Hey!
I am trying to get a low cost solution to play 8 independent audio streams over speakers.
I have been looking at the Octo Audio for the Rasp Pi, but I am mystified at how it works...
The idea I am working towards is having 8 speakers playing different .wav files (or 1 wav file with 8 channels). The 8 channels are going to have different delays built into them so they are being played at different times.
From an audio processing standpoint the way I understand it is:
1. There is the Pi audio processing that gets the signal to the RCA outputs.
2. The signal then gets sent to the speakers and it plays the music.
I think I have been able to read up on #1 and think I can get the audio sent to the RCA outputs, but I am not sure I understand #2.
I am really struggling to understand how much power I can deliver to 8 small speakers. Do I need to put inline amplifiers to each speaker?
Is there a better way to cheaply deliver 8 unique channels to 8 unique speakers?
I am trying to get a low cost solution to play 8 independent audio streams over speakers.
I have been looking at the Octo Audio for the Rasp Pi, but I am mystified at how it works...
The idea I am working towards is having 8 speakers playing different .wav files (or 1 wav file with 8 channels). The 8 channels are going to have different delays built into them so they are being played at different times.
From an audio processing standpoint the way I understand it is:
1. There is the Pi audio processing that gets the signal to the RCA outputs.
2. The signal then gets sent to the speakers and it plays the music.
I think I have been able to read up on #1 and think I can get the audio sent to the RCA outputs, but I am not sure I understand #2.
I am really struggling to understand how much power I can deliver to 8 small speakers. Do I need to put inline amplifiers to each speaker?
Is there a better way to cheaply deliver 8 unique channels to 8 unique speakers?
I have no idea how to determine relative loudness based on watts.
These are the speakers I plan on using:
4 GRS 3FR-4 Full Range 3" Speaker Driver 4 Ohm speakers
GRS 3FR-4 Full-Range 3" Speaker Driver 4 Ohm
I would say it is going to be more "personal speaker" level, and not room filing.
Are there any low-cost amps that would be able to drive those speakers?
Or do you think the Octo sound for the rasp pi would be able to power them?
I cant figure out how to determine any of those answers.
These are the speakers I plan on using:
4 GRS 3FR-4 Full Range 3" Speaker Driver 4 Ohm speakers
GRS 3FR-4 Full-Range 3" Speaker Driver 4 Ohm
I would say it is going to be more "personal speaker" level, and not room filing.
Are there any low-cost amps that would be able to drive those speakers?
Or do you think the Octo sound for the rasp pi would be able to power them?
I cant figure out how to determine any of those answers.
A mixer takes various signals and combines them. I read that he wants what is called a distribution amp, where a signal is sent individually to each speaker. Even when matrixed, if he has eight signals and wants them to go to eight speakers, each needs its own amplifier.
If he just wants to take eight signals and combine them and then feed that combination to various speakers, yes, that would be a mixer.
If he just wants to take eight signals and combine them and then feed that combination to various speakers, yes, that would be a mixer.
So you have 8 RCA line level outputs.
You need 8 amplifier channels and 8 speakers.
4 stereo amplifiers and 8 speakers would be one way.
8 active speakers another (say 4 pairs of pc speakers).
Cost simply depends on how expensive you choose the amplifiers and speakers to be.
Can you reveal the purpose?
Are you looking for ready made plug & play solution or a bit of DIY?
You need 8 amplifier channels and 8 speakers.
4 stereo amplifiers and 8 speakers would be one way.
8 active speakers another (say 4 pairs of pc speakers).
Cost simply depends on how expensive you choose the amplifiers and speakers to be.
Can you reveal the purpose?
Are you looking for ready made plug & play solution or a bit of DIY?
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I think you only need a few Watts of amplifier power for personal nearfield listening, perhaps 3W to 10W depending on the purpose.
Cheapest option are low power modules from eBay. They won’t be the ‘best’
at much but they will be cheap. Most of them require a power supply which you can also buy from eBay.
If the signal volume is controlled by the pi before it reaches the RCA connectors then you don’t need sny further volume control. If not, you will need to get modules with volume controls.
Cheapest low power option maybe a module based on PAM8610, PAM8403 etc. but I’ve no experience with these to advise, just don’t expect too much given their very low price. For more power and better sound quality try LM3886 and TPA3118.
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well I'm going to try I'm in here again because I'm bored but I hope this works for you.
I'm going to explain to you how I would do it even though I would simply just purchase a commercial audio amplifier and just go with that as they can have up to 4 to 16 zones. and this is in one rack mount 1/2U chassis.
since all these stores are going out of business I'm sure there will be a few of them on your local auction sites whether it's eBay or whatever it is.
for a turnkey 8-channel that you can probably pick up for a few dollars just go to a junkyard and pick up one of these ...power them with a PC power supply
you can usually get them at your local Boneyard if you guys have those in your country for a few dollars. or whatever currency you use.
now as far as having a digital Source I wouldn't even bother with the Raspberry Pi route I would simply just get any PC install any mixing software that's out there and in this case Linux multimedia Studio should work
Ardour is a Mixer that will work. You can just use an old Firewire 8 to 48 track output/input box. (Since hardly anyone uses these anymore and can be had for cheap) to assign channels.
Full list of tools that might work here I found.
there is in fact commercial music software that will simply pipe it through individual sound cards..
but I think that's already possible with the few different pieces of software that's already out there examples are the DSP stuff that is on this website.
That one cool dude made a software stack that can pipe audio to ANY SOUNDCARD and use it as a DSP! Dude is a legend I tell ya! And that is with a GUI and ANY PC since it is Linux, can run on a Pie if you want.
Hope that helps.
well I'm going to try I'm in here again because I'm bored but I hope this works for you.
I'm going to explain to you how I would do it even though I would simply just purchase a commercial audio amplifier and just go with that as they can have up to 4 to 16 zones. and this is in one rack mount 1/2U chassis.
since all these stores are going out of business I'm sure there will be a few of them on your local auction sites whether it's eBay or whatever it is.
for a turnkey 8-channel that you can probably pick up for a few dollars just go to a junkyard and pick up one of these ...power them with a PC power supply
you can usually get them at your local Boneyard if you guys have those in your country for a few dollars. or whatever currency you use.
now as far as having a digital Source I wouldn't even bother with the Raspberry Pi route I would simply just get any PC install any mixing software that's out there and in this case Linux multimedia Studio should work
Ardour is a Mixer that will work. You can just use an old Firewire 8 to 48 track output/input box. (Since hardly anyone uses these anymore and can be had for cheap) to assign channels.
Full list of tools that might work here I found.
there is in fact commercial music software that will simply pipe it through individual sound cards..
but I think that's already possible with the few different pieces of software that's already out there examples are the DSP stuff that is on this website.
That one cool dude made a software stack that can pipe audio to ANY SOUNDCARD and use it as a DSP! Dude is a legend I tell ya! And that is with a GUI and ANY PC since it is Linux, can run on a Pie if you want.
Hope that helps.