IOGEAR Build Quality and Remote

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to connect up speakers (especially those pesky rear speakers) so when IOGEAR connected me to review their Powerline Stereo Audio System I jumped at the chance. A little known fact (at least to the common consumer) is that "wireless" speakers still need power. The Powerline Stereo Audio System uses those same power wires to transmit audio signals. This could give you an easy way to transmit your audio information without all the drawbacks that a wireless connections offers (like interference and dropouts). The only question is how well it works.

First Impressions and Build Quality

The packaging of the IOGEAR Powerline Stereo Audio System is impeccable with a single transmitter on top, a receiver underneath, and a hole full of wires, cables, a remote, and a "wall-wart" receiver. The wires are all of the throwaway kind red and white RCAs. The power cord is detachable (a good thing) and the remote is small and thin. The transmitter looks like an alarm clock without a digital display and in its place an iPod dock. IOGEAR provides adapters so that nearly every flavor of iPod and MP3 player will work. There are control buttons on the front for the iPod and to select the input.

There are three ways to get information into the transmitter - iPod direct, 3.5mm cable (from a computer or headphone output), and red and white RCA. Each input is labeled. The transmitter can send to up to four different receivers. The kit comes with only one receiver but you can purchase more separately. This is a bit misleading implying that you can stream to four zones. In actuality, you get four channels so if you want to send the same audio to 15 different receivers at the same time, you just have to set them to the same channel. If you want to have audio only in a specific room (and not to the other receivers), you can use a specific channel for that. At that point, you can't use the transmitter to send to any other channel.

The receivers are fairly large wall-warts that have red and white RCA outputs on the bottom. Don't fear, if you need to connect up a 3.5mm equipped amp (like you'd find in computer speakers), IOGEAR provides a cable for that. There is a Left/Stereo/Right switch on the bottom as well. This will come in handy if you are using the IOGEAR Powerline Stereo Audio System to pipe audio to the back of your room in a 5/7.1 setup. The front sports a readout to tell you if it is connected and to which input. All of the components sport a glossy black finish that is both attractive and well executed. The wall-warts are large and ungainly but they fit very snuggly in the wall which should help any of you insisting on using heavier cables from pulling it from the wall.

Remote

The remote is small, thin, and easily lost. It has all the required buttons including controls for the iPod and volume and a "switching" button for each channel (cycles through the channels). There is also a SRS button to engage the SRS WOW HD. You'll DEFINITELY want to keep this remote safe and out of the bottom of the couch. Considering that nearly every remote these days has some universal properties, any room you'd need to control the volume or iPod functions, these should be programmed into a one of the remotes already in the room. The dedicated remote for the Powerline Stereo Audio System should be tucked away safe as once it is lost, you'll probably need some sort of specially trained dog to find it. Other than it's size, it has all the requisite buttons and was responsive enough.

Set-Up

Setting up the IOGEAR Stereo Audio System is just about as easy as you'd expect. All you really need to do is to plug everything in and select the right channel for each of your receivers. You'll want to remember that this is not an amplified solution. You are either going to have to connect to powered monitors or use an external amp. Also, make sure the amp/speakers are off before you connect the receiver or you will get an ear splitting surprise. One of the nice things is the IR receiver is NOT on the transmitter but on the wall-wart receivers so you can control each of your rooms individually. This also makes integration into a universal remote system a snap. There is a dedicated 3.5mm jack for discrete IR input on the transmitter but it is not in use (according to the very, VERY minimal manual). There is volume control if you want it though for a surround solution, this won't be needed. You can control the iPod through the IR on the receiver with the remote. The transmitter does not have an IR receiver so you'll have to control that manually or through the dedicated 3.5mm jack connected via a universal remote IR blaster. If something goes horribly wrong and you lose your remote, the wall-warts do have a channel cycling button but it is very small and you'll probably have to press it with a pen or a sharp fingernail (which keeps the kids off it so that's a pretty good feature).

To simplify this whole process, let me break it down for you. The remote controls the channel that that receiver is on only. The buttons on the transmitter control the source and channel on the transmitter only. You can't send more than one source out to different channels. So, the remote is only really good for controlling the iPod, volume and turning the receiver to the right channel, wrong channel, or no channel (which is the same as the wrong channel). There is an IN button on the remote but I think it stands for "Incase you need a button to push" since it doesn't do anything. It seems like it should change the input on the transmitter (which would be nice) but it doesn't. Instead, every time you want to switch inputs, you'll need to go to the transmitter and do it manually.