Newbie advice required please about intro setup for playing 4ch iso rips

[Tusken1138]

Hi all.
I’m a newbie who is interested in dipping my toes into multichannel audio, a friend has given me a rip of the iso of the Japanese sacd of miles davis, bitches brew, which gets rave reviews. I already have 2 sets of good speakers, and a laptop which can output HDMI, so my plan is to purchase a cheap second hand multichannel amp in order to dip my toes in the water and see if this is something I would like to pursue further

So I have no experience at all and understand that I will need Foobar to be able to play the ISo. I don’t know how to configure Foobar properly to do that yet but I think there are some threads with instructions on how to do that.

My question to you is that I have heard that many amPs have problems playing the bitstream of 4 channel audio because they get confused by itnot being 5.1 etc. Does anyone have specific experience of playing 4 channel audio from a pc and which model amp do you use? Preferably, I would want to pick up something second hand, not a new model amp. I know there is a specific thread about this, but it isn’t clear whether the amp only works in 4channel because of the way it’s being sent by the player, but I won’t beusing a player, just outputting the pure bitstream via hdmi.

I have also heard that you can get round this problem by using a program to convert the 4 ch to 5.1 with a silent extra channel, but I don’t think you can do that directly
From
the iso, you would need to convert the files to wav or similar , right? And honestly I would prefer not to do that unless I absolutely have to because it increases the technical steps I have to learn.

I would dearly love just to purchase an amp, set up Foobar, and then have it just “work”

Any advice or comments greatly appreciated, thank you

Russ

 

[DuncanS]

Hi all.
I’m a newbie who is interested in dipping my toes into multichannel audio, a friend has given me a rip of the iso of the Japanese sacd of miles davis, bitches brew, which gets rave reviews. I already have 2 sets of good speakers, and a laptop which can output HDMI, so my plan is to purchase a cheap second hand multichannel amp in order to dip my toes in the water and see if this is something I would like to pursue further

So I have no experience at all and understand that I will need Foobar to be able to play the ISo. I don’t know how to configure Foobar properly to do that yet but I think there are some threads with instructions on how to do that.

My question to you is that I have heard that many amPs have problems playing the bitstream of 4 channel audio because they get confused by itnot being 5.1 etc. Does anyone have specific experience of playing 4 channel audio from a pc and which model amp do you use? Preferably, I would want to pick up something second hand, not a new model amp. I know there is a specific thread about this, but it isn’t clear whether the amp only works in 4channel because of the way it’s being sent by the player, but I won’t beusing a player, just outputting the pure bitstream via hdmi.

I have also heard that you can get round this problem by using a program to convert the 4 ch to 5.1 with a silent extra channel, but I don’t think you can do that directly
From
the iso, you would need to convert the files to wav or similar , right? And honestly I would prefer not to do that unless I absolutely have to because it increases the technical steps I have to learn.

I would dearly love just to purchase an amp, set up Foobar, and then have it just “work”

Any advice or comments greatly appreciated, thank you

Russ

A lot of Quad SACDs actually have a silent Centre added already (so 5.0, which stops the amps confusion), I can't remember if my Japanese Bitches Brew SACD is one of them.

 

[quadsearcher]

My advice is to just start trying. Within a reasonable (low) cost at first of course. I'd set up the hardware, then play something simple like a DVD movie and get playback correct there (even with no center hooked up if you don't have a 5th speaker). Then once that's confirmed, try with files.
Whoops! I'm forgetting that a lot of computers have no disc player. In that case I'd use a file that's known good to play on another system.
Then once the infrastructure checks out, try other files and there won't be any hardware ambiguity to slow you down.

Multichannel DVD players with RCA connectors on all outputs are still findable for cheap around my area, along with software (DVD movies).
I'm guessing though you want HDMI from PC to Receiver.

 

[par4ken]

With Foobar you can adjust the number of channels using the Matrix Mixer found under convert/processing. I like to convert 5.1 flacs to 4.0 to play on my computer. Others do the opposite by adding the the extra silent channels, for compatibility with their particular systems.

 

[Tusken1138]

Thanks for your replies. Yes I will want to go via hdmi from pc, so i am still keen to hear from anyone that has an amp which definitely works with native quad channels. It’s interesting to know that you can add an extra channel in Foobar, but can you do that directly from the iso. Or do you have to convert the iso into wav files, first, before adding the extra channel to them? Is that easy to do in Foobar as well?

 

[par4ken]

Thanks for your replies. Yes I will want to go via hdmi from pc, so i am still keen to hear from anyone that has an amp which definitely works with native quad channels. It’s interesting to know that you can add an extra channel in Foobar, but can you do that directly from the iso. Or do you have to convert the iso into wav files, first, before adding the extra channel to them? Is that easy to do in Foobar as well?

