What is WiSA, and why should you become familiar with it? It’s certainly not a household name like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but WiSA — the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association — is on the verge of changing the way we buy, install, and use our speakers, TVs, and gaming and home theater gear. It’s intended to massively simplify home theater sound by doing away with speaker wires and taking everything wireless with high quality and low latency. It has support from more than 70 manufacturers, including LG, TCL, Denon, Pioneer, Toshiba, JBL, Klipsch, and Bang & Olufsen.
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Still, as much as WiSA can simplify things, there’s not a lot of information about what it is, how it works, and what you need to know to make an informed choice about whether it’s right for you. We’re going to fix that with this in-depth, no-stone-unturned explainer. Here’s everything you need to know about WiSA.
What is WiSA?
WiSA is both a hardware and software standard for delivering high-resolution digital audio wirelessly from a source device to a maximum of eight channels. It does this with a high degree of reliability and can transmit audio at up to 24-bit/48kHz or 24-bit/96kHz sample rates, which WiSA says is twice the quality of CDs. The specification also allows WiSA systems to support 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
A WiSA-compatible home theater is made to be plug-and-play and lets you place your speakers anywhere you like as long as they have access to a wall outlet. This eliminates the need for running speaker wires, and in some cases, the need for an AV receiver altogether (more on this later). Your WiSA components talk to each other wirelessly, making the setup process easy.
What WiSA is not
Though it shares many attributes with wireless multiroom speakers like those made by Sonos, Denon, Yamaha, and others, WiSA is not a multiroom, whole-home music system. As a stand-alone wireless audio technology, it is not intended to join any of these other wireless audio ecosystems. It’s strictly for passing audio wirelessly within a single home theater setup and it is not compatible with non-WiSA Wi-Fi or Bluetooth speakers.
However, some speakers that are WiSA Certified, such as Harman Kardon’s Citation series, possess separate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, which means you could also use them for other wireless audio applications.
Why would I want WiSA?
WiSA’s biggest advantage is that it frees consumers from having to install or even think about speaker cables in a single room. It’s the same convenience offered by some surround sound home theater soundbars, but with the separate speakers of an authentic surround-sound system. If you’ve ever wanted a true 5.1 or 7.1 surround system, but have hesitated because of the wiring requirements, WiSA is for you.
In addition, WiSA speakers may offer sound performance benefits in that the speakers’ built-in amplifiers can be tailor-made for their specific components. This should, in theory, allow WiSA speakers to outperform all but the most perfectly matched amplifier/speaker configurations in their class.
Another benefit: If you want, you can mix and match WiSA-compatible speakers from various brands, for way more flexibility than you’d get from a soundbar-based system, or a proprietary system like Sonos.
What do I need to get going with WiSA?
There are two ways to work with WiSA.
WiSA ready TVs
WiSA Ready devices, like 2019 and 2020 LG TVs, have the required software to let you control a WiSA set of speakers, but they do not have a WiSA transmitter built-in. WiSA Ready products require the purchase of an external USB WiSA transmitter, like this Axiim Link HD transmitter.
Several TV manufacturers have joined WiSA, including Toshiba, Fengmi, LG, Foxconn, TCL, Bang & Olufsen, and most recently Hisense and Toshiba, which means we’ll likely see an increasing number of WiSA Ready and WiSA Certified TVs.
Once the transmitter is installed, the TV gives you full control over your wireless speakers via an on-screen interface. All you need at that point is one or more WiSA Certified speakers.
Non-WiSA ready TVs
If your existing TV isn’t WiSA Ready, you can add WiSA capability through an HDMI or optical port-connected WiSA transmitters like Axiim’s Q UHD Wireless Media Center or the new $180 WiSA SoundSend, which will hit the market in November 2020.
Again, once this type of transmitter is installed, you’ll need some WiSA Certified powered speakers, like Harmon Kardon’s Citation series speakers or Klipsch’s Reference WiSA speakers.
