[CES 07] Creative Offers Sonos Alternative
January 10th, 2007 — By editorCreative Xdock Wireless (March, dock+receiver $299/extra receivers $149 each)
Jan 10 - Anyone familiar with the excellent but expensive Sonos wireless music distribution system will immediately “get” the much less expensive Creative’s Xdock Wireless system.
The main iPod dock jacks to an A/V receiver or powered speakers via an optical audio cable and transmits your iPod’s music to receivers over a 2.4 GHz spectrum slice. You then add an unlimited number of receivers, which in turn get connected to amplifiers and speakers (hence the low price) as long as they’re within 100 feet of the dock. Each receiver comes with its own remote. You can set up to four zones to send different streams to.
Later this year there are plans for an Xdock system to accommodate Creative’s own Zen music/video players and a version that performs the same function for music stored on your PC. But aside from the wireless distribution, the Xdock employs Creative’s X-Fi technology, which restores much of the fidelity lost when your tracks are compressed.
- Stewart Wolpin
