W2 Wireless Adapter Released by Audioengine

Audioengine has released a new high-quality wireless adapter for the iPod that promises to keep sound quality high.

The Audioengine W2 Premium wireless adapter for the iPod wirelessly sends music to any sound system, allowing you to listen to the songs on your iPod through your stereo system without any hassle.

Wireless adapters are nothing new for the iPod, but the difference between the W2 and other wireless iPod attachments is that Audioengine promises CD quality sound with the W2, with no reduction in audio quality. This feature should make the W2 a significant improvement over other wireless adapters, such as ones that are picked up by radio receivers.

The W2’s receiver is plugged into the stereo system and the transmitter is plugged into the base of the iPod, transmitting sound directly to the stereo, rather than being picked up as a radio or IR signal. Also, the W2 requires no batteries and no extra remote, using the iPod’s standard controls to shuffle through songs.

Further, the W2 sends data at uncompressed CD quality in a completely digital, PCM encoded stream over a closed network with a very low latency of less than 20ms. This ensures that the W2 does not degrade the sound quality of your music, and also means that the W2 doesn’t experience the same problems with static and interference that other wireless adapters for the iPod encounter.

Audioengine’s site claims that the W2 works with all music systems, so it sounds like it could be a very solid product; I find that one of the more annoying things about wireless iPod adapters is that they tend mangle your music with distortion and low quality as a tradeoff for being simple and compatible with a wide variety of systems. If the W2 offers the same compatibility without the degradation of sound it would fill an important gap in the market of wireless iPod adapters.

The W2 costs $169 from Audioengine, has a 30 foot range, and is compatible with the iPod Classic, iPod Touch, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations of the iPod Nano.