Oono Transmita Vii wireless music system

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.