| Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Music | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 50 reviews)
Sales Rank: 31686
Category: CE
Publisher: Creative Labs
Studio: Creative Labs
Brand: Creative Labs
Label: Creative Labs
Media: Electronics
Autographed: 0
Memorabilia: 0
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 13.7 x 9.9 x 5
MPN: 70PD039000000
Model: 70PD039000000
UPC: 054651060630
EAN: 0054651060630
ASIN: B0000E2RZN
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| Features:
| • | Listen to the MP3's on your PC in another room of your home over your 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network | | • | View and choose songs and playlists from your entire MP3 collection on the remote control's built in LCD screen | | • | Place the music receiver anywhere since the remote uses RF transmission it doesn't require line of sight | | • | Works with home stereo and standalone speakers featuring digital optical (SPDIF) and standard RCA connectors | | • | Compatible with Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, and XP |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Sound Blaster Wireless Music gives you the freedom to play all of the MP3 and WMA music on your PC in another room of your home over your existing 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network. The remote control features a large LCD screen that lets you view and choose songs and playlists without needing a TV like other systems. The wireless receiver connects to any audio system, so you can listen to your music in any room, on your Home Entertainment system or with any powered speakers. And Sound Blaster Wireless Music is designed to be easier to set up than other solutions, detecting your existing wireless network and either connecting automatically or with a simple USB setup.Sound Blaster Wireless Music makes it easy to listen to your PC music collection in the living room, bedroom, or any other room where you want to enjoy music.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
Is not an appliance, IS a gadget January 2, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
We have been using the SB wireless music for about a month.
Good points:
System uses same (decent) desktop software as my wife's Zen Micro and my Nomad Zen, so we have one system for managing all our music.
The first unit we received was not working, and Creative customer support replaced it after a short e-mail discussion, which is a big improvement in Creative's approach to customer support.
When working, it works well, and it is cool, because the audio stuff is hidden, only the remote is visible, and with a volume control on the remote, that is all you need.
Bad Points:
Would not connect to WEP encrypted network until we downloaded and updated the firmware.
Required us to re-configure wireless network from "Shared" to "Open" Network Authentication.
If you want to get the SB wireless music to work with an encrypted wireless network, you need to read ALL the KB articles on the Creative site, the directions in the box are insufficient.
Occasionally, the base-station forgets how to communicate with the wireless network (happened 2x in one month) and the only solution is to carry the base-station back to the PC running the creative software and re-configure it with a USB cable.
Regularly, the remote looses communication with the remote, so we need to unplug the base station, and when it wakes up, it finds the remote and starts working again.
Summary:
If Creative could just spend more time &money to get the bugs out of their software they would have an incredible product. Unfortunately, it suffers from the usual flakiness of a creative product, so it is more of a P.I.T.A. gadget than a useful appliance.
 Excellent product December 17, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This thing is doing EXACTLY what I wanted it to do. My house has speakers wired throughout, but the builder terminated all speaker wire in our mechanicals room next to our furnace...a ridiculous place for a stereo system. To solve this, I installed the sound blaster in the mechanicals room and have it pumping music into a stereo receiver sitting next to it. My laptop is transmitting my music to it over our wireless network and the remote allows me to view, play, queue up songs, trigger pre-made playlists with the touch of a buttom, and adjust volume. The music sounds great, everything was very intuitive, and this is a great product.
If I were to list a downside, I'd say it was the range on the remote. I live in a two story house with a basement and have the transmitter in the basement. The remote will work consistantly and relatively quickly (quick enough, at least) from all three levels, but not throughout the length of the house. In other words, there are dead spots where the remote cannot find the sound blaster receiver. However, my situation is unique in that I'm forced to put the receiver in the basement because that's where the house speaker wires terminate. If I had the receiver on the main level (1st floor), I wouldn't have an issue. It has no problems going through floors, but they do add interference.
This is truly a great product and I can now enjoy my collection of 2500 mp3's throughout my house with the amazing convenience of the remote.
 Great So Far! November 2, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I received this item about an hour ago. I am currently listening to it through my stereo. Overall easy setup and install.
