Digital speakers

[Marin]

Hello. Excuse me for cross-posting but these music groups seem so quiet
so I wanted to try all three.

I'm wondering if there's such a thing as professional digital speakers,
i.e. good ones with bass, mid-range and tweeter cones. By "digital" I
mean connected via USB, firewire or ethernet. I've searched on the net
and all I can find are the usual single cone USB computer speakers which
are under 50 watts.

The reason I ask is that with most music being in digital format it
makes sense to use a computer as a sound system rather than a hi-fi, and
software can give so much functionality compared with standard consumer
hardware.

Also, is it possible to buy individual digital speakers? Those USB
computer speakers always come in sets, usually two or two plus a
subwoofer. I suppose I could make some, but it's so much easier just to
buy something. The reason I ask this is that I would love to be able to
connect an arbitary number of speakers to a computer. Using
appropriately written software one could create some very interesting
spacial effects. My idea of an ideal digital speaker would be an
ethernet one, then you could direct a specific channel of sound to any
speaker on the local network, including speakers in other rooms.
(Obviously every speaker would need to have an IP address and the
software on the PC would need to be aware of these addresses.)

Is there any equipment on the market which can help me do something like
this?

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Many thanks,
Marin

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