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Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod

Music streaming made easy?

With the iPod transmitter in my Vision:M device, I had full control of the system - just set your amplifier to a suitable high volume and reduce the volume control on your player until you get the sound level you like. Whatever track I selected, if the device can decode the format to an analog signal, WMS can beam it to your hi-fi.

logitech wireless music system for iPod

Moving my MP3 player around my three-storey home, I found only one location where the sound began to break up, but that may have been a result of the metal around it - radiator, bath, washing machine, boiler - than the distance. Whatever the cause, I wouldn't expect to be controlling my hi-fi from the bathroom under normal circumstances. Like my other remote controls, I'd leave my iPod in the living room.

Logitech sells standalone receivers, but you can only transmit to one at a time, thanks to the limitations of Bluetooth's pairing system. One transmitter can remember and talk to ten separate receivers. Pairing the devices is a painless process, but you do have to do it each time you want to change output locations. So WMS isn't a substitute for a multi-room rig like Sonos' Digital Music System, for example.

Verdict

Logitech's WMS for iPod is a great way to turn an MP3 player into a stereo's remote control and music source. My only quibble, perhaps, is the price. Logitech wants £100 for the package - the same price, according to its website, as the PC version, which includes a control-equipped receiver unit and a remote control, which of course you don't need with the iPod version.

WMS also lacks the flexibility and support for multi-room set-ups that other, Wi-Fi based music streaming systems do, such as Apple's £89 Airport Express. On the other hand, it does work with your favourite portable music player and allows you to change what you're listening to at any time without the need to buy expensive add-on controller units.

For that, it wins my vote, and while it's about four times the price of a dock - and a lot more than a RCA-to-3.5mm adaptor cable - it beats having to get up from the sofa whenever you want to change songs. Yes, you can get a dock and Apple's remote control for around £45 - less than half the price of the WMS - but that's only a viable solution if you can see the player's screen. And if you don't own an iPod, it's no solution in any case. ®

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Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod

Turn your MP3 player into your hi-fi's remote control and music source...
Price: £100/$150 - further receivers cost $80 each RRP

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