its AudioMagic product line.  As opined on Engadget today, Bose's offering at $549.99 is pretty expensive, more so than the applications Avnera has already enabled in this application space – the idea being making such a cool function accessible to more users.  So I'm happy to see this announcement because, with Bose's marketing machine putting the "reason-to-buy" into consumers' minds, it will shed a renewed light on the more affordable solutions already out there to enable unleashed PC music listening.

Here are a few affordable SoundLink alternatives:

• AudioEngine W1, $149 – USB to wireless line-out receiver.  Bring your own speakers.  Any speakers.  Amazon bundles AudioEngine's own A5 with a "price for both" of $474.  Will absolutely destroy the Bose in performance.  Or use the W1 with the aux input on the iHome iP1 and make your own bundle for $448 (like a high-end Mint... what a segue).


• Mint 220 Digital Music Station, $119.99 – Exactly the same concept as Bose's offering, but with the added utility of an iPod dock on the speaker itself making it more versatile.


• Rocketfish RF-WS01, $104.99 – Line-in transmitter with two wireless speakers for separate left and right arrangement, or dual zone mono operation.  Expandable with the RF-WS02 as well.

I love a market!

Wired says Audioengine W1 "surprisingly effective"

Wired's Gadget Lab reviewed the Audioengine W1.  Product summed up nicely.  Thanks to Rob Beschizza for the Avnera shoutout

Check it out.

And EngadgetHD too... though not a review...

Comment thread here pretty decent as well... fair and balanced folks. Although again, many of the negative experiences mentioned in the thread could have been addressed if they visit this comment thread. I'm also loving the shout-0uts for AudioEngine's AW1. Which rocks in its own way.

Gizmodo offers a small stage for the Audioengine W1

While I know that everyone's blog is just as accessible as another, these blog/media machines -- like Gizmodo's Gawker Media and Engadget's Weblogs Inc. -- just know how to attract the eyeballs. They're undeniably centers of gravity when it comes to attracting the gadget lusty peanut gallery. I just wish they spelled "AvneraAudio" correctly.

That being said, it always makes me happy when I see one of the products we helped enable get a small stage on one of these geeky mega-venues. And what a product Audioengine crafted. This thing rocks.

All my shouting and banner waving about the "Swiss Army Knife of wireless audio gadgets" from the Alive Matters bleacher seats only gets the word out so far... but that's not going to stop me.

Lots more to come. Stay tuned...

Audioengine launches the AW1, the Swiss Army Knife of wireless audio gadgets

Our good friends over at Audioengine announced their AW1 at CES last week. I'm really excited this device is out there finally, because it's just a versatile little widget for whatever wireless audio links you can think of. Unlike any other product enabled by Avnera so far, the AW1 audio transmitter accepts both USB audio and headphone-level audio as inputs -- making it work with almost all audio source devices.

As their packaging graphics show (below), there are many ways to apply the AW1.



One really important point I want to make is that there is no more pleasing application of the AW1 than (using it as the industrial design encourages) connecting PC audio up to Audioengine's own A5, or newest A2 speakers.

Incidentally, the A5s are Avnera favorites, deployed widely across our office for various "listening" tasks. They look great, and sound unbelievable. Just check out the reviews their products get. I'm happy to know our wireless chipset met their high standards!

Enjoy...