Why You Can Trust CNET Aperion Home Audio Link review: Aperion Home Audio Link
Aperion Home Audio Link
Until one of our readers asked us what the best way to send laptop audio--or any audio source--wirelessly to a receiver, we at CNET Reviews hadn't really done much in the way of looking at products that do such a thing. However, since that request, we've looked at a handful of devices primarily designed to tackle wireless audio streaming.
Aperion Home Audio Link
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The latest product to enter the market comes from Aperion Audio, called the Home Audio Link. It's a simple package that combines a transmitter, receiver, AC adapters, and audio cables to transmit any source wirelessly. Aperion made a few oddball design choices, but ultimately the Home Audio Links works well, is priced on par with its competition, and throws in a welcome bonus in the functionality department.
The Home Audio Link kit comes with two small cubes: one for transmitting audio and one for receiving audio. Each small gray block also has corresponding audio in and out ports to accommodate 1/8-inch connections where applicable.
After seeing the Creative Blaster Wireless System, we were convinced that the best way to transmit audio from a laptop computer was via USB. Luckily, this can be done with Home Audio Link as well, though we really enjoyed having the option of using USB or a 1/8-inch input jack. The 4-inch USB wire on the transmitting cube serves two purposes: it can either supply power to the device, or transmit audio from the computer (PC or Mac) it's being plugged into. When it's connected to a computer, you won't need to provide it with a separate power source. On the receiving end, however, the USB plug must be used to provide power.
Setting up the Home Audio Link is painless, and for the receiver portion, you will probably only need to configure it once. You simply plug the USB transmitter into a laptop or desktop and the Home Audio Link will automatically take over as the machine's sound card. Here you also have the option of plugging in a device that can output via a 1/8-inch headphone jack, but we should note that the cube's USB plug must then be attached to the power adapter and subsequently be plugged into an outlet. It's that 4-inch USB wire that really makes for a cumbersome connection when using a non-USB source. During our testing, we used an extension cord to satisfy the slack we'd need in order for our MP3 player to reach the transmitter's port. Perhaps a USB extension wire attached to the AC adapter plug would have been a more practical design choice.
Moving along to the receiving section of the kit, we're once again faced with that pesky 4-nch USB dongle that must be attached to one of the two included USB to AC adapters. It's on the receiving end where this limitation becomes troublesome, since in almost every real-world setup, you won't have an outlet within four inches of an AV receiver. We felt helpless because of this inherent design flaw, so we turned to a third-party USB male to female patch cable to extend the connection. Sure, such a wire is cheap and can be found online for less than $3, but we really wish Aperion would have had the foresight to include such an obviously necessary adapter.
That said, Aperion does include three audio cables that should help out, but ultimately, you'll most likely need to purchase a few extra accessories. Included with the kit are one male-to-male 1/8-inch audio cable and two 1/8-inch RCA left and right audio cables. The latter cables are just 3 feet long each, so even if you've dangled your receiving cube from an electrical outlet, it still needs to be wired into your receiver, so you're once again stuck with the possibility of running out of room.
If "dangled your receiving cube from an electrical outlet" has you a bit concerned, don't feel embarrassed; we felt the same way. We cannot stress enough the recommendation to purchase additional wires to accommodate your specific setup.
Regardless of whether having a receiver dongle bound to an electrical socket is a good idea, we were surprised such a decision had been made considering this piece of equipment would be responsible for receiving an audio stream. We'd imagine such a device would need the least amount of physical obstructions and interference as possible, something that hiding level to the ground doesn't really allow for. Nevertheless, the Home Audio Link system proved robust enough, as we had neither issues with static nor dropouts in our 25-foot-by-25-foot listening room, nor in our real-world bedroom-to-living room test. Aperion quotes a 100-foot to 140-foot working line-of-sight radius. Judging from our experimentation, we'd support such a claim. With our receiver dangling at floor level, that number dropped severely. Aperion sells additional extending receivers for $70 each and you'll have the option of connecting up to three in total.
Once you've connected the transmitter, receiver, source, and power, you may have to click the "link" button on each cube to get a connection. That said, we did not once need to do so in our testing; a pairing was made automatically as soon as we powered up each device.
Sound quality was on par with the other audio streaming devices we've tested, though this detail relies heavily on your source material as well. Though we found the Eos Converge system to be the overall best sounding system we've tested, we'd put the Aperion Home Audio Link somewhere in between that and the Creative Blaster Wireless.
In our testing, we found Wi-Fi interference came in at a minimum, nothing a slight rearrangement didn't instantly solve. Most wireless audio systems (or any wireless system) have the potential to affect routers, so if you're planning to invest in such a device, it's best to prepare for a possible move of electronics.
Finally, the Home Audio Link surprised us with another bit of functionality that we've yet to see in any wireless streaming device. Instead of sending audio wirelessly, the Home Audio Link can also act as a wireless bridge for your receiver's subwoofer. You read that right: the kit can also function as a $150 wireless sub connector. We can't fully endorse this as the only reason to buy the Home Audio Link, but it does make for an interesting feature addition. Sure enough, the concept does work, and in the case of our testing, it worked well enough that we couldn't tell the difference between a wired sub and our Home Audio Link connection. Best of all, the included accessories allow the feature to work straight out of the box.
A few major design flaws definitely dampen the overall package of what could have been our most recommendable wireless audio streaming kit. If you don't mind purchasing a few necessary additions, the Home Audio Link from Aperion is definitely an easy-to-use and very capable system. It, along with the Creative Blaster Wireless, remain the two least intrusive items we've reviewed, though we'd have to put the Aperion at the top in terms of sound quality.