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Re: Questions about this setup

Hey Andy:

Right now I am using a 6-channel HT receiver to provide 6 equal channels of analog power (c/w volume control). This way I can connect any 3-way active crossover I want (digital or otherwise) and run - any speakers I want! lol. I don't plan on getting into an expensive six channel pre and 6 tube monoblocks just yet! :o)

The digital output into HT will not work with a single SPDIF at this time because you would need to ENCODE the 6 channels into a specific multi-channel format such as dolby digital ex or DTS then decode at the other end. And unfortunately you would need MLP (I believe) to pipe high-res since current multichannel encoding is still based on lossy compression formats. Not what we want - and the licensing cost for MLP encoding would preclude going the digital route in the first place. There ARE soundcards which boast multiple DIGITAL outputs (like ones with switchable ADAT<->SPDIF outs) but these cards are professional studio cards like the RME Hammerfall and Digigram. Big bucks. In my case, there is no real reason at this time to stay digital (other than leaving/getting away from 'the box', but this "reach" can be had with USB or Firewire soundcards - so no big deal). OR *maybe* if you reprogram Foobar using the SDK you COULD setup THREE ouputs instead of just one and use THREE soundcards, each with spdif out via ASIO, and use ASIO's channel shifting to get the desired output on each of the three cards. (Usually the SPDIF output is based on a cards channels 1 and 2, so you would need to 'shift' the mids and tweets to get them onto channels one and two for each card. This is assuming a) Foobar can even be MADE to simultaneously run three outputs AND b) you can reprogram the soundcard drivers to be sufficiently unique as not to cause conflicts or ambiguity in Windows and c) you CAN shift the channels as much as is needed. Just dreaming here...)

The time when digital will be a must is when amps are available that take a DIGITAL input, do not convert it to analog, and use that data to directly drive a digital amplifier. Right now, I believe the reason why digital amps have analog inputs is that although the output is digital, the amps (like T amps) use ANALOG to modulate the output. I thought the Panny XR50/55/70 would take a digital signal right to the amp stage but now I'm not so sure...

As far as the Behringer goes, I do believe that the transfer functions of the various filters are maintained - aka, the Q values and resulting transfer functions for the various pre-defined 'standard' filters would apply. (Linkwitz Riley, Butterwork, Bessel, etc.) So no, I do not believe they are EITHER FIR or IIR. Foobar plugins from Aedio are FIR based, and the DEQX system is IIR based. Of course, the nice thing about the Foobar FIR filters is that they are... drumroll please... LINEAR PHASE! :)

Wow. I wish Behringer would come out with a DcxII that uses FIR filters and has analog and digital inputs AND outputs! Dreaming...

Now that I've got Foobar running on a dedicated PC its time to get that convolver impulse file built once and for all! :o)

This computer audio stuff is a blast!! :D

Cheers,

Presto

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