Noob Question

[adamgillingham]

How do I go about setting up an spdif output to my 5 channel amplifier that will drive the woofers from the main left/right channels and the tweeters from the rear L/R channels on my two way bookshelf speakers.


That is, a software based DSP that's for taking stereo, filtering it into 2 pairs of stereo and encoding as a dolby or other digital signal that will be output to the AV amp.


The amp decodes, and plays the correct channel/frequency to the correct speaker.


I hope I have explained that correctly.....I'm sure it's been done loads of times before, but I'm having trouble finding any info....I'm probably not using the correct search terms (linked to having trouble explaining exactly).


All the results I seem to get are people using a multichannel soundcard to output the individual channels in analogue. Which is great, but my amp wont accept an external decoder input (plus I don't have a multichannel soundcard, but do have an spdif out).

 

[phofman]

In linux I would use Pulseaudio Crossover Rack - multi-way crossover design & implementation with linux for the Xover, and direct the 6ch output to DTS encoder alsa plugin dcaenc DTS Pulseaudio (dcaenc) - Community Help Wiki . No idea about windows.

 

[adamgillingham]

Thanks Phofman. Looks like it's a relatively easy thing to achieve in Linux........I'm unfortunately/currently running Windows, and would prefer to stay for now if I can.

I'm really surprised no-one has offered a Windows solution. I had assumed this was going to be 'done to death', and I was going to be berated for not searching properly!

 

[bobo1on1]

You could use the scream driver to stream from windows to a Linux pc: GitHub - duncanthrax/scream: Virtual network sound card for Microsoft Windows

That still requires an extra Linux machine though.

 

[ga77a]

you could create a duel boot system allowing you to keep windows and also have linux. most linux install disc's will do this automatically nowadays.
ps- debian based systems are very easy to install and use.

 

[adamgillingham]

Thanks guys, I'll have a think about setting up a Linux system.


For now I may just have a play with a dual boot as suggested. In the long term, I may be replacing my media pc so that could be repurposed as a standalone filter/encoder I suppose. It's not really an ideal situation but hey-ho!


Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[dangus]

If this is an S/PDIF connection, that can only handle lossless 2-channel PCM, or lossy multichannel Dolby Digital (AC3) or DTS. DTS is preferable because it uses higher bit-rates than Dolby Digital, but it's still lossy, so not an approach most audiophiles would approve of. Now, if the amp has an HDMI input, that's another story, since I'm pretty sure even early versions of HDMI supported multichannel PCM audio.

 

[MSHAVS]

what's the AV-amplifier and type of speakers you're using for this? Maybe the solution is easier to accomplish in the analog domain .... ?

 

[dangus]

Like with a passive crossover? I would be reluctant to connect a tweeter directly to an amp, without at least a series capacitor and preferably a protection lamp. There's always the risk of a software glitch or human error sending the tweeter something it can't handle.

 

[adamgillingham]

If this is an S/PDIF connection, that can only handle lossless 2-channel PCM, or lossy multichannel Dolby Digital (AC3) or DTS. DTS is preferable because it uses higher bit-rates than Dolby Digital, but it's still lossy, so not an approach most audiophiles would approve of. Now, if the amp has an HDMI input, that's another story, since I'm pretty sure even early versions of HDMI supported multichannel PCM audio.

Yep, this would be a lossy AC3 or DTS over SPDIF..... Not an HDMI in sight (amp's too old)!

what's the AV-amplifier and type of speakers you're using for this? Maybe the solution is easier to accomplish in the analog domain .... ?

Just an old Yamaha DSP-A2, and some old 2 way speakers that I've been messing about with the crossovers on.

Like with a passive crossover? I would be reluctant to connect a tweeter directly to an amp, without at least a series capacitor and preferably a protection lamp. There's always the risk of a software glitch or human error sending the tweeter something it can't handle.

Yep, I'd tend to agree. Would put some protection in, at least if just for when setting it up initially.




The original question is just an idea I had a couple of weeks ago. It's more of a 'playing around' thing than going for supreme hi-fi. I wasn't planning on doing anything more than messing about with the old speakers. I certainly didn't want to get into buying a multichannel soundcard right now, or to try to setup something active for my main system.

Thanks for the input though .