Re: Whole-house audio

[Nigel Orr <nigel.orr@xxxxxxx>]

At 16:39 02/11/99 +0000, you wrote:
>I'm working on a similar idea. I would like to distribute hifi - (yes
hifi)
>from a central system, the intention being to have computer control
over the
>routing at some future point.

'Me Too'...

>people who share the house...) so I've been turned into a carpenter
making
>stair gates - anyway I digress...

If you hadn't been digressing, you might not have had to make stair gates
;-)

>The idea of a multi-input multi-zone amp sounds rather like 100volt
speaker
>drivers - I really don't think you're going to get hifi quality through
that.

Not necessarily.  Lots of the big PA systems (EAW, Meyer etc) use high
voltage distribution rather than 8 ohm, just to cut the losses in the line.
There are good music quality 100V transformers around (try Canford, for
starters), but good transformers aren't particularly cheap.  There are also
some speakers (like the odd looking Canon wide dispersion thingys) that
come with 100V as an option instead of 8 ohm.

>You really do need an amp (preferally with a differential/balanced
input)
- eg
>Samson 'servo' series of studio amps (excellent value)

I'd agree with that as the best approach, but for some rooms where you
don't want 'things', a central amp would be better.  In a typical house,
with speakers run on 2.5mm T&E mains cabling, there would be few who
could
claim to notice the difference between a 2-3m run and a 10-20m one.
However, the potential interference from the long runs of cable near other
signal cables might be an issue.

>I think that using a network link and mp3'ing to each room is a very
expensive
>way to go

Agreed 110%!  At least for now.  MP3 decoders are actually getting _very_
cheap, but if you've run cat-5 for audio, you might be able to use the same
cable for digital audio and video in future.  That'll be the Kat-5 plus,
right Keith?

Nigel

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