How to Make Your Wired Speakers Wireless

So, you have a pair of wired speakers that are continued to a stereo receiver you love, or mayhap y'all have a self-powered pair, or a two.ane system that's perfect for watching movies. Merely all of your friends are buying smart speakers they tin talk to, or at least stream music to, and you desire to get in on the wireless revolution. We're hither to help. At that place are plenty of ways to innovate wireless connectivity to your current setup, nearly of which are relatively cheap and easy to accomplish.

Google Chromecast Sound

This is the easiest solution if y'all have merely i speaker you want to turn wireless (a brusk daisy-chain of cables will let you run a stereo pair). Google Chromecast Audio is, like the name says, an sound version of Google'south Chromecast media streamer. It streams stereo sound over Wi-Fi using the Google Cast platform, letting y'all play music from your smartphone, tablet, or reckoner. Information technology outputs through a combination three.5mm aux/optical port, letting you hook information technology upwards directly to a speaker or a receiver.

At but $35, the Chromecast Audio doesn't come up with a lot of accessories. The bundle includes only the Chromecast Sound itself, a USB cable, a USB ability adapter, and a 3.5mm sound cable. If you want to hook it up through an optical connexion, yous need to get a iii.5mm-to-TOSLINK adapter. If you lot want to hook information technology upwardly to a stereo pair of speakers, you need to become a three.5mm stereo splitter that turns the single 3.5mm output into a pair of RCA stereo plugs. If your speakers have RCA ports, that's all you need to do. If they simply take 3.5mm aux ports and you still want stereo, you need to get RCA-to-iii.5mm-mono adapters to connect the Chromecast Audio to both speakers.

As a Wi-Fi adapter, Chromecast Audio supports multi-room systems like many of the other Wi-Fi devices below. This means yous can use several in different rooms and control multiple speakers around the business firm individually or all at one time.

Amazon Repeat Dot

If you want to control your speakers with your vocalism, the Amazon Repeat Dot is the way to go. This puck-shaped device is itself a small speaker, but more importantly, it's a Wi-Fi-connected microphone array that lets you use Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. And it has a 3.5mm output for connecting information technology to a bigger speaker.

Like the Chromecast Audio, you lot can plug the Echo Dot into your powered speaker, or powered speaker pair with some adapters. With Alexa listening to your commands, this means you can inquire for whatsoever music bachelor through Amazon (or other Alexa-supported streaming services) and it will start playing through your speakers.

The Repeat Dot as well serves equally a Bluetooth receiver, so you can stream music to your speakers from your phone. It isn't quite besides-suited for multi-room speaker systems equally the Chromecast Sound, though; you tin can assign dissimilar Echo Dots to different rooms and play music through voice commands, merely simply streaming from your phone will exist indicate-to-point with Bluetooth.

Of course, these solutions volition only work direct with powered speakers; if you lot want to utilize unpowered speakers yous'll need to gear up up an amp or use a receiver, and if that's the example you might want to cutting out the Chromecast Sound or Echo Dot completely and look at...

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Amps

For Bluetooth streaming, we recommend a box like the $189 Audioengine B1 Bluetooth Receiver. You connect its RCA output to one of the inputs on your stereo receiver (or to your powered speakers), pair it with your mobile device, and you're set. The reward of a box like the Audioengine B1 is a high-quality Bluetooth stream aided by excellent 24-bit upsampling digital-to-analog conversion (DAC).

Some Bluetooth adapters similar the Klipsch PowerGate feature more controls and connectedness options than the Audioengine B1. Like the B1, the Klipsch PowerGate streams audio to your speakers, but it as well includes an internal amplifier—essentially eliminating the demand for an integrated stereo receiver with its 2x100W amp and 24-fleck DAC. The front face has a book knob and a headphone jack; think of it less as a selectable source for your stereo receiver (like the Audioengine B1) and more like a replacement for the receiver. The PowerGate utilizes both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing it to function as a multi-room hub for your house (using the Klipsch Stream app), and it even has a phono preamp congenital in for when streaming isn't the priority.

For pure Wi-Fi multi-room speaker systems, Sonos basically invented the game. The visitor doesn't simply make wireless speakers, either; the Sonos Connect:Amp does essentially the aforementioned thing as the other boxes we've mentioned. You can connect its output to your speakers, and it delivers 55 watts per channel. You can control information technology using the Sonos app, and the app will add your wired speakers to the list of your various listening zones (if y'all choose to purchase into the Sonos world and get some wireless speakers for the residue of the house). Sonos uses Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth, as it claims that the sound stream is higher allegiance.

Ane of the more than popular options for a budget setup is the Logitech Bluetooth Audio Receiver. It's simply $40, and it's about as no-frills as y'all can get. You won't necessarily be getting the same level of audio quality as you volition from the above-mentioned options, but it'south a fraction of the cost.

The No-Cables Receiver Setup

There's also another route for those of you looking to eliminate fifty-fifty the speaker cables from your setup. There are options like the Outlaw Sound OAW4 Wireless Audio System—plug the RF transmitter into your stereo receiver, connect the receiver box to your speaker, and you lot essentially eliminate your speaker cables.

Technically, you're notwithstanding using a cablevision to connect the receiver to your speaker, but the included cables are short (rather than ones stretching across the room or traveling through walls), with the box sitting atop your speaker or hidden behind it. This organization tin also be used with a subwoofer—useful considering the best placement for a sub can oft be inconvenient in terms of running speaker cable to it.

Bring Speaker Docks Back From the Dead

And for those of yous who wish you could still use your beloved 30-pin connector speaker dock from the early days of iPods and iPhones, there are fifty-fifty solutions for that. Though it's hardly the just choice bachelor, Samson makes an affordable 30-pin adapter that essentially connects where your erstwhile phone or iPod would take, and one time information technology's docked, yous can stream directly to it. And merely like that, your obsolete speaker is suddenly churning out audio once again.

There's no reason non to make your current wired speakers wireless—there are expensive, high-end options, of form, merely the bones route tin can exist done for a low cost and little effort. Information technology's too worth noting that the products we've mentioned are merely some standouts that really merely represent the tip of the iceberg—you have a plethora of options and a broad price range.

And if you discover yourself really digging your new wireless setup and desire to cutting the cord through the rest of your habitation, check out The All-time Wireless and Bluetooth Speakers we've tested.