I found it very easy to install the software and import my 80GB library. The media server is the usual Creative software -- somewhat cumbersome at times, but powerful and not too bad to get used to. I love that you can control the receiver from the computer as well as the remote -- even the current playlist.
The receiver ships with a mini plug. You will need an RCA-RCA or optical cable if you want to plug this into a typical stereo. After I permitted the receiver on my wireless network (I am a tech geek, you don't have to do this) it connected no problem.
The remote works well in almost every room of my house. I have used other products that are controlled with the TV or the PC. That's silly! No need with this remote. There is a little lag time when communicating with my PC, but not more than a few seconds. I assume it would be faster if your library is small. The LCD screen is large enough to read unless you have pretty bad vision. If you have ever used a Creative MP3 player the remote will look very familiar.
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because of the lagtime with the remote. It's not bad and still faster than thumbing through hundreds of CD's. Not a perfect product, but Creative is close.
Get a Media Center PC Instead....... September 21, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
It's a decent buy if you still haven't bitten the bullet on a full blown Windows Media Center Edition PC.
It comes with a Wireless Music Server application which you run on your PC. The Device itself is an external device about the size of a cable modem which you can plug into a receiver or powered speakers via RCA or Optical connections. The device connects wirelessly to your PC or to your router.
It also comes with a RF (radio frequency) remote control with LCD display. The remote controls the device and allows you to browse your music library by artist, playlist, album, etc and play the music. Because the remote uses an RF connection to the device, you don't have to have line of sight to the device to kick off a new song. This is great for me because my office is in the back of my basement, but my living room and stereo system is in the front. I'm able to use my remote wirelessly to kick off music in my living room across the house. This is a huge deal because I no longer have to run cables from my PC to my stereo across the floor or through the walls.
The downsides:
1) The remote is sluggish at times.
2) The system won't play DRM-protected WMA files. This SUCKS, but I've found a (tedious) way around it (basically recapturing the DRM-protected WMA filestream by using a Virtual Audio Cable loopback and an application called MuvAudio)
3) It doesn't work with Windows Media Player - You have to "import" your playlists and file IDs into Creative's MediaSource application. (This isn't too bad though, as I really like MediaSource). It sucks though because I get my music through Napster, which DRM-encodes all music...
Overall, I'm pleased with my purchase and it will suffice until I get around to building a Media Center Edition PC and buy a couple of Media Center Extenders.
Worked out of the box - easy to use July 29, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have an Audiotron, which I have had for years; it looks good with my stereo equipment. I bought this unit for the bedroom, where I wanted something small to hide in a bedside table; it is very small and unassuming. It works very well and was easy to setup. I would have preferred the automated network filesystem search of the Audiotron (no PC has any server, it can find music on standalone remote disks (like the LinkStation)). So, I was disappointed in having to use the "server" (software on the PC).
But, it was easy and it works perfectly.
I like the remote with the LCD. The remote is a great invention, especially as it is RF. So, you do not have to be line of sight and do not have to read an LCD on the main unit. It came with the newer software and there is no delays or glitches that have been reported before. One nice thing is that after you select music, you can add more to the queue. But, the remote takes a bit of getting used to. For example, if you follow from Artist to their album(s) to the 1st song and press play, you only add one song. You have to stop at the album and press play to select all the songs within. This then moves the cursor down one line which can be a little disconcerting. To queue, you just hold the play button down for a couple seconds - rather non-obvious: I would have preferred the opposite (click play to queue, hold down to stop the current song and start selected).
The "currently playing" menu item's format is rather ugly (not well laid out info), but works (and tells you how far through the queue you are). It goes blank quickly and so you have to click a button to see again. Click the wrong button and it takes that action (vs. just waking up the screen).
The volume on the remote is nice. I have a small stereo with no fiber optic link, so I do not know if this work with that. It works with the RCA jacks. I do not know if the volume control through the RCA diminishes the quality (some do, since the amp is defined for a fixed signal power), but it is very handy to control everything from the one remote.
The power-on on the remote starts the unit and makes sure it can find the server - this is fast after the 1st time.
Overall, a very pleasing product.
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