Here's an idea I had.
Take PC-based digital crossover software and feed the outputs into a dolby digital live codec.
This would allow you to plug a single digital output into a (for example) 6.1 home theater receiver and feed 2 3-way speakers and a bonus subwoofer output.
It would be a very cost-effective way to create a digital, actively-crossed speaker system with all of your DACs and amplifier channels in one box.
Is there any existing PC-based crossover software which would make this doable on Windows 7?
Take PC-based digital crossover software and feed the outputs into a dolby digital live codec.
This would allow you to plug a single digital output into a (for example) 6.1 home theater receiver and feed 2 3-way speakers and a bonus subwoofer output.
It would be a very cost-effective way to create a digital, actively-crossed speaker system with all of your DACs and amplifier channels in one box.
Is there any existing PC-based crossover software which would make this doable on Windows 7?
Seems good idea to make cost lower. How's quality?
In HiFi point of view, most home theater amplifier are not good enough for music... Any candidate?
Why not use HDMI - you can send multichannel PCM, 8 descrete channels are supported by most hardware, and no need to do any "live encoding".
And if you don't want to use a receiver, but separate amps instead, use an HDMI Audio DAC. between PC and AMP (or preamps depending if your doing volume control on the PC or not).
And if you don't want to use a receiver, but separate amps instead, use an HDMI Audio DAC. between PC and AMP (or preamps depending if your doing volume control on the PC or not).
Ah, I get it. The choice is between using the multichannel analog input on the receiver (if it has a set of jacks for that), or HDMI. Then do the crossover in the PC, either all in software, or by exploiting the DSP goodness in the sound card.
It might be good for prototyping a multiamped system before building it with real amps and active crossovers.
It might be good for prototyping a multiamped system before building it with real amps and active crossovers.
Though most receivers will only amp 7 of those 8 channels - still enough for two 3-ways though.
So are there 'receivers' that will take hdmi from a modern graphics card (they all do it these days, and are easy to put out PCM streams on) and deal with all the HDCP nonsense and give you clean I^2S stream 8x24bitx192Khz?
Any that dont cost hundreds of dollars due to pointless licences for content protection I hate, on video I dont care about?
Any that dont cost hundreds of dollars due to pointless licences for content protection I hate, on video I dont care about?
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Yes, but public availability is pretty much no existent because of HDCP rules which means you can only have a maximum of 2 channels of digital out, not the full eight on a retail product.
You can get HDMI decoders that take care of the HDCP and give you 2 channel spdif + 8 channels of analog audio. You could possibly bypass the DACs and get 8 channels of i2s.
Here's a decoder board I have on hand.
You can get HDMI decoders that take care of the HDCP and give you 2 channel spdif + 8 channels of analog audio. You could possibly bypass the DACs and get 8 channels of i2s.
Here's a decoder board I have on hand.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The receivers exist, they are the basis of most home theater systems. They come in any price range you can imagine.
All that is missing is the software to encode multiple channels of PC audio (from PC-based crossover software), into a digital stream that the receivers would understand. If we had that, we would have an easy solution for active, digitally-crossed speakers rather than the usual DCX2496 -> 6-channel volume control -> multiple amps solution.
I tried this. It works.
Foobar w foo_dsp_xover plug in -> HMDI out -> Marantz SR6001 -> 3-way active speakers. Need to have good graphic card (mine is Radeon 4650, I think) with the latest driver. Only works with 16/44.1 for me.
The only problem is it only works with Foobar. Youtube, Windows Media player, etc. don't work. That sucks.
Duc
Member
Joined 2009
source - the pc ->
crossover - kx-project drivers ->
DAC - creative audigy 2 zs 7.1 sound card ->
amplification - any 7.1 receiver ->
3 way speaker
16bit/48khz
the kx-project drivers are free but easy to figure out but there's scant documentation.
you only have to pay for the sound card which can be had for about $25, provided that you have a computer and a receiver.
you are not limited to foobar or any other player, anything will work.
one important consideration however is getting a microphone and testing your setup to make sure you are doing stuff right.
crossover - kx-project drivers ->
DAC - creative audigy 2 zs 7.1 sound card ->
amplification - any 7.1 receiver ->
3 way speaker
16bit/48khz
the kx-project drivers are free but easy to figure out but there's scant documentation.
you only have to pay for the sound card which can be had for about $25, provided that you have a computer and a receiver.
you are not limited to foobar or any other player, anything will work.
one important consideration however is getting a microphone and testing your setup to make sure you are doing stuff right.
Member
Joined 2009
I have only tried XP but it sounds like later Windows OS are supported.