The wireless home-theater-in-a-box
If you prefer a simpler route, some companies are starting to ship all-in-one WiSA home theater systems that include everything you need to get going with WiSA. The Platin Audio Monaco 5.1 system works with both WiSA Ready TVs as well as regular TVs thanks to the included WiSA SoundSend transmitter (see below). For those who are perfectly happy with their non-WiSA Ready TV, the Enclave Cinehome II and Cinehome Pro offer the option of a WiSA Certified hub device that lets you connect any TV via HDMI ARC.
No AV receiver? Really?
That’s right. If you have a WiSA Ready source device with a WiSA transmitter or a WiSA Certified source device, you don’t need an AV receiver at all. These two types of WiSA sources can handle every aspect of getting wireless audio to your WiSA Certified powered speakers.
That said, you can absolutely use an AV receiver in a WiSA home theater setup if you want. The receiver needs to be either WiSA Ready (with an additional transmitter) or WiSA Certified. At the moment, only two such devices are on the market, the SC15 Prisma and the PRE35 Prisma, both from the Scandinavian company, Primare.
There are several benefits to using a WiSA AV receiver over WiSA’s current generation of transmission devices like LG TVs, Windows 10 computers, and Xbox consoles:
- As with a traditional AV receiver, you get lots of inputs, letting you plug-in any source device (Blu-ray player, cable or satellite box, gaming console, etc.)
- You can mix and match WiSA and wired speakers. For instance, WiSA is limited to eight wireless channels, but some surround setups, like Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, require more than that. A WiSA AV receiver lets you create wired connections to your front speakers (e.g. front left, front right, and center channel) while simultaneously supporting WiSA wireless connections to the rear, height, and subwoofer speakers.
- You get all of the fine-grain control over your system a receiver offers, like adjustable crossover frequencies, scenes, effects, etc.
Are all WiSA setups the same?
No. Even though the WiSA ecosystem guarantees the compatibility and wireless performance of WiSA products, there can be differences from one WiSA setup to another.
“The baseline WiSA Ready Certification Specification is focused on interoperability, reliability, and signal integrity,” WiSA President Tony Ostrom told Digital Trends, but “additional features can easily be added at the discretion of the brands developing products.”
An example of these additional features is the Axiim Link HD, a WiSA USB transmitter that works with the new WiSA Ready LG TVs and other WiSA Ready devices. It incorporates multiple advanced features, including bass management, channel level control, and channel equalization, all controlled via Axiim’s mobile app.
The WiSA SoundSend works the same way, using a mobile app to configure a variety of settings, including a customization feature called My Zone, which lets you indicate the distance from the viewer to every speaker in the room.
Not every WiSA USB transmitter will necessarily offer similar controls, although Ostrom tells us that future iterations of the WiSA spec will “mandate the incorporation of some advanced features that we believe to be very useful in setting up a typical multi-channel audio system.”
Another important difference is support for specific audio codecs. Although WiSA makes it possible to experience a variety of codecs and formats, like Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and others, your specific gear needs to support them, too. Just because a product is WiSA Certified doesn’t mean it’s Dolby TrueHD compatible, for instance.
It’s worth noting that there isn’t always a one-to-one relationship between the kind of audio that a source device can handle and what it can support via a WiSA setup. For instance, 2019 to 2021 LG OLED TVs are Dolby Atmos-capable, which means they can pass through Dolby Atmos soundtracks over HDMI ARC back to an Atmos-capable receiver. That receiver can then use as many channels as it supports to recreate the full Atmos effect. But when that same LG TV is connected to a WiSA set of speakers via a WiSA transmitter, it will only support 2.0 or 5.1 configurations — not Dolby Atmos.
WiSA released a firmware update in June 2020 for existing speakers and transmitters that lets manufacturers add Dolby Atmos support, but so far, only the upcoming WiSA SoundSend officially supports this 3D audio format. When Digital Trends reached out to LG to find out when or if it would include WiSA Atmos support in its TVs, a representative told us, “There is no current plan to update the WiSA capability supported in our sets, but [we] will continue to evaluate going forward.”
