Logitech Wireless Music System for PC review

Logitech's wireless music System sends music to your living room in a different way to the Philips Stremium (left).

It consists of a Bluetooth transmitter that connects to one of your PC's USB ports, and a small, powered receiver that sits near your stereo. When you insert the transmitter, Windows XP recognises it as a USB sound card and it becomes the default audio device for all Windows applications. Provided the receiver is already plugged in, the transmitter should detect it.

In practice, this was incredibly easy to set up. It established a connection between our test computer and hi-fi, and was working so quickly that Windows' "Device Connect" sound actually came from our stereo's speakers.

While this is impressive, you might not want to hear regular system sounds when you are playing music in another room, so Logitech supplies its Music Anywhere software. This lets you select which sounds are played through your PC's sound card and which go to the Wireless Music System. If you unplug the transmitter, the software closes itself, and all system sound returns to your computer's sound card.

Unlike the Streamium, it isn't possible to browse through your PC's music collection from the Wireless Music System's receiver, but it does have an infrared remote control for functions such as volume, track skip, play and pause.

Because the Wireless Music System plays whatever audio formats your computer supports, it's compatible with any music software or file you use, including unusual and specialist formats such as OGG Vorbis or FLAC. Streamed music sounded good, though we had to turn down our stereo's treble setting a notch to balance the Logitech's slightly bright sound.

We tested the Wireless Music System's transmission range in a substantial four-bedroom house. We left music playing on a stereo and moved our laptop and transmitter between rooms with no loss of signal or audio breakup - a better performance than we've seen from other Bluetooth audio products.