You don't need much of a computer to run this since all processing is done in the sound card's dsp. I'm running a Windows XP at 1.3Ghz
---------
kX Project -- FAQ (Frequently asked questions)
Q. Under which Operating Systems can I use the kX driver?
A. The kX driver conforms to the WDM (Windows Driver Model) specification and is therefore compatible with the following Microsoft Windows operating systems: Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista, Vista x64, Windows XP x64, Windows 7, Windows 7 x64 are supported. Windows 98 (First Edition) will not be supported since it has no built-in support for WDM drivers (v1.1 or later).
Mac OS X version is available on our support forums.
Smart idea. I think I would then just go HDMI into something like the Emotiva UMC-1. Until other HDMI DACs hit the market.
There are lossless Dolby Digital formats now and I think transmitting the data in an encoded format will eliminate jitter (well at least not introduce more jitter).
This is a clever train of thought.
Digital Crossover?
You may not have thought of this but you can also accomplish what you are considering by using a multichannel firewire interface box. This would be a higher fidelity version to the KX drivers already mentioned here.
The main thing you would need is a sound-card with internal routing usually ASIO compliant too.
You can pipe any sound into the VST shell of Thuneau and implement the crossovers. You can even bring in a signal from an external source like a Blu Ray player or another computer.
The six separate channels (for 3-way stereo speakers) would then go to the multichannel analog inputs on your receiver. Then the receiver powers the individual drivers. Surround sound is done the same way just need more total output channels.
You can do room correction DSP, driver correction and anything else you want within the PC. I built my system with the help of this digital crossover website as help.
From the looks of some of the equipment on his site it would seem to be extremely expensive but his arguments are sound and I was surprised at how well it works.
This can be done with practically any budget in mind. I had some of the parts already like the receiver and my system cost about 300.00 bucks including the speaker drivers, hardware etc. It was well worth it!
Mikal
You may not have thought of this but you can also accomplish what you are considering by using a multichannel firewire interface box. This would be a higher fidelity version to the KX drivers already mentioned here.
The main thing you would need is a sound-card with internal routing usually ASIO compliant too.
You can pipe any sound into the VST shell of Thuneau and implement the crossovers. You can even bring in a signal from an external source like a Blu Ray player or another computer.
The six separate channels (for 3-way stereo speakers) would then go to the multichannel analog inputs on your receiver. Then the receiver powers the individual drivers. Surround sound is done the same way just need more total output channels.
You can do room correction DSP, driver correction and anything else you want within the PC. I built my system with the help of this digital crossover website as help.
From the looks of some of the equipment on his site it would seem to be extremely expensive but his arguments are sound and I was surprised at how well it works.
This can be done with practically any budget in mind. I had some of the parts already like the receiver and my system cost about 300.00 bucks including the speaker drivers, hardware etc. It was well worth it!
Mikal
multiple cards.
I've been working on this sort of setup for some time now.
I initially started by using an audigy zs card, i now have two of these on standby just in case and have currently installed an Audiotrak prodigy 7.1 hifi.
Has anyone been able to set up an active crossover system using two internally rewireable cards for 7.1 surround sound but using one card to run the mids and another for the tweeters?
My reasoning behind this is its is a lot cheaper to buy two 7.1 cards than it is to go all out with a high end firewire sound setup with a squillion outputs.
also I'd like to point out that so far this is probably not the best way to do things if you are a gamer. I've found that there is quite a bit of sound delay while gaming. This of course can be corrected for video by introducing a video delay in media player classic or similar products, for music it doesn't matter but for games there is no way to delay the video which of course you wouldn't want to anyway.
I would also say be careful of windows 7 I've found that in some instances e.g. with the prodigy cards that windows 7 does no play well as the manufacturer has messed up the drivers.
I've been working on this sort of setup for some time now.
I initially started by using an audigy zs card, i now have two of these on standby just in case and have currently installed an Audiotrak prodigy 7.1 hifi.
Has anyone been able to set up an active crossover system using two internally rewireable cards for 7.1 surround sound but using one card to run the mids and another for the tweeters?
My reasoning behind this is its is a lot cheaper to buy two 7.1 cards than it is to go all out with a high end firewire sound setup with a squillion outputs.
also I'd like to point out that so far this is probably not the best way to do things if you are a gamer. I've found that there is quite a bit of sound delay while gaming. This of course can be corrected for video by introducing a video delay in media player classic or similar products, for music it doesn't matter but for games there is no way to delay the video which of course you wouldn't want to anyway.
I would also say be careful of windows 7 I've found that in some instances e.g. with the prodigy cards that windows 7 does no play well as the manufacturer has messed up the drivers.
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