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• The Good: Extremely easy setup; small, compact package; all cables included; works with any sound source; excellent sound quality that puts FM transmitters to shame.
• The Bad: Limited range; no off-switch or audio playback controls; no mobile/battery option; awkward system for selecting a clearer channel.
• The Verdict: It may not have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, but if you need a short-range wireless music transmitter that is truly plug-and-play, the MP3 AirLink will fit the bill.
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REVIEW:

There's a growing selection of products out there to help get music from your computer or MP3 player to a home stereo, but Startech's MP3 AirLink is unquestionably one of the easiest.

This gadget is a actually two small boxes — a transmitter and a receiver — each a bit smaller than a deck of cards. And if you know how to plug a headset into your MP3 player, you're already tech-savvy enough to master the AirLink.

Setup is a matter of plugging a power adapter into each box. Then you take a patch cable (included) and plug it into the transmitter, and the other end goes into the headphone jack or line-level audio-output jack (RCA or 3.5-millimeter miniplug) on your portable MP3 player or the computer's sound card. You do the same thing with a patch cable from the receiver, attaching it to the audio-in jacks (RCA or miniplug) of your stereo system or a set of powered speakers.

That's it.

The boxes detect each other automatically, pick the strongest channel, and set up a wireless connection. Press play on your music source, and the music will come out of the stereo or speakers that the receiver is attached to. It could not be easier to get this system up and running.

But there are some drawbacks.

First of all, the system runs on the 2.4 GHz frequency — which is shared by things like cordless phones and headsets, wireless data networks and other wireless gear, and it's a frequency that can also pick up interference from things such as microwave ovens. To compensate, the AirLink has eight wireless channels it can use, so if you run into interference you can simply try a different channel. So far so good. The problem is that the channel selector is on the transmitter, which of course is wherever your sound source happens to be. Meanwhile, you're listening to music coming from the receiver somewhere else. So if something starts to interfere with the signal, you have to run to the transmitter, hit the channel-change button, then run back to the receiver and see if the signal is any better. If not, you have to keep running back and forth hitting the button each time to find a clear channel. Not too slick.

The reception range is also limited. The manual says it's rated for "up to 100 feet," but I found the reception was roughly comparable to the basic cordless phone I use around the house. In other words, reception was crystal clear within about 30 to 40 feet. But go beyond that (and depending on what's in between the receiver and transmitter, such as walls and floors), and the signal would start to get spotty. The farther I took the receiver from the transmitter beyond that 40-foot or so range, the more pops and gaps I'd get in the music. So this is a relatively short-range system that may or may not be able to blanket your entire home, depending on its size.

It's also very basic - the only control is the channel selector button on the transmitter. There's not even an off-switch on either box. That means you have to unplug the boxes to turn them off — not too convenient if they're plugged in under a desk or behind furniture.

There's also no battery option, so you can only use the AirLink in areas where you can plug in both the transmitter or receiver.

And of course there's no way to control your music playback, unless you have some sort of wireless remote that can work your PC or MP3 player from another room. This system is made to stream music from one place to another, nothing more and nothing less.

All that said, the system is dead easy to set up, and it works extremely well over short distances. The range and sound quality are also far better than any standard FM transmitters I've tested, with the AirLink's digital signal providing noticeably more dynamic range than basic FM transmitter packages.

It's also one of the few wireless systems that's compatible with any stereo sound source, not just a computer or WiFi network. If your source has a mini-jack or RCA stereo jacks, and your speakers or stereo have either of those types of inputs, the AirLink will work just fine. That means music playback from portable music systems, right up to streaming Internet radio feeds from a computer to your home theatre system.

And another nice feature is the ability to use one transmitter to send signals to as many receivers as you like. So you can put receivers in a number of rooms and transmit to them all simultaneously from one audio source - no extra configuration needed. I also liked the fact that you get everything you need to have the system working right out of the box, from power adapters to the patch cables. Too many companies these days skimp on the cables, forcing a run back to the store if you didn't read the "what's not included" small print on the box. And at a suggested retail price of around $90 (U.S.), it's a fraction of the cost of fancier wireless network systems.

So while it may not have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, if you need a short-range wireless music system that is truly plug-and-play, the MP3 AirLink will fit the bill.