By WILSON ROTHMAN
Playing MP3s from your PC through your sound system is an often unsatisfying experience. Sometimes, a device requires you to use your PC to choose music; more often, instead of managing tracks on your computer's monitor, you do it on the TV screen. So you're on the couch instead of your desk, but you're still staring at a screen.
Creative's SoundBlaster Wireless Music solves this. It sits atop your sound system, pulling music from PCs on your home network. Best of all, it uses a radio-frequency remote control with a good-sized LCD display for track management: no computer screen, no TV, just a great remote.
Provided you already have a wireless router in place, or own a Wi-Fi enabled laptop full of MP3s, set up is straightforward. (I currently use a D-Link DI-614+ Wi-Fi router.) After installing the software on your PC — and adding tracks to the included Creative MediaSource organizer — plug the SoundBlaster box into your PC to touch base. The SoundBlaster gets the necessary information about your wireless network so that when you unplug it, it's good to go.
Carry it to your stereo, audio receiver or just a pair of powered speakers and plug it in with the typical red-and-white RCA plugs. Turn it on via the remote, press the Library button and instantly you see all of the tracks you added to MediaSource. Find a song and tap the Play button. It starts playing. Find another song, hold down the Play button and you'll see it's been added to your Now Playing queue. (The same maneuver works on whole albums, or even all tracks by one artist.)
Creative is usually at the forefront of digital music applications, sometimes to my chagrin. This time, they entered later than many manufacturers, and proved that patience is a virtue. Sure, MediaSource still has a bit of an issue recognizing certain track names — mostly of MP3s ripped on other computers or, uh, acquired through the Internet — but overall, this simple yet comprehensive music streaming system gets an A.
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