Yes but... that seems to add another whole layer of complexity to what already seems like a complex state of affairs. How exactly would I pipe sound from a little onboard soundchip to a firewre port? My onboard sound doesn't have a firewire port... The only option after that is to pump the two remaining analoge sound channels to some kind of box, which then had firwire connections going... erm.. where exactly? Why wouldn't I just pump the two analoge channels directly to my amp? Except that would kind of defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do. I think direct digital decoding is still preferable to any exotic solution such as 'network sound' or sound somehow pumped through a firewire port to somewhere (although sadly my amp doesn't have a firewire port either. It would be cool if it did though) though some kind of complex arrangement. I am sure a 'conventional' arrangement should be possible. The question is, as it was before, how? Q Rick Taylor wrote: >Q <raid517@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > >>But 'piping sound out via any other audio capable cable' isn't really >>the answer I was hoping for. SPDIF passthrough - and digital sound in >>general - to an external dolby digital amplifier is a whole different >>kettle of fish than that, as it involves a considerable amount of post >>processing power on behalf of the digital amplifier. There is no true >>5.1 (or indeed 7.1) audio playback - and subsequent channel >>seperation/decoding without some direct form of digital link. Without >> >> > > Firewire and USB are pretty digital. Firewire can cart about huge > amounts of information accurately and precisely. {DVD sound, video, > etc...} Both of them are capable of network connections. > > > >>this all you get is a kind of dumb (literally) analoge reproduction of >>whatever the soundcard throws at it. There is no 'intelligent' >> >> > > Straight network cables can manage to convey information fairly accurately. > It seems to me that your "digital" connect is only a conduit for information > that's encoded and decoded at either end. I'd think the "intelligence" to > be an attribute attributable to the server and client. > > > >>processing at all. >> >> > > Your external amp *is* doing the processing. > > > >>But it does make me wonder... If Redhat could do it, then surely there >> >> > > I'm quite sure it's possible. > > > > >