i2i Stream wireless audio device

i2i Stream wireless audio device

Published May 20, 2009 at 09:49:28 PM, by Travis Simon

Overview

Let's face it, the time is soon upon us where wires will be a novelty – technology is fast approaching the ever inclusive term “wireless” and it's clear that if you want it now, it's probably out there, but you will have to pay for it, and if it's not – it soon will be.

A big step in that direction is wireless audio and video technology. There's dozens of Bluetooth audio devices out there that offer wireless streaming of stereo audio, but the audio quality can be lack luster, setting them up to work can be a pain, and keeping the battery juiced up on the go is a task in itself. Hoping to beat the scene on those common notes is the i2i music streaming solution from Aerielle – but not in the form of being bluetooth – but a new direction in the 2.4ghz range. That's right, standard radio frequency with no passwords required.

Design

The design of the i2i music streaming device is rather plain on first glance. A large round button In the middle, surrounded on either end by two press buttons to start transmitting, or start receiving a signal. Pretty simple. There's a jog dial near the top right of each unit that when depressed turn on / off the device, and when jogged up or down control the volume. It's rather simple in operating regards.

Setup

Setup was equally as simple. There's a output jack on the top that accepts standard 3.5mm audio devices. Yep, standard. That means you can hook this up to your favorite ear buds, headphones, home theater or even your car stereo if you wanted. That's a huge plus!

On the bottom has the audio in (2.5mm) – this, is not so standard – but they are nice enough to give you 2 sets of 2.5 to 3.5mm conversion cables. That's handy – but why not just keep it at 3.5mm? And I guess I should note that these things need battery power to do anything (doesn't everything?) so google patience and then practice what you've read while they charge up for your first use.

Size & Weight

Pretty small for both – I don't have exact weight but it felt light enough in my palm and didn't bother me too much when I wore the device around my neck (with the supplied Y-cable ear-buds they also supplied, which were pretty awesome by the way)

Size measured in about 3.5in x .75in x .5in. It looked like a thick ipod nano – a really thick one but still about that size.

Operation

So after you have everything hooked up, you need to start the connection to pair these devices. You're probably thinking - “Great – I've heard that word before – pairing - it means trouble...” In normal situations, this can be very true, but for the i2i music devices, pairing things is as simple as matching up colors (whichever color that might be out of 7). If you like blue – then make sure each of the streaming devices is on blue, and you're done. No fancy passcodes, no fancy password pairing within 5 inches directly at the face of the thing – simple color matching. Heck, even if you were color blind you would be able to do it, just pick the same shade! Blind – well, you might have a bit of a harder time, but you would still be able to get it after at the most 7 times...if you're deaf I don't know why you have these, so I think we're about covered on that part.

Ok – both devices are turned on, you have both lit up on your choice of color channel – but you don't hear any audio? Well you need to press the transmitting button (this is the one at the top) that is connected to your audio PLAYER, and the receiving button (the bottom) to what you want the sound to come from – and that's pretty much it! As a note, the receiving i2i can control the volume output with the jog dial.

Here's a tip as well – let's say that you want to listen to some tunes and a coworker wants to listen to the same tunes, but you only have a pair of i2i devices (thats how many come standard in one pack, although you can purchase another one seperatly if you wish). No problem as long as you trust each other to the playlist that is! All you need to do is hook up the audio device to the transmitting i2i – AND an audio device on the output end at the same time – the device feature a pass-through feature that allows audio to be split into two signals, one wired (from the output of the transmitter) and broadcast to another i2i reciever. It's a cheap way to share your music with a friend.

Performance

The transmitting and audio performance of the i2i music broadcasting system is very good. Keep in mind most bluetooth devices can only get around 30 feet before they lose the connection (and then the pairing process has to start all over...) but the i2i devices kept a solid signal well past that in my trial runs. It did run a little sketchy near wireless G hotspots (on the 2.4ghz range) but keeping in mind that they are mobile transmitters, I can't lay a bad say to that performance at all.

The audio quality was also very good – and knowing that you can opt for volume boosting from the reciever and pair that up with your favorite headphones, it made for a lot better quality than a lot of bluetooth devices out there that I've tried (and I've tried a few!).

The only thing I have some beef with, is the battery life. At about a claimed 7 hours (depending on the receivers audio level output) you can almost work a whole day wire free...but I found both to last only around 5. That kinda bummed me out. As a note – the supplied AC adapters to charge the units do NOT allow them to transmit and charge at the same time (however, it is possible to do this with a different power source as I found out but I'm not saying what or how as it could be dangerous to the battery in the device). IF they could have sorted out being plugged in on one end (behind your home theatre....) AND transmitt at the same time (to another unit plugged in behind your couch feeding signal to your rear speakers of your surround sound...) you wouldn't mind the battery life at all. But, this being marketed for wireless audio meant to be TRULY wireless, I guess I can't complain about it other than everything good comes to an end.

Conclusion

It looks as if you've made it this far, I've had nothing bad to say about the devices. Which is mostly true – they are simple, they operate as advertised, and perform very well. What's the catch? The point of these devices made me think twice – actually three times what it's trying to accomplish at the price point. These are NOT cheap, around $100 for a pair, $60 for each additional device if you want more than two...and you don't even get a pair of headphones with them! (They were offering a free mini-speaker system with them but I don't see too much in the point of those). No, these things, even as small as I described them – offered yet another device to lose with everything not being an 'all-inclusive' design. You have audio cables to worry about, you have USB charging cables to pack (not to mention a USB wall charger for each one as they didn't design a two output charger...) and your audio device be it headphones, speakers, whatever. The inclusiveness of the bluetooth devices narrow at least two of those items away making them much easier to think about when packing – and if your device has bluetooth built in – it probably offers some sort of control over the music (volume, track, pause, play) with the i2i device, you still need to manually hit these buttons, and have to worry about not yanking the transmission cables out.

No, in all bitterness, I liked the device and it's intended purpose a lot, but it needs to come down a bit in price and ship with those sweat lanyard headphones instead of the silly speaker system. Once they figure this out they will have a much stronger review. As now – it's a good system, spendy, but good – it just requires more than it out to, and doesn't last as long as it should.

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Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.