WI-FI Speakers

Wifi or Bluetooth? We find out.

20:40 01 June 2017

When shopping for a wireless audio system, the most important factor to consider is the method with which the audio source communicates with the wireless speaker. You can either go with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but which one is best for you?

 

Most wireless audio systems communicate with either WiFi or Bluetooth. The latter is universally compatible and a wide variety of devices employ it including phones, tablets, laptops, and even your car. However, Bluetooth transmissions have a limited range, which is about 15 feet and could be a problem if you’re living in a huge house. Also, since Bluetooth has evolved over the years, it means that not all versions support the transmission of stereo music.

 

WiFi, on the other hand, is almost as ubiquitous as Bluetooth. Most smartphones, tablets and laptops have WiFi onboard. Its biggest advantage over Bluetooth is that it has a greater range of up to 120 feet indoors and it uses lossless codec, which means that there is absolutely no loss of audio fidelity as the data signal travels across the WiFi network. However, WiFi has its own downsides. Different wireless systems that use WiFi use incompatible data formatting (think about Apple and Android). Also, WiFi setup could be more difficult when compared to Bluetooth.