Review 'Wireless' is a wonderful word that creates beautiful images in the minds of the gadget-obsessed masses. We imagine headphones and MP3 players working together in cable-free harmony, or desktop peripherals resting comfortably with our PCs, without constantly being pulled out of place by connection cords.

Manufacturer Oono has stepped up to the plate and created the Vii – a two-piece unit that claims to remove the need for connection cables between a music source and the output device by wirelessly transmitting audio content over short distances, for example, from the iTunes library on a computer to a pair of stereo speakers.

Size and simplicity are its two strong points

The Vii is Oono's second attempt at a wireless music system - the product is a redesign of an earlier model called, simply, the Transmita. The new kit is still very simple, consisting of a transmitter and a receiver, both of which are identical in size, design and shape. You also get a host of connection cables.

Thankfully, labels have been stuck on the underside of each unit to indicate which is the receiver and which the transmitter. But, it's disappointing that no set-up instructions are included with the packaging, forcing us to visit Oono's website for the PDF manual before we could do anything.

By Oono's own admission, the original Transmita "crept into the market in 2006 without much fan-fare", and this is presumably what spurred the Vii's new design. It ditches the predecessor's 'mobile phone with its face-plate removed' feel in favour of a sleek, palm-sized white box with black bands around the edge.

The kit is plug'n'play, so we connected it up to our Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop by plugging one end of the supplied 3.5mm-jack audio cable into the transmitter and the other into the laptop's headphone jack. We then plugged the second supplied audio cable into the receiver and plugged the other end into the supplied 3.5mm-to-RCA converter. The two remaining ends could then be connected into our compact stereo's rear phono jacks.

---

Music, or any form of sound, can be played through the Vii because it doesn't discriminate between audio formats or jukebox applications. Just set your favourite app to play a batch of tracks, and the Vii transmitter will beam what comes out of the headphone socket to its receiver. This allowed us to switch seamlessly between songs stored in either the Microsoft or Apple formats, in addition to others.

...comes with instruction-free packaging

Once the two units are connected, powering them up is simply a matter of flicking a small black switch on the side of each unit. A vertical bar then lights up on the topside of each unit and flickers blue when data is being transmitted, red during a recharge - each unit has an on-board battery, charged through a mini USB port or with the bundled AC adaptor - and red and yellow when fully charged. To charge both units simultaneously, users must connect one to a computer via the supplied mini USB cable and the other to the power unit, or alternatively buy an additional mini USB cable and charge both by USB.

An antenna, about the length of a cigarette, must then be placed into the upright position on both the transmitter and receiver to help with the broadcast and reception of the music. You can leave the aerials off, but the sound quality is extremely low.

After selecting our random playlist, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody began playing weakly through our compact stereo's speakers. Sound levels between the music source and the output device then became a constant issue though, and we had to set our laptop's volume at the very maximum and our stereo to a fairly high volume too, before we got any decent blast of music.

Of course, when we unplugged the transmitter unit or switched to a different audio source on the stereo, such as the CD player, the volume was set to an ear-burstingly high level. This meant music was blasted out before we could run for the controls, much to our neighbours' annoyance.

---

Sound quality is, of course, ultimately dependent on the quality of your stereo or other output device. However, we also plugged the receiver into two similar stereos and each time got a reasonable sound quality, with good definition and clarity during guitar solos in the Queen classic. Interference was never a problem during our tests when the Vii was stationary.

The Vii sports a totally new look

One of the real tests for the Vii was range, and ultimately one of its downfalls. Oono claims the Vii has a transmission distance of about 50 metres, but during tests we found that taking our laptop further than 35 metres resulted in sub-standard quality reception. However, when we tried using the transmitter in a different room to the reciever at a distance of, say 50ish metres, the signal was unable to penetrate through walls at all.

Freddie Mercury's lyrics were reduced to a crackling and hissing annoyance that dropped out every couple of seconds and sounded, basically, terrible. We also took the laptop out into the garden, about 15 metres from the stereo, but the transmission worsened as the brick wall acted as an almost impenetrable barrier for the broadcast, leaving the stereo hissing aimlessly.

Oono's Vii offers a mixed response for internet radio. We initally connected it to our wirelessly-connected Dell laptop, but found that the transmitter unit caused the internet connection to drop out, making it impossible to listen to internet radio through the stereo and surf the web at the same time.

Despite Oono's claims that the Vii works over 16 channels, it wasn't until we inspected both units with a magnifying glass that we discovered the tiny holes, almost like a reset button, that served as the channel changers. We pushed paperclip ends through and, after about 10 minutes of fiddling, managed to get internet radio broadcast from the laptop, over the Vii and to our stereo. But this wasn't an easy process.

---

In a second test, we connected the Vii receiver up to an MP3 player to test its ability at handling a music transmission across frequently moving distances, and were again left unimpressed. Since both units require their antennas to be upright for any decent signal to be transmitted or received, using the Vii to broadcast music from a laptop or stereo while walking around the house doing, say the washing-up, is a no go. If the receiver is connected to a pair of headphones and put into a pocket, the signal received is reduced and the connector begins rotating in its socket, which badly affects the quality of audio received.

Which is the transmitter and which is the reciever?

To be fair, the Vii units are intended for fixed locations, or at least to be portable rather than mobile. But with a built-in power supply, why shouldn't you be able to carry the thing around?

We also tried resting the reciever on a sofa arm, while sitting still, but even small head movements resulted in a constant crackling and hissing as the connector rattled around in its socket.

Both the transmitter and the receiver took a fair amount of physical punishment during our tests, for example, sometimes being mistakenly dropped from tables and knocked over because of the upright antenna. These somewhat unintentional tests did prove both units' durability, and both only suffered minor scratches, on a par with the daily damages an iPod could suffer, but audio quality was not affected.

Verdict

The Vii is undoubtedly an aesthetic improvement on its previous model, gaining a slimmer body and more stylish feel. It also lives up to its claim of enabling wireless audio transmission from one device to another. However, the Vii has several disadvantages, including a limited transmission range and the connectors not fitting securely, causing interference and crackling audio.

So, if you're looking for something to axe a few wires between your laptop's iTunes library and your stereo, the Vii is a good little device. But, if you're looking to transmit good quality music between different rooms as you stroll around, the Vii is not for you.