Speaking of Dolby Atmos, British speaker company Lithe Audio recently announced a first-of-its-kind ceiling speaker that works with WiSA. The Lithe Audio Pro Series has a built-in amp and a WiSA receiver, which lets it work with any WiSA system. The one catch is that it needs a power source. You can power it from a nearby recessed lighting cable, or you can install an optional Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) module if you already have Ethernet cabling in your ceiling.
When it comes down to it, WiSA really is like a wireless speaker cable — it creates the connection between WiSA components, but it’s the components themselves that dictate which features you’ll get, as well as the overall quality, so researching the specs carefully before you make a buying decision is a must.
Can older gear be used to transmit WiSA signals?
Yes! Well, theoretically, anyway.
Any existing device that supports the output of audio via a USB port, and can receive firmware or driver updates — like a laptop, game console, or newer TV — can theoretically be made to work with a WiSA transmitter. “With the proper user interface elements, retrofitting existing products is a pretty simple straightforward process,” Ostrom said.
Normally, this would mean that a device like Microsoft’s Xbox One — which offers no built-in support for audio over USB — wouldn’t work with a WiSA transmitter. Yet, Ostrom tells us that the Axiim Link WiSA USB Transmitter is Xbox certified, and will deliver the console’s audio feed wirelessly to WiSA Certified speakers.
In theory, this could mean there will be future WiSA support for consoles like Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro (no word on PS5 on this front), even though they don’t officially support USB audio either. For now, however, you’ll have to connect them through a WiSA Ready or Certified source device, like a TV or AV receiver.
How is WiSA different from other wireless speaker technologies?
The two biggest problems with traditional wireless surround speakers are latency and sync. If you’re just listening to music, and it takes 100 milliseconds for the signal to go from your audio source — like a computer or Hi-Fi amp — it’s no big deal. In fact, once the music starts, as long as it doesn’t encounter hiccups along the way, that delay is irrelevant. But when your audio is part of a video soundtrack, every millisecond counts.
The longer it takes for the audio signal to get to your speakers (and thus your ears) the more likely you are to see someone’s lips moving on-screen ahead of being able to hear their words. WiSA’s wireless signal path reduces this latency to just five milliseconds, an imperceptible delay.
Synchronization between speakers can cause similar problems. If your left and right channels are out of sync, you’ll definitely notice distortion in the form of an echo-like effect.
WiSA uses a specific portion of the 5GHz Wi-Fi spectrum that has far less traffic, and therefore less interference, than standard 2.4, or 5GHz Wi-Fi channels. The transmitter constantly scans these 24 frequencies for interference and can automatically switch to a different one if interference appears on the channel it’s using. The other benefit of using 5GHz frequencies is bandwidth. These channels let WiSA transmit uncompressed, 24-bit audio at very high sample rates — something that would be difficult or impossible to do over lower portions of the radio spectrum.
The one drawback to using 5GHz frequencies is that they don’t stretch very far before they start to lose strength. To preserve the full quality of the audio signal, WiSA transmitters and speakers can’t be located in different rooms. The largest room size WiSA supports is 30’ x 30’.
What about soundbars?
Home theater soundbars have become a very popular choice thanks to their incredible simplicity and good sound quality. Many now support wireless subwoofers and Dolby Atmos via up-firing height channel drivers, increasing their ability to offer immersive sound.
One such soundbar on the market is JBL’s $1,000 9.1 Dolby Atmos soundbar, which first appeared at CES 2020. It includes similar components to WiSA, such as portable, wireless, and surround sound speakers, which overcome conventional stationary speakers’ shortcomings.
Choose wisely
In a standard, wired home theater set-up, the speakers, the EQ, and amplification device (e.g., an AV receiver), and the playback and source media device (e.g., a Blu-ray player) all contribute to the sound quality. But because every WiSA Certified speaker is self-powered, amplification is done exclusively at the speaker level in WiSA home theater systems.
In theory, this can lead to superior performance, but the speakers you choose will have a huge effect on overall volume and sound quality, so you must choose the right ones. Just replacing your receiver or standalone amp won’t get you the bigger, bolder sound from your WiSA system that you want — you’ll need to replace the speakers. So make sure you buy WiSA speakers that are powerful enough to fill your room if you want the full effect.
