wappinghigh
Well-known Member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2011
- Messages
- 185
If it's OK with the moderators I'd like to start this thread.
Having spent quite some time exploring and experimenting with this option, I can say it can easily be done by simply using something like VLC media player ->iMac->toslink->surround receiver
This will pretty much handle any surround file format including the ones quad users might be more interested in (5.1 PCM/wav and 5.1 flac)
But this interface has it's problems. The question then is how can the sound be improved using this playback setup.
Over at computeraudiofile.com the crowd have got this licked with various itunes based media server add on's like Amarra and async usb->toslink or digital convertors. As a matter of fact Berkley Audio Design (one of the companies regarded as the pinnacle of this sort of technology) have just released one of these. But there are others.
The problem is they are for stereo. That is they reduce jitter and the resultant signal output is designed for just the one DAC. Correct me if I am wrong, but for surround you need 3 (5.1) or 4 (7.1) DAC's It would start getting expensive and rather complicated to somehow run the signal into 4x Berkley,Wavelength, or Weiss 202 DAC's !
So what are the best/easiest/least expensive to set up "other options"
I have had various opinions from people who really know their stuff on this. And it seems there are basically two. And they revolve around 7.1 analog input into the receiver. The source output being either
1/ A high end proaudio interface like the Metric Halo or
2/ A specific analog sound card like the lynx or Asus (again there are others)
The problem here is setup complexity and the "beta" testing often involved. Sometimes things just don't work! So I'd like to start this thread. So others with more experience than me can suggest the best route to take. One that works straight out of the box with minimal hassle (if this is possible )
My preference is OSX based. And at the moment I am leaning toward the Metric Halo/proaudio interface option...mainly because it also provides function going the other way (A->D) for archiving vinyl/SACD's etc..
I'd love comments from everyone
Cheers
Wap
Having spent quite some time exploring and experimenting with this option, I can say it can easily be done by simply using something like VLC media player ->iMac->toslink->surround receiver
This will pretty much handle any surround file format including the ones quad users might be more interested in (5.1 PCM/wav and 5.1 flac)
But this interface has it's problems. The question then is how can the sound be improved using this playback setup.
Over at computeraudiofile.com the crowd have got this licked with various itunes based media server add on's like Amarra and async usb->toslink or digital convertors. As a matter of fact Berkley Audio Design (one of the companies regarded as the pinnacle of this sort of technology) have just released one of these. But there are others.
The problem is they are for stereo. That is they reduce jitter and the resultant signal output is designed for just the one DAC. Correct me if I am wrong, but for surround you need 3 (5.1) or 4 (7.1) DAC's It would start getting expensive and rather complicated to somehow run the signal into 4x Berkley,Wavelength, or Weiss 202 DAC's !
So what are the best/easiest/least expensive to set up "other options"
I have had various opinions from people who really know their stuff on this. And it seems there are basically two. And they revolve around 7.1 analog input into the receiver. The source output being either
1/ A high end proaudio interface like the Metric Halo or
2/ A specific analog sound card like the lynx or Asus (again there are others)
The problem here is setup complexity and the "beta" testing often involved. Sometimes things just don't work! So I'd like to start this thread. So others with more experience than me can suggest the best route to take. One that works straight out of the box with minimal hassle (if this is possible )
My preference is OSX based. And at the moment I am leaning toward the Metric Halo/proaudio interface option...mainly because it also provides function going the other way (A->D) for archiving vinyl/SACD's etc..
I'd love comments from everyone
Cheers
Wap