Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
- Subject: Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
- From: Simon Thorpe <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:22:31 +0100
At 11:58 -0500 5/02/10, Paul Davis wrote:
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Simon Thorpe
<email@hidden> wrote:
So, how about this question. Is there any home theatre amplifier out there
that can understand something as dumb as a simple stream of N different PCM
samples?
I've not seen one, but I really don't pay any attention to home
theater equipment. When I use a multichannel setup at home or in a
studio, I plug N different active speakers into the outs of an RME
multichannel interface, and i'm more or less done. No "home theater
amplifier" involved.
Sure, that's certainly an option - for audio specialists. But again,
you have to convert from digital to analog before the amplification.
Surely, you must take a hit there?
If there is, I guess I might just buy one.
If there isn't, then the world is mad.... the simplest thing that an
amplifier needs to do is to play straight unencoded audio.
with the advent of active speakers this is no longer really true.
these days, you (can) handle multichannel audio by plugging speaker N
directly into channel N.
remember that one way or the other, to get N channels of sound
requires either N amplification circuits or some design compromises.
my impression is that home theater amplifiers generally go for the
compromises but i am sure that varies with price.
Well, I honestly think that something like ONKYO's
http://www.eu.onkyo.com/products/TX-NR5007.html isn't making many
obvious compromises. It really seems to me to be a very well
engineered piece of kit.
You mention the possibility of a plug in. Great, tell me more! A little bit
of software that converts a Core Audio multichannel format into something
that can be understood by my amplifier would be perfect. Surely, someone on
the core audio list knows how to do that?
i was just speculating. perhaps someone else will comment.
Please do! My checkbook is waiting for the first person who can solve
that little programming problem ;-)
On the contrary, if anyone anywhere was providing multichannel audiofiles
that I could load into iTunes and play through my home theatre system,
you might want to give a little thought to the idea that "home
theater" systems are primarily a marketing device. go visit the audio
setups of anyone who does multichannel audio for a living (and is not
doing "surround sound" mixes for a living) and you won't find any home
theater equipment. probably.
Perhaps that's because they can't stream unencoded 7.1 channel 24bit,
192kHz audio directly to a high quality amplifier with an optical
input.... (yet!)
You're right that most professionals will not want their nice audio
messed up by using some fancy encoding system. So, let's get rid of
the encoding. The bandwidth of an optical link is presumably up to
sending the data unencoded.... (maybe this could be an issue, I don't
know).
As long as that is true, is clear that the market really is going to be
relatively small. But the day that you connect any Mac to any hometheatre
system using a $10 optical link and get glorious multichannel audio, then I
as jeff noted, the $10 optical link has pretty limited bandwidth.
Sorry, I was exaggerating. Make it $80 if you like. The point is that
it should be the only piece of hardware in addition to a Mac and an
Amplifier that you would need (if someone could only sort out the
optical-multichannel issue).
Simon
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