“With home entertainment systems, people have reached their limit with all of the cables,” said Johan Coorg, a marketing manager at KEF at an electronics show in Berlin last September.
KEF until recently resisted making wireless speakers, Coorg said, because most did not reproduce the full range of sound or were prone to interference from signals emitted by microwave ovens and cellphones.
But today, at CES in Vegas, KEF unveils its first line of wireless speakers. KEF’s speakers will reproduce the full sound spectrum, and the wireless signal will be invulnerable to disturbances from other household devices, Coorg said.
“Customers were basically demanding wireless solutions, so we are adapting,” Coorg said. What KEF is offering is a wireless audio transmitter totally independent from the speakers and existing system. Compatible with all sorts of speaker set ups ranging from the bookshelf and floorstand to the in-wall ones. The device is available in two versions: the first one destined to be used in an independent way and the other as an extention (5000W) to the KHT 5000. It gives out 50 Watts per channel; a good number for surround sound.
The KEF Wireless technology is based on the HFADPCM (hi-fidelity adaptive differential pulse code modulation) that uses the same frequency as WiFi : 2.4 GhZ. But you needn’t worry about interferences from bluetooth, microwaves or other devices as the KEF Wireless boasts advanced error correction technology with an automatic selection of the best frequency to be used before any error occurs so it remains unnoticeable to an audiophile ear!
KEF Wireless is expected in the US in the first term of 2007 at 499$.