The BEST??

[Shiny Head]

Hi,

I am looking for speakers for my iPhone 4.

Top criterias:

1) sound quality
2) portable WITH rechargeable battery
3) wireless (a distant third)

What do you think is my BEST option(s)??

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Sparkee]

First I would look at AirPlay speakers but they are higher priced as a rule. AirPlay speakers send audio un-compressed which may sound better. High quality audio over WiFi although they do require a good wireless network. My preference is the iHome iW1 which works great on my 5Ghz "n" network but not so good on my sister's "g" network. The iW2 is a little cheaper but does not have a battery. The iW1 is my main portable speaker at home and on the patio.

Bluetooth audio is compressed which can downgrade quality some what. Bluetooth speakers generally have a lot of audio processing happening which can make them sound reasonably good although some lower quality audio can sound even worse. For bluetooth I am in love with my JawBone JamBoxes. I started with the original JamBox which is great sounding for it's size as well as being very portable. The Big JamBox, which I just un-packed now, is even better sounding. Although the Big JamBox is not very suitable for travel which I do most. Logitech has the Logitech Wireless Speaker Z515 which I hear is highly rated for it's price but I have never heard it.

Best option is to go to a Best Buy store and get the salesman to help you to pair your iPhone to their display units so you can hear the difference for yourself. I was dead against Bluetooth audio however I have changed my mind since I heard the JamBox, but you do have to pay for it.

[kornchild2002]

I'm not sure about bluetooth being compressed. I know that bluetooth 1.0 was around 700kbps but bluetooth 2.0 increased that to 1Mbps and 2.1 is even faster than that. So bluetooth 2.1 would be more than fast enough to carry an uncompressed audio signal coming from an iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. Bluetooth 4.0 has an even higher bandwidth. Whether or not manufacturers use the full bandwidth is something I do not know. However, I can confirm that my iPad does output a full 44.1KHz, 16-bit signal to by home theater system at 1411.2 kbit/s. My home theater receiver uses bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

I do agree that AirPlay would be the easiest option since it is built into iOS for everything but I am not 100% sure that all bluetooth receivers/stereos/transmitters use a compressed signal. I guess it depends on the application. I know the audio being sent and received over a bluetooth headset is compressed but that is only for voice communication (which the phone companies and devices compress anyway).

[Sparkee]

You are probably right. There is some conversion and I suspect there can be a little compressing happening depending on it's implementation but since I picked up the JamBox I doubt if it is much of a concern or if most people could hear the difference. Even then portable bluetooth speakers seem to be "tuned" for optimal sound for their size and still sound pretty good. Most reviews or info on bluetooth speakers I have read do claim a "limited" loss in audio quality mainly due to bluetooth's limited bandwidth. But they may be referring to the older standards as well. One article did claim higher bandwidth with newer specs but the codecs used were still limited in the bandwidth used, I believe this also was an older document I read awhile ago as well.

Side by side I don't hear much difference in the audio quality between my bluetooth Big JamBox and my AirPlay iHome iW1.

[hasan1]

I would love to all about of this apple tv, i think its the best way to use speakers .I always like to see it very much.
Apple TV is a digital media receiver developed and sold by Apple Inc. It is a small form factor network appliance designed to play digital content originating from the iTunes Store, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, NHL GameCenter or any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television.

[peterthomas]

Originally Posted by hasan1

I would love to all about of this apple tv, i think its the best way to use speakers .I always like to see it very much.
Apple TV is a digital media receiver developed and sold by Apple Inc. It is a small form factor network appliance designed to play digital content originating from the iTunes Store, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, NHL GameCenter or any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television.


Attachment 7682

I wonder what match does this apple tv make in this thread, there is a discussion about the speakers and you are telling us about apple tv? atleast i dont understand, what you are trying to say here, but it really does not make any sense to me!