While there is a wide choice of portable and compact wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speakers designed specifically for listening to music, more and more consumers are asking for the availability of wireless speakers designed specifically for home theater use.

Running those long, ugly speaker wires required to connect speakers for a surround sound setup can be quite a hassle. As a result, consumers are drawn to increasingly promoted home theater system options that tout wireless speakers as a way to solve this problem. Don't be fooled by the term "wireless," though. Those speakers may not be as wireless as you expect.

A speaker needs two types of signals to work.

In a traditional wired speaker setup, the audio signals and the power required to operate the speaker are passed from an amplifier via speaker cable connections.