A new way of distributing whole-home audio over Cat-5 has A-Bus in its sights.
When you hear distributed audio over Category-5 wiring Linear Home Technology knows you probably think, fine for background music but not for high-quality audio.
Current A-Bus distributed audio over Cat-5 certainly has its advocates. The low-cost solution is well supported by companies home builders know, such as Eaton, Honeywell, and Russound. But with the technology delivering less than 10 watts of power per room, it might not be what the thrifty audiophile wants.
Prepare to reconsider. Linear is offering a new, more powerful distributed audio over Cat-5 technology and is keeping its price tag small. The company is about to ship Digi5, an all-digital system that delivers up to 30 watts per channel (www.linearcorp.com).
The new technology, which debuted at September's CEDIA Expo in Denver, will be supported and marketed by Aton, Elan, Linear, Niles Audio, SpeakerCraft, and Xantech, all members of the Linear Home Technology Group. Aton and Xantech will be first out of the gate, with Aton shipping audio routers and touchpads late this year, while Xantech is set to sell audio components in the first quarter of 2008.
Look for four-source, four-zone products (expandable to 28 zones) in the $1,000 to $3,000 range, says Bob Holland, Digi5 program manager. Installed pricing could reach $4,000, but overall Digi5 costs should be within 10 percent of most A-Bus systems, he says.
Going digital makes a difference in Digi5's performance, Holland says. Digital amps generate less heat, and digital processing allows for longer wire runs. And because Digi5 uses four wires rather than two, there's less drop in power delivered over long runs. As result, Linear promises to deliver 30 watts at up to 50 feet from the hub, 20 watts at about 100 feet, and 15 watts at over 200 feet.
A-Bus developers say they're aware of Digi5, “but there's not enough information for us to form an opinion,” says Scott Sylvester, vice president of U.S. operations at Leisure Tech, which developed and licenses A-Bus.
A-Bus has its own advantages, Sylvester says, and correctly matched with speakers such as the Ratio line from Russound, delivers as much power as any system. A pair of 6.5-inch Ratio speakers start at $150, making a four-zone Russound A-Bus system with speakers about $2,000.