I haven't tried it but it should work directly from the iso but I would think that you would have to create a new iso with the new files. As far as I know you can't edit the iso itself.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I haven't tried it but it should work directly from the iso but I would think that you would have to create a new iso with the new files. As far as I know you can't edit the iso itself.

Of course but you can do channel rearrangements on-the-fly with Jriver. Perhaps with other apps, too.

 

[Dynamic Editor]

Thanks for your replies. Yes I will want to go via hdmi from pc, so i am still keen to hear from anyone that has an amp which definitely works with native quad channels. It’s interesting to know that you can add an extra channel in Foobar, but can you do that directly from the iso. Or do you have to convert the iso into wav files, first, before adding the extra channel to them? Is that easy to do in Foobar as well?

When you put in the ISO, it will put multiple files from it on your Foobar, both the stereo and surround sound ones. (I think stereo ones generally get put first, but I may be misremembering.) You can right click the song, hit "properties" and then I think it shows you how many channels the audio has.

 

[himey]

When you put in the ISO, it will put multiple files from it on your Foobar, both the stereo and surround sound ones.

There is a preference setting so it doesn't load both if you choose.

 

[Tusken1138]

Thanks for your replies. I will do some experimenting with Foobar first before buying an amp

 

[himey]

I will do some experimenting with Foobar first before buying an amp

You might want to start out with a used receiver with HDMI inputs, and multichannel preouts? They can be had for under $150. Unless you are using the term "amp" loosely?

 

[Tusken1138]

You might want to start out with a used receiver with HDMI inputs, and multichannel preouts? They can be had for under $150. Unless you are using the term "amp" loosely?

Yes I do need a receiver with an hdmi input. Forgive my ignorance, what does multichannel Preout mean? I was assuming the receiver would be the amplifier as well? Isn’t that the norm?

 

[timbre4]

Yes I do need a receiver with an hdmi input. Forgive my ignorance, what does multichannel Preout mean? I was assuming the receiver would be the amplifier as well? Isn’t that the norm?

Normally a receiver handles both preamp and power amp duties. Multichannel pre-outs open up the option to feed different power amplifiers while the receiver continues to be used for volume, balance, tone. input switching, etc.

 

[Tusken1138]

Ok, I am making progress. I have configured Foobar to play the iso and I’ve checked the audio properties which state 5 channel DST64 files , so I don’t think there should be a problem with receiver compatibility when I send the audio over hdmi.

I am a bit confused with how to output from the pc over hdmi, though, so I could do with some help or pointing in the right direction for a tutorial on this forum, please. I’ve downloaded the relevant plugins in Foobar to output via ASIO, and I’ve installed the ASIO driver for my windows 11 laptop.

I now understand that you can’t bitstream with Foobar, you can only send pcm wav. That would be ok for me. I was assuming that this basic laptop (just the bog standard graphics card) would be able to output over hdmi, so that the receiver then deals with separating it into 5 channels, am I right? The problem might be that I haven’t got the receiver yet, so I have nothing to plug my hdmi cable into yet. Once I do, will the ASIO settings that I need to configure recognise the receiver automatically? Sorry for my ignorance, all help much appreciated, thanks

 

[Dynamic Editor]

Ok, I am making progress. I have configured Foobar to play the iso and I’ve checked the audio properties which state 5 channel DST64 files , so I don’t think there should be a problem with receiver compatibility when I send the audio over hdmi.

I am a bit confused with how to output from the pc over hdmi, though, so I could do with some help or pointing in the right direction for a tutorial on this forum, please. I’ve downloaded the relevant plugins in Foobar to output via ASIO, and I’ve installed the ASIO driver for my windows 11 laptop.

I now understand that you can’t bitstream with Foobar, you can only send pcm wav. That would be ok for me. I was assuming that this basic laptop (just the bog standard graphics card) would be able to output over hdmi, so that the receiver then deals with separating it into 5 channels, am I right? The problem might be that I haven’t got the receiver yet, so I have nothing to plug my hdmi cable into yet. Once I do, will the ASIO settings that I need to configure recognise the receiver automatically? Sorry for my ignorance, all help much appreciated, thanks

On your PC, where the volume is on the bottom right, right click it, hit "sounds" and then go to the "Playback" tab. Right click the device you're connected to (likely a receiver of some sort) and then hit "Configure Speakers".

Hopefully that works. I'm not sure how old your laptop is, so sometimes these things can be wonky and not work quite right.

Another alternative I like to do is attach an external hard drive to the receiver if it has a port for USB. I have the files on my hard drive and I can play it through the receiver itself, which is pretty cool.