We all know the feeling of working on a great idea only to have it torpedoed at the last minute or even worse to know you have a winner but find that the company you work for just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Then pity the poor design engineer at Creative who had to pitch the new Xdock Wireless. This bundle of WiFi music sending fun looked to all intents and purposes to be a “no brainer” when the engineer took the lift to the 12^th floor board room and started his pitch.

Instead of having to keep your PC switched on to act as a music server or to transfer all your library to another expensive dedicated device what could be better than using your MP3 player. The board execs eyes opened and even the FD who was often disinterested in new spangly ideas seemed interested. The principle is simple enough, utilise the hard drive of the MP3 player and the user interface combine this with some regular RF networking and some receive units and you have yourself a system.

As you may have guessed this is not some pipe dream but a real new gadget set to hit the UK shops next month (March 07). Creative have designed the Xdock so that the minimum set-up is a base station or transmit unit and a single receiver, you can of course add multiple receive units for each room in the house. The base unit either docks the MP3 player or can also take a feed via an aux cable, it then streams the audio output as is plays back from your MP3 player via the 2.4Ghz frequency to any tuned in receivers. It all sounds pretty neat but also easily repeatable as in essence you could wander down to your local Maplins and pick up the required parts. What creative have done rather well is glue them all together in a tidy package with a simple control system consisting of a large rotary control knob for volume and basic play / pause and skip functionality.

The Xdock unit also comes with an RF remote control allowing you to operate it from a distance and it like the Xdock receivers has RCA audio outputs plus it has an optical audio output for those who wish to connect that way. So to some tests, first up we plugged up our MP3 player to the Creative Xdock and found that it started to charge (a bonus) next we selected a playlist and hit play, as expected the music came forth from the docks own audio outputs via our stereo, nothing special there, but it does all work as advertised. Each transmitter can handle up to 4 Xdock receivers and these can be controlled as a group all playing the same tracks or you can turn each unit and and off univocally all from the remote control.

Next to the adjacent room and an X-Fi receiver which sat powered from the mains ready to run, no need to go through pairing procedures or to set WEP keys just turn up the volume and tune in. Creative make some bold claims for the audio quality of the X Dock bigging up the X-Fi technology which manages to mask the real technology in use. However let’s not be too harsh as we have yet to find a Bluetooth based system that manages to provide good quality audio. BT audio senders are restricted by the max 1mbps throughput even though they may only need to send 128kbits, subsequently the fail to deliver a good QOS (quality of service) and the audio comes and goes more times that Britney spears in rehab! Oh and we won’t even mention the poor 10 meter range of most BT devices.

The Creative Xdock however manages to deliver a good QOS with sound that to our ears was as good as that heard via the main Xdock unit that was directly connected to our MP3 player. You don’t get full control of the MP3 player from the remote stations, yes you can adjust your listening volume and also skip tracks. But there is no ability to browse the library (as there is no screen) and no access to play lists unless you pre load them on the player first.

Creative push their 2 audio enhancements hard, namely the crystalizer? which makes MP3 sound better than CD by lifting areas normally lost to compression and their CMSS-3D sound. Do they work? in a word No, the crystalliser makes everything sound like a badly aligned 80's graphical equalizer and the 3D effect is about as convincing as those found on most stereo TV sets.

Should you have some video on your device it can be viewed via a video output on the rear of the main Xdock unit but this cannot be transmitted to the X-Fi units which are far more basic with just the RCA audio outputs and 3.5mm headphone jacks.

Overall a tidy package and one that shouldn’t cost the earth either when compared to your other choices. Now the only downside for the engineer who sat in the boardroom that day was revealed when the execs asked if this would help sell Creative's range of MP3 players.

Sheepishly he shifted in his seat and started to explain that the Xdock was in fact designed for an Apple iPod and not Creative's own range. Doh!  So while you and I can happily slide our 3 – 5G iPods, iPod Nanos and Minis into the Xdock spare a thought for the genius who turned your Pod into a home wireless music server as he tries to make a version that will work with his Companies own MP3 players.

Expect the Xdock Wireless system  to be on sale before the Summer and priced at around £150 for the TX unit and £80 for the receivers.

 Published - 03/03/2007

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