Sweeet! Vizio VHP100 Wireless Home Theater Headphones

The Vizio wireless headphones are finally trickling out to the various gadget blogs. Look for some updated product pages I would presume on vizio.com sooner or later. Nice to see these Avnera-based beauties make their way to retail. They sure look good don't they?

Vizio VHP100 Wireless Home Theater Headphones | iTech News Net - Gadget News and Reviews.

Vizio Soundbar (VSB210WS) available now... goodness within

The Vizio Soundbar (VSB210WS) is finally available!

Go get it now!  See Walmart and Sears.  Or check out more info at Vizio's homepage.

Warning.  What you are about to read is a biased, but pretty informed review.  I encourage you to check out reviews from other parts of the internet, and I will also link as many as I find here at wirelessaudioblog... so over the coming months, check out the rest of this site for more recent infos...

OK...

Pros: Wireless subwoofer, Avnera wireless, Avnera class-D, support for (forthcoming) wireless headphones

Cons: At $349, be ready to spend over a $1000 because you're gonna want a few for your house.  You will wake your neighbors.

The VSB210WS uses two of Avnera's core technologies.

The first technology is the wireless system that is employed in devices like the Logitech Clearchat PC Wireless, the Rocketfish RF-WS01 and RF-WS02, the Rocketfish RF-WHTIB, and countless others.  The Vizio Soundbar uses Avnera's wireless system for a high-performance, wireless subwoofer. There is also future-ready support for wireless headphones (with SRS action as well).  This is a killer feature that you won't see on any other soundbar on the market...the wireless system will drive up to three wireless headphones simultaneously, and when activating the headphones, automatically mutes the speakers.

The second of Avnera's technology put to work is their Class-D amplifier solution.  Avnera's Class-D is finally ready for showtime and it's gaining traction in the industry due to its affordability, high power-efficiency, and extremely low distortion performance.  In fact, Avnera's Class-D is patented and pretty much bad-ass.  The fundamental advantage is the patented PWM driver stage that delivers very high PSRR (power supply rejection ratio) performance.. thus allowing Avnera-based powered speakers to run on lower-grade, switching power supplies, without encountering increases in distortion or noise at the audio output due to power supply noise.  It also has a scalable power output stage that enables it to serve low power, low-cost device as well as higher-power premium offerings... all the while maintaining hi-fi quality and affordability.   As a result, Avnera's amp is finding duty in a broad range of affordable consumer devices, like the Rocketfish RF-WS02 and entry-level products like the iHome iP27, and premium products like Vizio's offering and iHome's iP1 which is due to hit later this season.  In the Vizio Soundbar, the amplifier drives both the bar AND the subwoofer.  You really just gotta hook this bad boy up and hear the difference.

Also enjoy the implementations of SRS TruSurround HD and SRS TruVolume running on a dedicated Cirrus DSP (I think... need to dig back thru FCC teardowns to verify).

Check out the full specs below (source: www.vizio.com):

SOUND BAR

• Four 3" High-Efficiency hand built mid/bass transducers
• Two 3/4" High Performance aluminum dome neodymium tweeters
• Speaker bar frequency response: 80Hz to 20kHz
• S/PDIF receiver for digital audio delivery
• SNR 105db
• High Power Efficiency with Low Power Consumption
• Environmentally conscious

WIRELESS SUBWOOFER

• Subwoofer Frequency Response: 35Hz up to 80Hz
• 6.5" long throw (high excursion) driver
• Subwoofer placement anywhere within 60 ft of sound bar - clear line of sight

HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO PERFORMANCE

• High-Performance 32-Bit 150MHz DSP Audio Engine
• Impressive Sound Pressure Level measuring 90dB SPL (1W @ 1M)
• Advanced 24-Bit Linear PCM to PWM Engine with integrated thermal, over-current, over voltage, over current protection
• Latest Virtualization & Volume Leveling Technology from SRS Labs
• SRS TruSurround HD virtual surround
• SRS TruVolume eliminates undesirable loud commercials and channel to channel variances

SYSTEM INSTALLATION

• Two analog and 1 S/PDIF connection from HDTV output
• Flexible stand supporting both desktop and wall mount configurations
• AC (110V, 60Hz) Power Supply Connection to both Speaker Bar and Wireless Subwoofer

REMOTE CONTROL

• Master Volume Control
• SRS TruSurround HD signal processing on/off
• SRS TruVolume On/Off
• Subwoofer trim control

WIRELESS PERFORMANCE (SUBWOOFER OR HEADPHONES)

• Range Up to 20 meters (60ft) - Clear line of site
• Support for up to 3 headphones SRS Headphone (Speakers are muted)
• Patented field-proven wireless technology 2.4Ghz
• True CD-Quality uncompressed audio transmission
• Sync response within 3 seconds
• Latency equal to the speed of sound (1 ms/ft.)
• Guaranteed equal and consistent latency
• High-efficiency Class D amplifier

AUDIO INPUTS

• 2 Stereo RCA Input
• Input Sensitivity: 2Vrms (max)
• 1 S/PDIF Fiber Optic TOSLINK Input
• Supported Sampling Frequencies: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz
• Support Linear PCM Bit Depths: 16-bit, 20-bit

AUDIO PROCESSING FEATURES

• SRS TruSurround HD enables compelling Virtual Surround experience from mono, stereo or 2 channel matrix surround encoded content
• SRS TruBass psychoacoustic bass enhancements enables amazing bass
• SRS FOCUS sound height alignment for precise sonic stage placement under panel
• SRS Dialog Clarity delivers enhanced vocal intelligibility
• SRS Definition delivers sparkling detail while bringing lost background information to life
• SRS TruVolume eliminates undesirable loud commercials and channel to channel variances

SPEAKER BAR DIMENSIONS

• 39.95" (W) X 4.82" (H) X 4.33" (D)

SUBWOOFER DIMENSIONS

• 11.18" (W) X 12.77" (H) X 11.84" (D)

What the hell is this trying to illustrate?

