Confused about digital speakers ? (1 Viewer)

[Roy Garner]

Hi to all

I'm a little confused about digital speakers, whats the difference between digital speakers & analog speakers ? Are digital speakers 100% digital including the drivers or do they convert to analog somewhere in the circuit ?

Thanks

 

[JeremyFr]

never really heard of "Digital" speakers aside from companys referring to a speaker as digital meaning it can supposedly handle the majority of frequency encoded on a CD. But other than that you would have always translate back to analog for a speaker at some point, Sound is Naturally Analog not digital.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

There is really no such thing as a digital speaker. Humans can only hear analog sound waves, so the speaker has physcially has to be analog. I guess it could input a digital signal and convert it. Sending 1s and 0s into the air would be pointless. It is probably just a play on words.

 

[Holger]

@ roy,

there are a very few companys in the world which manufacture digital speakers indeed. for example *Meridian* does it, as well as *T&A*, a well known and highly praised german high-end manufacturer in europe as well as *Klein&Hummel*, also a german manufacturer for active studio monitors.

a digital speakers contains all those things inside which you would find otherwise in (pre)amps/receivers, namely poweramps, dac's and adc's, ect. the purpose of a digital speaker is to deliver sonic prefomance which just cannot be done in the analog domain. for example: with a digital speaker can be a crossover achieved of about 300 db/octave.

the full potential of a digital speaker can only be reached of course with a full digital preamp/surround decoder. unfortunally only Meridian offers such devices at present, to my knowledge. but also with an analog preamp7surround decoder you will have fantastic possibilities altough you will have a lot more a/d D/a convertings.



regards, holger

 

[Ben_L]

Unless its Meridian or some other really high end brand, chances are if you see "digital speakers" labeled anywhere on the speaker or packaging, its one of those no-name brands that dont know what theyre talking about (ie. white van brands).

 

[Roy Garner]

Thanks to all for reply.
When I would see digital speaker systems say things like "maintaining a complete digital path from the source to ear"I said what the heck....

Lots of info at this wonderful site

Thanks