Hello all,
some weeks ago, my old Marantz receiver began to make lots of grounding and crackle noises. I still haven't been able to track the cause of it... Anyway, yesterday I watched a movie in an stereo setup with only a mac mini, a projector connected to the computer hdmi out, and a stereo dac connected to the usb. The dac goes to my main tube amp.
The sound was (though only stereo) much better than before. So now I'm thinking if it would be possible to take the Marantz out of the equation and try a new (and better sounding) setup.
My problem is that I'm not sure about what I want to do... I don't know if what I want is something usual or something nobody tried before (which would be strange).
What I would like to do is to play a (multichannel) movie in my computer and use a sound interface (I have a home musical studio and I have a couple of them) or a multichannel DAC to route the independant (and decoded) channels to separate amplifiers. I guess this would be doable with the right software, but I'm a little lost here. Could this be done with some kind of video player app, or using another decoder app like a bridge between the video player and the soundcard? I've been searching, but it's difficult to explain mr Google what I want
I know I could use an A/V preamp as a decoder, but they are expensive, and I already have a spare RME Fireface UCX and three stereo amps. The idea was that I could build this setup without buying any hardware, but I'm really not sure?
some weeks ago, my old Marantz receiver began to make lots of grounding and crackle noises. I still haven't been able to track the cause of it... Anyway, yesterday I watched a movie in an stereo setup with only a mac mini, a projector connected to the computer hdmi out, and a stereo dac connected to the usb. The dac goes to my main tube amp.
The sound was (though only stereo) much better than before. So now I'm thinking if it would be possible to take the Marantz out of the equation and try a new (and better sounding) setup.
My problem is that I'm not sure about what I want to do... I don't know if what I want is something usual or something nobody tried before (which would be strange).
What I would like to do is to play a (multichannel) movie in my computer and use a sound interface (I have a home musical studio and I have a couple of them) or a multichannel DAC to route the independant (and decoded) channels to separate amplifiers. I guess this would be doable with the right software, but I'm a little lost here. Could this be done with some kind of video player app, or using another decoder app like a bridge between the video player and the soundcard? I've been searching, but it's difficult to explain mr Google what I want
I know I could use an A/V preamp as a decoder, but they are expensive, and I already have a spare RME Fireface UCX and three stereo amps. The idea was that I could build this setup without buying any hardware, but I'm really not sure?Hello all,
some weeks ago, my old Marantz receiver began to make lots of grounding and crackle noises. I still haven't been able to track the cause of it... Anyway, yesterday I watched a movie in an stereo setup with only a mac mini, a projector connected to the computer hdmi out, and a stereo dac connected to the usb. The dac goes to my main tube amp.
The sound was (though only stereo) much better than before. So now I'm thinking if it would be possible to take the Marantz out of the equation and try a new (and better sounding) setup.
My problem is that I'm not sure about what I want to do... I don't know if what I want is something usual or something nobody tried before (which would be strange).
What I would like to do is to play a (multichannel) movie in my computer and use a sound interface (I have a home musical studio and I have a couple of them) or a multichannel DAC to route the independant (and decoded) channels to separate amplifiers. I guess this would be doable with the right software, but I'm a little lost here. Could this be done with some kind of video player app, or using another decoder app like a bridge between the video player and the soundcard? I've been searching, but it's difficult to explain mr Google what I want
It can on the Mac mini with a little bit of hardware, but I can’t see how you can do it without a DAC capable of 5.1
Like this, for example: 4K*2K HDMI to HDMI Extractor Converter Splitter DTS AC3 5.1 Audio Decoder DAC USB Media Player SPDIF Optical Coxial ARC 3D-in Converters from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
Kodi does decoding natively, even DTS MA and Dolby TrueHD. All you need is a multi-channel sound card. I'm not sure how a multi-channel studio audio interface behaves in this respect (channel mapping and bass management specifically), but e.g Asus Xonar DSX is around 60 bucks and does the trick.
As an example, my PC based HT setup signal chain is Xonar DSX - rear channels analogue out to stereo amp for rear speakers; S/PDIF output (set to PCM) to DCX2496 that drives front speakers, no center speaker and sub is tied to main speakers (a stand-alone stereo system, really). Kodi does the playback and decoding.
There are some pitfalls - firstly, there is no software or sound card capable to decode object based audio (Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auros 3D) and probably will not be for several years.
Secondly, bass management is a gamble, e. g Xonar DSX uses 6th order IIR filters and trying to use full range front speakers with small rears and redirecting their bass to front channels will result in serious phase problems. But of course no problem when you use subwoofer connected to the sound card sub out and do the bass management as per THX specs.
As an example, my PC based HT setup signal chain is Xonar DSX - rear channels analogue out to stereo amp for rear speakers; S/PDIF output (set to PCM) to DCX2496 that drives front speakers, no center speaker and sub is tied to main speakers (a stand-alone stereo system, really). Kodi does the playback and decoding.
There are some pitfalls - firstly, there is no software or sound card capable to decode object based audio (Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auros 3D) and probably will not be for several years.
Secondly, bass management is a gamble, e. g Xonar DSX uses 6th order IIR filters and trying to use full range front speakers with small rears and redirecting their bass to front channels will result in serious phase problems. But of course no problem when you use subwoofer connected to the sound card sub out and do the bass management as per THX specs.
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