Customer Reviews

Advent AW810 900 MHz Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Speaker System

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

I love the digital music channels provided through my cable TV service, and I wanted to be able to listen to this music outside. I just got so sick of dragging the boom box outside during dinner parties or while gardening and then having to fuss with changing CDs--especially when I had great music playing inside the house.

The speaker has exceeded my expectations. If you read the directions carefully and follow them step-by-step, you'll have good sound outdoors, too. I was up and running with tunes oustide within ten minutes. I needed another five minutes to fine tune, which was easily accomplished by reading the instructions and the troubleshooting guide. (If you refuse to read instructions or to show a little patience, you get what you deserve.)

Contrary to what you may have read in other reviews, if the unit is set up correctly, the sound is NOT thin. The bass is substantial and even with the volume set to maximum, there is no distortion. I set up the speaker (loud!) and strolled my entire yard perimeter, as well as the far side of my neighbor's yard, and could hear everything perfectly. I used the cordless phone right next to the unit--no problem. The distance from my stereo to the backyard is the entire depth of the house--about 60 feet--with signal passing through several plaster and brick walls. I found that it's important to place the transmitter up as high as you can. That solved the few little sound problems I had at setup. What can I say? It sounds great and I love it.

I'm very happy with this wireless speaker set. It offers much more stable tuning than the Recoton set I owned 7 years ago. It's especially rewarding when the price I paid for this Advent set was clearance price at 50% off.

Regardless of the price, I plan to buy at least one more set for the other bathroom and also sunroom. It's over all quite musical, to my pleasant surprise, even though I wish for a bit more upper midrange and higher frequencies.

Signal strength/range is rather good, perfectly adequate for my 1600-sq-ft. home. Those customers who give a 1 or 2 ranking for this model probably didn't read the manual carefully. One important step is to avoid overloading the transmitter with loud audio source. That would make the speaker sound as if damaged or having a bad transmission. Input should be only loud enough to make the red light blink intermittenly. It's important to adjust the level of input volume especially when connecting to a CD player, which usually generates rather strong output.

I bought this for my parents just a couple of days ago so I haven't used it enough to know completely if there will be hissing/popping etc. However, I have tried 3 different places outside of my house and it sounds great. I read the manual and did exactly what it said. I have it plugged into my headphone jack on my stereo. I have a $600.00 receiver so that might make a difference??? I doubt it though. I played a CD on my 10 year old CD player and it sounded wonderful. It is definitely loud enough (it has volume control). I actually had my receiver volume lower than the manual told me to put it and it still works great. It only took a couple of seconds to get it tuned in to where there was no static.

Now for the rest of the story. Yes, if you do have several people moving around in and out of the house, then you will get static. If you use a cordless phone or a cell phone around it, you'll get static, but that's life of wireless products. It's not that bad either. Haven't you listened to a radio and you move a bit and get static? same thing. Plus, haven't you heard static on your cordless phone when you're around electrical stuff? that's the same thing too. I bought this for my parents to use in their hot tub area (so noone should really be moving around).

So far, I have no complaints about this product. Only praise. Make sure and read the directions when you're hooking it up. Plus, I would suggest plugging it into a headphone jack on your stereo equipment. I have not plugged it in using the RCA jacks, but I know the headphone jack works great.

I'm sure it's different for different people and different surroundings. I have a brick house so the "waves" are going through wood and brick just fine. I don't know about metal. I'm sure that would hinder it's performance. Plus I've tested it up to about 30 feet (not 300 like it says it can go). If you're interested in this product. I would go ahead and buy it to try it, but make sure you can return it. I bought it at my local [store] - more expensive than what I found online, but I got it same day and I can return it if I don't like it.

This speaker has met my expectations and works well. We use it both outside on battery power, as well as inside in one of the upstairs rooms plugged in with the AC cord. I read some of the other reviews about interference etc., so was a little hesitant when I bought it. But, it was the only reasonably priced wireless indoor/outdoor speaker I could find. I was happy after I bought the product and would recommend this product (though I don't think it's the highest quality speaker for those looking for a high end speaker).

I'm a big electronics geek and usually can figure out things quickly w/o reading the instructions. I fiddled with my AW810 Wireless speaker for a good 10-15 mins and had no luck getting good receptions. I finally broke down and got the manual out. After reading the instruction, it only took 5 seconds to get the speaker working perfectly. Here's how to do it:
1. Read the manual!
2. Hook up the transmitter to your music source (amplifier or cd player), via the headphone output jack.
3. IMPORTANT: Turn the "volume" dial on the back of the transmitter until the little red light on the front flashes intermittently. If you get a solid red or a fast blinking light, you have the volume set too high. Ease back until it flashes slowly.
4. Turn the power on on your AW810 speaker.
5. Turn the "tuning" knob on the speaker until you get a "Green" light.

And that's it! I put batteries in mine and take it out to the back yard. It's the best toy I've gotten this Summer!

These little speakers not without their faults. Tuning can be a bit touchy and can need occasional tweaking, and they are susceptible to some multi-path interference from moving bodies. And, let's face it...they're mono. But overall, these are a great value. Sound dispersion is excellent (they really are omnidirectional with their vertically firing tweeter and woofer)and we are able to fill our medium-size backyard with adequate sound levels for gatherings. Sound quality is adequate. They don't rival a good outdoor speaker, but I was impressed with the level of detail and with the low-end response. Hiss and static due to interference on the 900 MHz band was infrequent and usually due to moving bodies (multi-path interference). Plus, with the ability to run on batteries and still play loudly, they're completely portable. Highly recommended.

These are not for audiophiles, who spend all night waffling on about the depth of a speakers sound, pretending they can hear the difference between speakers that costs $1500 and $1600! However that said, if you want a speaker that within 5 minutes of setting up let's you listen to your favourite cd's on your home system, and not eat up the batteries go ahead and buy these you won't be dissapointed.

Expecting these speakers to have the performance of high end speakers costing several hundred or thousands of dollars is absurd. By the way for those moaning about low volume levels and static, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!

If you're looking for a wireless speaker system that works well through walls then this is NOT the speaker you want. I bought it expecting it to work from my living room (where the transmitter was) to my deck (25 ft. away). If I moved the unit into the outside window line-of-sight to the transmitter then the speaker clarity was better. However, I was disappointed overall with the performance.

This item is exactly what we were looking for. Its range reaches over 100 feet into our back yard. Those who complain about range probably didn't read the manual throughly. While the frequency response isn't as good as my regular stereo speakers (natch) this is just the ticket for providing music while I'm firing up the grill.

Works very well. Not the greatest sound but it's just the thing for patio parties, etc. Make sure to read the manual first.