[2][3] CobraNet was designed for and is primarily used in large commercial audio installations such as convention centers, stadiums, airports, theme parks, and concert halls.

It has applications where a large number of audio channels must be transmitted over long distances or to multiple locations.

[4] CobraNet is an alternative to analog audio, which suffers from signal degradation over long cable runs due to electromagnetic interference, high-frequency attenuation, and voltage drop.

The first permanent installation of CobraNet in this early form was to provide background music throughout Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.

Support for higher sample rates, increased bit resolutions and lowered latency capabilities were later introduced in an incremental and backward-compatible manner.

[9][10] Leveraging Cirrus DSP technology, a low-cost SoC implementation of CobraNet was developed and marketed.

Using CobraNet and fast Ethernet, 64 channels of uncompressed digital audio are carried through a single category 5 cable.

[13] Audio is transmitted in digital form, and provides reduced susceptibility to electromagnetic interference, crosstalk, coloration, and attenuation owing to cable impedance.

[14][15] Use of Ethernet by CobraNet offers many high availability features such as Spanning Tree Protocol, link aggregation, and network management.

Instead of using TCP/IP packets, CobraNet transfers data using data link layer packets, which travel quickly through hubs, bridges and switches, and are not as susceptible to the latency and QoS problems commonly found in streaming protocols using a higher transport layer.

Bandwidth and reliability issues associated with typical 802.11 wireless networks tend to cause frequent dropouts and errors.

Careful network design and topology which takes advantage of this feature can provide extremely high reliability in critical applications.

[16][17] The typical CobraNet interfaces provided by Cirrus Logic are the CM-1 and the CM-2:[23] Both cards are designed to be added to audio products by the manufacturer.

Cirrus Logic provides a software application known as CobraCAD, which assists in the design of the network on which the CobraNet system will run.

It helps to identify if there are too many routers between two CobraNet devices, if a certain latency is possible given the network configuration and other tasks.

[24] If configuration is required (for example, in a DSP box with integrated CobraNet I/O), then the manufacturer of the device typically supplies proprietary software for that purpose.

As self-powered speakers became more common, Cobranet was frequently used to distribute the audio signal from the DSP.

Many digital mixing consoles are available with optional CobraNet interfaces for increased channel capacity and reduced cabling.