Using Home Wiring for Carrying Audio

[Lee]

Many years ago I believe I heard of a means to connect stereo speakers to an amplifier/tuner by use of home electrical wiring as the speaker wire. As I recall, there was some kind of interface device that connected a wall outlet to the amplifier and another that connected the speakers to wall outlets which allowed for easy placement/movement of speakers without the need for specialized wires for connecting them. I have searched and searched and find nothing that refers to such a means of connecting speakers. Was this an idea that just didn't work, or am I not using the correct search terminology? Thanks for your advice. Lee

[terry]

Similar probably to the 'FM wirelss' intercom systems that use/used the house wiring. Not widely adopted AFIK. Tried one once and found that if the intercom remote terminals were on the same or adjacent circuits it worked OK. But if the remotes were each on different outlet circuits and or different sub circuit breaker panels performance was poor and noisy. With so much noise (and possibly digital signals) floating around on the electrical supply today it might be very tricky. Just an opinion though. Speakers (unless you are handling an eardrum shattering 1000 watts or something) can work on almost any kind of wire. So pretty easy to snake some suitably light coloured 18 or 20 AWG (Bell or speaker wire) anywhere also relatively cheap. What is the application?

[Paul Franklin]

The powerline versions suffered from noise and only so-so frequency response.

There are wireless versions now that are pretty good. Not audiophile grade, but fine for most folks. But stick with high-end units, the cheap stuff is pretty bad. Search for wireless speakers. You will need power to each speaker though.

HTH,

Paul F.

[RickH]

They were very problematic because they would modulate the audio to a carrier frequency then piggy back that (as noise) onto the powerline sine wave. Then the receiver would detect the carrier and decode. They never sounded very good for music, but OK for intercoms, as the carrier frequency was limited. What also happened over the years is that many modern electronic devices and power strips began to come with filters built in to suppress this kind powerline noise to ground. So even if it worked one day, the next day when someone plugs a newer TV set onto the same branch circuit, the carrier is seen as noise and gets filtered out before the receiver.

I would look into sending audio over a wireless LAN network at compression rates that wont cause noticeable degradation of the sound, to a receiving device that can buffer the data flow at a those higher bit rates. When these digital music distribution systems are set up at higher bit rates, they sound acceptable. But at lower rates they can sound horrible too. If you have a wired gigabit or 100mbs LAN in your home, then send the data over CAT6 or 5e and it will work even better than wireless.

Here are some examples or go to a local HiFi store and ask about "music streaming over LAN networks":