Re: Whole House Audio Questions

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "markttay" <markttay@h...> wrote:

[...]

> there is less chance of signal degradation running the=20
> speaker output across longer distances than line level.

[...]

I do want to clear up the misapprehension that a number of people have
about line level vs. speaker level.

By converting signals up to speaker level, you do indeed reduce the
impact of interference compared to line level on a "like for
like" basis.

HOWEVER, what you lose by converting them up to speaker level is the
ability to run them in balanced mode on CAT5 (structured) cabling. The
KAT5 products from KAT5.tv do this, as do the Linn Knekt range - the
difference is that the KAT5 stuff is a fraction of the price of the
Linn stuff. In my opinion, the KAT5 stuff sounds as good - though the
Linn stuff LOOKS prettier, if you think that that's sufficient reason
for spending 10 times as much on a product :-)

In terms of sound quality, my experience suggests that the results are
(in order, best first):

- Local sound source in each room (but see note)
- Balanced line level
- Speaker cable
- Non-balanced line level

The "note" is, of course, that for a given budget a SINGLE
high-quality source, coupled with line-level distribution may be
better overall than a bunch of cheaper distributed sources. After all,
=A3150 for an MP3 player per room... multiplied by 6 rooms, gives =A3900.
=A3900 buys a pretty top-notch CD player.

Whether YOU can hear the difference is what's important, not what the
"engineering" answer are.


For the record I use:

- 6 Rio Receivers throughout the house, one in each main zone

- xAP control of the Rios with xAPDesktop

- KAT5 pair from the master bedroom to the dressing room, so that the
two rooms are always in sync (with PIR-controlled on-off on the
amplifier in the dressing room so it only plays when I'm in there)

- KAT5 pair from "babycam" to the TV in the master bedroom so we
can
monitor the nursery

I'm looking forward to getting a KAT5 switch when it's released

Regards,

Mark