Review: Voiis Stereo - Wireless Music Gateway

Want to wirelessly play music from an A2DP Bluetooth device through your stereo Have I got the device for you!
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-3577 aligncenter" title="Stereo_Pic01" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Stereo_Pic01.jpg" alt="Stereo_Pic01" width="185" height="222" /></p>



This is the <a href="http://global.mobileaction.com/product/Voiis_stereo.jsp">Voiis Stereo Wireless Music Gateway</a>. Enables you to pair either your Bluetooth enable music player (from here on I’ll refer to this as an “iPhone”, though I believe an iPod Touch may also suffice) or stereo bluetooth headphones to enjoy music wirelessly anywhere in the house (well, at least, anywhere in my house, but more on that later).

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3572" title="20091031-g8ebnc1bw3s8kpbwtysendp2up" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/20091031-g8ebnc1bw3s8kpbwtysendp2up1.jpg" alt="20091031-g8ebnc1bw3s8kpbwtysendp2up" width="600" height="450" />

The device comes in a nice box that you’ll either chuck in the recycling or keep in your cupboard of boxes for a rainy day (<a href="http://img.skitch.com/20091031-eixh9gnrcna7nbj9jgg8199irr.jpg">like so</a>) when you get sick of it and plop it on eBay or the MacTalk trading forum. Included in the box is:
<ul>
<li>The Voiis Stereo Wireless Music Gateway</li>
<li>Power Adapter (ends in a mini USB connector so you could use some other available USB source to power it if you liked)</li>
<li>RCA Stereo to 3.5mm headphone cable</li>
<li>3.5mm to 3.5mm headphone cable</li>
<li>Elbonian Instruction Manual</li>
</ul>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3574" title="voiis" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/voiis.jpg" alt="voiis" width="600" height="418" />

The instruction manual is your regular translation of a translation and so provides a few amusing moments, such as, <em>"Press the function button on the voiis stereo for 8 seconds until the bluetooth indicator light flashes fastly."</em>

For listening to music from your iPhone through your stereo, you’ll need to connect one of the cables to an available input on your stereo (most likely RCA).

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3573" title="20091031-p19iprdsjk8ntx659wb26xnb7e" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/20091031-p19iprdsjk8ntx659wb26xnb7e.jpg" alt="20091031-p19iprdsjk8ntx659wb26xnb7e" width="413" height="550" />

Hold down the button on the front of the device for 8 seconds… now you should be able to pair it with your iPhone by going into Bluetooth settings. Once that’s done, go into the iPod app and voila, music!

Now my place/flat/apartment is 10x10 metres and it worked absolutely anywhere in the house I took it. The box does say 100 metres range… I got downstairs before it started to sputter. I guess brick walls and concrete floors don’t help much. YMMV.

Sound quality seemed pretty good. Remember, if pairing with your iPhone, not only will you get music, but all other iphoney type sounds (locking, unlocking, SMS’s, email, the works). So say your plan was to use this to wirelessly broadcast music at a wedding or something, you may want to be careful how your phone is setup for non music stuff. Unless of course it's an Apple Geek wedding, then of course go nuts.

I also paired it with my Mac Mini and used it to watch an episode of something. There is an ever so slight delay between the persons lips moving on screen, and the sound coming out over Bluetooth, but not enough to be annoying. I guess that’s the nature of Bluetooth. But I couldn’t really tell the difference between using the Bluetooth and using just a stereo RCA cable to connect the Mini directly to the stereo.

It’s other function is as a gateway to some other Bluetooth device, most commonly a pair of A2DP Bluetooth headphones. Again, it was a sinch to pair em, holding the button down for only 3 seconds this time to get it into Headphone pairng mode, and again the range for me was about the same. Sadly my Bluetooth headset is a very crappy cheap pair, so I can’t comment on sound quality as far as that goes.

With most Apple products coming with built in Bluetooth these days, this device may seem a bit superfluous, but I’m certain there are people out there who may will it handy.

<a href="http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=voiis&amp;spos=3"><em>Staticice</em></a><em> reveals a few retailers stocking the device for around the $80/90 mark.</em>