(Note:I realize this sub-forum is mostly relevant to home/studio production, but this forum seemed the most relevant for my playback question.)
I've been demoing many DACs over the past 8-12 months to possibly repalce my Weiss DAC2. Although I am also a 2 channel guy, I have a very hi-end multichannel setup and a large mch library. I've run the classic analog outs setup for years, and now I'm looking for digital options there. It's the natural evolution: use the best DAC/analog stage backend you can find, which are usually not in the player or an HDMI-based receiver/processor.
As I find glorious sounding firewire DACs like the Metric Halo LIO-8 it begs the question of how to take advantage of the multiple DAC inputs/outputs available in these multichannel units.
One way is to mod a universal player like my Oppo BDP83 SE and use a Shawn Fogg or other 3-4 S/PDIF board to run digital from the player to the DAC (via S/PDIF/XLR impedance transformers and then a DB-25 snake, in the case of the LIO-8). This necessitates disc playback, of course. It's the multichannel version of a cd transport.
However, what with the onset of DVD-A rippers and SACD-to-PCM conversions (I have most of my DVD-A discs ripped 2 channel and could do the same multichannel), the thought of storing multichannel files, taking multichannel files off the hard disk and playing them (mono sets or multichannel wavs/FLACs) makes perfect sense. One single firewire cable will carry multichannel, so it begs another question...the subject of this thread.....are there any software players out there that will play up to 24/96 multichannel music on a MAC? I'm open to minimalist GUI, etc. And I'm not talking DTS or Dolby Digital, I'm talking lossless multichannel wavs or FLACs. They exist; I just can't find a software player that plays them, especially on a MAC, which is my music server platform. Firewire is the likely vehicle to my multichannel DAC.
A tool that also has capabilities like mono-to-multichannel file conversion, etc. is nice, but my no. 1 issue is simply playback. Metadata and library functions would be also be nice, but also secondary.
Any help or opinion welcome.
Thx
Ted
I've been demoing many DACs over the past 8-12 months to possibly repalce my Weiss DAC2. Although I am also a 2 channel guy, I have a very hi-end multichannel setup and a large mch library. I've run the classic analog outs setup for years, and now I'm looking for digital options there. It's the natural evolution: use the best DAC/analog stage backend you can find, which are usually not in the player or an HDMI-based receiver/processor.
As I find glorious sounding firewire DACs like the Metric Halo LIO-8 it begs the question of how to take advantage of the multiple DAC inputs/outputs available in these multichannel units.
One way is to mod a universal player like my Oppo BDP83 SE and use a Shawn Fogg or other 3-4 S/PDIF board to run digital from the player to the DAC (via S/PDIF/XLR impedance transformers and then a DB-25 snake, in the case of the LIO-8). This necessitates disc playback, of course. It's the multichannel version of a cd transport.
However, what with the onset of DVD-A rippers and SACD-to-PCM conversions (I have most of my DVD-A discs ripped 2 channel and could do the same multichannel), the thought of storing multichannel files, taking multichannel files off the hard disk and playing them (mono sets or multichannel wavs/FLACs) makes perfect sense. One single firewire cable will carry multichannel, so it begs another question...the subject of this thread.....are there any software players out there that will play up to 24/96 multichannel music on a MAC? I'm open to minimalist GUI, etc. And I'm not talking DTS or Dolby Digital, I'm talking lossless multichannel wavs or FLACs. They exist; I just can't find a software player that plays them, especially on a MAC, which is my music server platform. Firewire is the likely vehicle to my multichannel DAC.
A tool that also has capabilities like mono-to-multichannel file conversion, etc. is nice, but my no. 1 issue is simply playback. Metadata and library functions would be also be nice, but also secondary.
Any help or opinion welcome.
Thx
Ted
