In an increasingly wireless world, speakers tethered to the living-room stereo or TV look positively quaint. There's good news, though: wireless speaker systems that transmit audio via radio signals through walls, floors and ceilings.

These systems are inexpensive -- under $200 -- and easy to set up. And because the speakers are compact, lightweight and can run on batteries as well as AC power, you can shuttle them from poolroom to patio on a whim.

Bob McCormick, an anchor and reporter for KNX 1070 Newsradio in Los Angeles, uses three pairs of wireless speakers in his three-floor home -- one set on the patio, another in the living room, and a third that he places wherever the spirit takes him. Last year he had music blasting in two rooms and in the backyard for a Labor Day party. "Some people told me to turn it down so they could talk," says McCormick."I love my music loud." He adds that wireless speakers are good "for someone like me who doesn't want to drill through walls."

Wireless can be quirky, however. There's a big difference in performance among the speaker systems on the market, and sometimes even between what the products claim and what they deliver. One issue to be aware of upfront: The modern home is a frequency free-for-all, with baby monitors, cordless phones and TVs adding to the buzz. Because most wireless-speaker transmitters use the 900-megahertz radio frequency, newer 2.4-gigahertz and 5.8 GHz cordless phones won't pose a problem, but older 900 MHz phones and baby monitors might. To avoid piping heavy metal into your phone conversations or the crib, you may have to get a new phone or monitor.

The actual setup is child's play. The heart of the system is a small transmitter, no bigger than a portable CD player, that plugs into an outlet and into the audio output or headphone jack of your stereo, TV, VCR, CD or DVD player.

Wireless speakers are a fairly new technology. Sony's current stand-alone system was introduced just three years ago. The other major player is Thomson, which manufactures three brands -- Acoustic Research, Advent and RCA -- each of which introduced models last year.

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