A disappointing bargain

Yesterday I bought a Sony AIR-SA20PK Multi-Room Wireless speaker system. I got it back to my mid-week digs, unboxed it, and gave it a quick trial. Maybe 10 minutes. It has such significant flaws that I'm currently considering the purchase a mistake.

When you buy a £300 gadget for £50, and it still disappoints, it's no surprise to discover that it's discontinued product.

Brief explanation of the system. There are three boxes. Two are remote speakers, the other is a base unit, which is a combined iPod Dock, FM Radio and Digital Audio Transmitter. Each speaker can play they audio of the iPod or radio independently. The base unit can also be connected to an amplifier or TV with phono connectors for L/R audio and composite video. Think of it as Sonos Lite.

Before I explain what's wrong with it, reasons to be cheerful:

I'd been looking for a simple iPod Dock that would connect to my amp and would charge the iPod from the mains. The Apple Universal Dock is £39. It needs USB power, so is dead to me, but it gives me a reference price. The Dock/Transmitter part of the Sony Air system plugs into the mains (with a ludicrously big tethered wall wart) and has phono connectors for some iPod-to-amp goodness.

I probably wouldn't have paid £50 just for something that only did this, but nevertheless, it solves my problem.

In a quick test, in one room, with one receiver about 3 foot from the dock and the other about 20ft from the dock, everything paired quickly and sounded good. Not enough bass said fellow lodger, but I'm middle aged and urbane and he's young and urban. It sounded well rounded considering the size of the units. They're about the size of a kitchen radio, but twice as deep.

And now the bad…

The FM radio audio cannot be routed to the L/R phono output of the base unit. There's no switch, those outputs are hard-wired for the iPod only. The radio can only play through the bundled speakers.

I've tested briefly with an iPhone. It doesn't work. My hypothesis is that the base unit's wireless signal and the 3G of an iPhone interfere with each other, or perhaps getting approval for connectivity with an iPhone is harder and more expensive than for a mere iPod.

I've also read that the new retina display iPods aren't compatible for some reason, but can't confirm.

Setting up was really easy, but actually putting the iPod into the dock and picking up the Sony remote was an "Oh Noes!" moment. It just immediately felt all wrong. "What have I done?", I thought, as a superb visual interface was replaced with a play/pause/prev/next remote. The fact that the iPod needs to be in the dock while it's in use is a bit of a disaster. While charging overnight is fair enough, (REMINDER:Check that the iPod charges while the base unit is in standby mode), but not using the iPod's interface for navigation is simply an epic fail.

I've yet to test the range or whether WiFi suffers while the base unit is on. Experience with an analogue video sender was that it totally screwed with our WiFi, no matter what channels were in use. The Sony may turn out to be fine in this respect, but the proper solution is to use Wifi or Bluetooth. Proprietary wireless is really just asking for trouble.

There are no auxiliary inputs on the base unit. This is madness. It means that no audio, other than from a supported iPod, can be used with the system. If the 4th generation iPod Touch incompatibility is true, it means that this system became obsolete inside about 2 years. Break/Lose your iPod and your multi-room audio just broke forever.

There are no auxiliary inputs on the remote speakers. This is also madness. There should be a line in on both of the remote speakers so that any other source can be used with them. Currently, if the transmitter breaks, the remote speakers die with it.

Note: A colleague has pointed out that other S-Air transmitters are available, even if this one is discontinued. He also suggested that the reason for not having aux inputs is that it obviates the need for A/D converters, making the units cheaper to produce.

It's really doesn't feel like a £300 product. Amp plus speakers plus Apple Remote on the iPod plus iTunes plus Airport Express. That's a better solution. I'd still need that dock though, and all of that would be a lot more than £50.