Make the most of your Sony S-AIR PLAY music system by using the AIR-SA15R wireless speaker to extend your sound all over your house. This model, also called the S-AIR sub unit, is compatible with Sony’s S-AIR PLAY line of music systems and was originally designed for the AIR-SA20PK S-AIR PLAY wireless music system (an iPod dock with two of these wireless speakers included). Since you can add up to 10 of these wireless speakers to your main system you’ll be able to listen anywhere in your home. The options are many for how you set things up, you could be listening to music in each room or when you are having a party for the big game you could even broadcast the audio from your television into multiple rooms. Since S-AIR audio sources can broadcast to multiple zones you can be listening to music in one room on an SA15R and have a movie on in the other room.
The basic design of the AIR-SA15R wireless speaker includes a speaker unit and a wireless receiver. Sound is transmitted to the speaker from the main system which can be any S-AIR PLAY system. The speaker enclosure has two four watt speakers inside. Buttons to control your primary system are located on top of the wireless speaker so you can select whether you want to listen to the tuner, CD/DVD audio, TV, video, or the digital media port on your main system. The play/pause/stop controls on the wireless speaker are unable to operate the digital media port or TV/VIDEO components but work fine for everything else.
The AIR-SA15R has a small form factor at only about 12 inches wide, 4 1/2 inches deep, and 5 1/2 inches high so you can place it just about anywhere you’d like. The speaker is not magnetically shielded however so you’ll probably want to set it up away from your television to prevent any impact on your TV picture. If you place one near your bed you can use the built-in sleep timer and alarm function, as well as the clock that displays on the LCD screen. The LCD screen is also capable of displaying information about the music you are listening to such as the track info or song data. Sony has also conveniently added a headphone jack directly on the speaker so that you can listen without bothering your neighbor. The standard package also includes a wireless remote.
Setting up the AIR-SA15R wireless speaker is pretty much as plug and play as it gets. The speaker comes with a wireless transceiver (EZW-RT10) that you slide into a slot on the back of the speaker. You then select an S-AIR ID setting on the back of the speaker to A, B, or C to match the setting on your primary S-AIR system and then plug in your speaker to the wall. Next you’ll power up your primary S-AIR unit, activate the S-AIR function if it isn’t already, and the wireless speaker should link up. The wireless technology is 2.4GHZ, and you can figure on a max of somewhere around 150 feet between the main unit and the speakers. If for some reason there is a problem with communication you can perform a manual pairing of the speaker with the main system but generally this is not necessary.
You may also want to consider the Sony AIR-SA10 wireless speaker which is essentially the same but does not include a remote or display song/track information on the LCD.