Some wireless audio marketing is so busted... I won't publicize which company this is from, but keen viewers should be able to figure it out...

To be clear I find this graphic lazy, misleading, and totally ineffective.  Thankfully it isn't something from any of my past employers...

That it is trying to illustrate the portable media case for wireless audio applications is lost on me and anyone else who would look at this hoping to better understand.

Ugh.  I mean, the chick is wearing wired headphones!!!  Not to mention the radio waves are beaming (presumably) audio to two devices that have no compelling need for receiving audio, and three are receiving audio from an iPod whose user is currently already enjoying the music on headphones...

Onkyo's announces the MHP-UW2 wireless headphones for Apple iPod

Both Gizmodo and CrunchGear picked up on today's announcement by Onkyo of the release (in Japan) of the MHP-UW2 wireless headphone that come bundled with an adaptor for transmitting audio from either a iPod via 30-pin dock connector as well as through standard 3.5 mm minijack.

When used with the Apple 30-pin dock connector, the headphones also provide remote control of volume and track management, forward, back, etc.  The headphones themselves are a pleasing industrial design that provide comfortable padded earpads, as well as adjustable headband, and folding headband for easy stowage.  Another great feature of these phones is they have a wired option so if you run out of batteries or have a particularly observant flight attendant, you can always plug in and go the traditional route.  Very slick indeed.

Dirty little secret... these headphones will work with other Avnera wireless headphone and headset transmitters like Creative's or Logitech's USB dongle for those of you more interested in PC listening. ;-)

I speak for myself here, albeit an Avnera employee, that I am very happy to see one of audio's premier brands, Onkyo, introducing product based on our wireless technology.  With recent announcements by Logitech, Panasonic, Creative, and now Onkyo, you can see that companies with records of building innovative and high quality audio devices are recognizing Avnera's capabilities.  That these products are high performance and affordable says a lot for the value Avnera is bringing to the industry.  See the many other products Avnera has been designed into by clicking here.

Wireless audio... A to Z... ah hell, why not?

I've been giving this some thought for a while - of course I enjoy writing about Avnera-enabled products, but I also want to bring this blog's readership some discussion about a wider swath of products that maybe don't involve Avnera at all, but maybe use our competitors or alternate wireless technologies to stream audio. It seems right and fair that I bring to the attention of this blog's readers innovative and practical implementations of wireless audio, and highlight some of the new trends that enable experiences that may very well be on the verge of becoming mainstream.

So I've decided... it's time I finally kick this off.  It's an area of the market I've spent considerable cycles on, and I want to share my basic observations about the various offerings out there, their value propositions, and where applicable, share my experiences.  I'll do my best to opine on pros and cons and since I'll be focused on the end products and the application of wireless audio, it won't so much be a commentary on whether the product maker made the right or wrong choice when it came to using Avnera or a competitor.  This won't necessarily be true when it comes to alternate wireless technologies... to the extent it impacts the end user experience positively or negatively.  Don't expect exhaustive reviews, or teardowns, since i really value minimalism when it comes to breaking down a concept or product.  I'll do my best to cut to the chase... which maybe I'm not doing so well in this post...

Expect to see commentary on solutions from Sony (S-AIR), Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sennheiser, Sonos, Apple (AirTunes), Altec Lansing, Griffin (Evolve), Creative, Logitech (Bluetooth, ClearChat, Sqeezebox Duet), Rocketfish, Klipsch (KlipschCast), Bose.  Products covered will involve various systems and technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth, and proprietary systems from Avnera, and our competitors.

It is most probably I'll spend some time comparing various OEMs products to one another... it usually helps highlight differentiators, but it's also more fun that way.

Also expect me to introduce and use sparingly a lexicon that will be useful in order to better understand features and differentiators.  We'll touch on and get to the nut of concepts such as:

• Wireless protocols: standards-based vs. proprietary, transmission frequency


• Audio transmission: Asynchronous vs. isochronous


• Audio payload formats: compressed vs. lossless vs. uncompressed


• Audio payload metrics: bitrates, precision, sampling rates, SNR, and frequency response.


• End to end latency: fixed vs. variable, short vs. long


• Interference rejection vs. injection, wireless coexistance


• Number of audio channels: Mono vs. Stereo vs. Multi-channel


• Basic audio product marketing and feature-set buzzwords like power output, surround sound, HTIB, subwoofer, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, HD vs. CD, Blu-ray, Dolby TrueHD, virtual surround, SRS TruSurround HD, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, etc...

I hope this ends up being generally useful... Stay tuned...