Both Jon and I had to camp this project to deal with issues in RL. We are done with that now and back to work on DigiSpeaker.

During the break, Jon had a chance to rethink our model and has made some adjustments. For instance, Jon no longer feels it is important to have direct I/O in the modules (analog/digital input and output). He feels that there are other devices that do a better job of this and it is not worth the expense. I agree with this change. DigiSpeaker shines as an internet connected amplifier. How the music gets into the cache of each node is really a separate problem. I would prefer that users simply 'drag and drop' music files into the nodes of an installation and forget about it. How the music files are created (ripped from CD, recorded from analog, ..etc) is another problem that has been well solved by other devices.

Also, Jon would like me to design a system where DigiSpeakers can be 'piled' into a zone to achieve higher power levels and better sound quality. This is a little harder to explain. But what he is getting at is a system where two or more independent DigiSpeakers cooperate to play music. For instance, if a single DigiSpeaker is in a zone, then it should be capable of driving a pair of stereo speakers (traditional left and right speakers with crossover circuitry). However, if two DigiSpeakers are installed in a zone, then one should be able to play the left channel while another plays the right channel. Since two DigiSpeakers are involved, each with a separate power supply, it would be possible to double the power delivered in that zone. Furthermore, in this configuration, it would be possible to bi-amp the speakers attached to a node so that the tweeters and woofers are driven directly from the amplifier. Crossover would be achieved digitally in the PWM processor. This could greatly enhance the quality of sound for any installation because all deployment flaws could be corrected in software.

A block diagram will make these two important changes clearer. I will post one with a discussion in the coming days.