Harry in Port Huron, Michigan listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: "I've got a wireless speaker, by Acoustic Air and I've enjoyed it for years. It connects to the back of my computer on the speaker jack with a cable that goes to a wireless transmitter. What I want to know is, is there another wireless speaker I can get that just has a USB transmitter that plugs into USB with no cable on it? This transmitter that I have has 3 cables on it. I'd like to get away from cables. I know there's bluetooth speakers out there, but when you're blind, as I am, and use screen reader, the lag with bluetooth is terrible with screen readers. Are there other wireless speakers out there that are not Bluetooth?"

 

Harry, you’re right, most wireless speakers have gone Bluetooth these days, you can still find some that aren’t, but you may have a hard time finding one that uses USB out of a computer port, since virtually all computers have Bluetooth built-in these days, the market has been supplying this need with Bluetooth speakers.

An option that could work well for you is an NFC/Bluetooth combo device. If you got one of those to plug into your computer, you could just tap the speaker to it and be paired.

There are also WiFi speakers, with options ranging from cheap generic to very expensive models from companies like Sonos. The set-up may still be difficult on those, since you will need to open an app and tell them which WiFi network they should connect to.

Unfortunately, while you can still find wireless headphones that aren’t Bluetooth, finding wireless non-bluetooth speakers that aren’t part of something like a home theater has gotten a lot harder.