It has always been common practice to centralize the amplifiers on a rack with matrix switches, control and source equipment. However, this is not necessarily the best practice. In fact, for the best overall performance, the amplifiers should be installed as close to the speakers as possible. This increases the efficiency of the amp and speakers since they are not competing with wire distances to drive or draw signal.

• Central Amplification in a multi-room system requires larger amplifiers to drive the audio signals over long distances. These large amplifiers, in turn, create more heat that ultimately reduce the life of electronics. Considerations for ventilation for centrally located equipment are a must and, in today’s home, not everyone can afford to dedicate the square footage necessary for a room to house their audio/video equipment.

• Distributed Amplification offers 3 distinct advantages over central amplification – improved amplifier efficiency, improved sound quality, and easy serviceability.

• Improved Amplifier Efficiency: The innovation of Digital Amplification has allowed us to put a more powerful amp in a smaller package, increasing the flexibility of amplifier placement. By moving the amps closer to the speakers, we distribute the heat that the amps produce, but because they are more efficient amplifiers, they produce less heat. This allows a multi-room system to take advantage of this new digital size and keeps the amp closer to the speaker.

• Improved Sound Quality: NetStreams’ DigiLinX IP-Based system transfers all of the audio signals digitally, and allows the integration of parametric and advanced digital crossovers, which are impossible to achieve with centralized wiring topologies. Distributing the audio over TCP/IP for amplification at the speaker also eliminates distortion and loss in the sound quality over distance. It is as if the source, the amp and the speaker are literally inches from one another.

• Easy Serviceability: In a distributed amplifier scenario, if an amplifier goes bad, it is easy to replace and service. If one or more channels in a traditional multi-channel amplifier goes bad, the whole device needs to be replaced which can leave the home-owner with no music.

NetStreams’ DigiLinX system uses its proprietary StreamNet^™ technology, which is based on TCP/IP, the foundation of all web-based technologies and products. While other manufacturers in the marketplace may claim that their systems are IP-Based, in fact, most are only "IP-interfaced". It is important to note that "IP-interfaced" is not the same as "IP-Based". IP-interfaced products only translate their proprietary protocols to TCP/IP, while IP-Based products use the TCP/IP foundation throughout its functions. Don’t be confused – take a look at this quick and easy comparison:

In an IP-Based system, like NetStreams’ StreamNet technology-based system, there are basically four components:
• Discovery and setup over IP
• Control of devices over IP
• Distribution of data from devices to give status or information about device, event or content over IP
• Automatic Synchronization over IP of Streaming Content or Media

An IP-Interfaced system only features two of the abovementioned four components:
• Control of devices over IP
• Data from devices to give status or information about device or event, but may not be able to include the content’s meta-data (i.e. song, artist, album, genre)

IP-interfaced systems:
• Do not stream their content or media over IP
• Can not distribute its content to multiple rooms and automatically synchronize its content

It is important to note that compressed music (like MP3, WMA, and others) is significantly different from "Uncompressed" music (.WAV - also known as PCM) in sound quality, mainly due to the compression algorithms used. Read below and then click on the two sound files to hear the difference.

MP3 is short for MPEG Layer 3 – a fancy name for the MP3 audio file format. MP3 audio is a specially formatted and heavily compressed computer file. Depending on sample rate, the audio quality can sound close, but not equal to that of a CD. An uncompressed audio file of 1 minute consumes nearly 9 megabytes (MB) of disk space. An MP3 file uses only about 1 MB of disk space for the same minute of audio. This reduction in file size has revolutionized the delivery of music, because it is now easier to transmit music over the internet. A song that would have taken almost an hour to download, depending on the Internet connection, can now be downloaded in about 6 minutes using an MP3 or WMA file. In exchange for a smaller file size, the listener sacrifices 70% of the data that holds what some describe as the 3-D characteristics of the audio – the data necessary to create staging and imaging.

An uncompressed .WAV music file contains all of the data found in a CD, without any compression or loss of data. This offers the listener the highest quality audio available from a CD.

To sample the difference between a compressed (MP-3) music file or an uncompressed (.WAV) music file go to the demo section of our website and listen for yourself