On 1/15/07, Bearcat M. Sandor <HomeTheater@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: <SNIP>
>As others have said I would stay away from the FreeBob solutions at >this time, unless you have a stomach for working through whatever >issues you are going to come across. You could do a *Very* nice >high-end home theater system using an HDSP 9636 and a good set of >D/A's. You might look at one of the low-cost (<$250) 8 channel ones >for all the extra channels and use something like a Benchmark DAC1 >which has really great sound, albeit a bit pricey but not totally over >the top, for left and right. I'm a little confused as to what connection i would use with the hdsp 3696 and the Benchmark DAC1 to get 24/192 in at least 4 channels.
Optical ADAT. The HDSP 9636 would be the master. There would be two optical ADAT cables going out, one to each DAC1. You would sync the DAC1's to the ADAT signals. If you used the HDSP 9652 then you could use the word clock outputs to sync. Aaron Trumm (www.nquit.com - another LAU user) is selling an HDSP 9652 used if you want to look at that. hdspmixer would create the specific mix you are looking for - quite easy to do really. I have no idea whether you can actually doing 192KHz in Linux. 96K is not a problem.
Yes, thank you. I'm looking for 4 channels actually as i don't like center channels (left, right, rear right, rear left). 8 channels is fine actually as i can use the other channels for something. I may use it as as DAW sometimes or multi-zoning, Hsdpmixer sounds just like what i have been looking for, but i looked around for details on it and could find nothing. Is this an app to interface with the internal mixer of the card or is it the name for the mixer on the card itself?
The HDSP 9652 has hardware mixing. hdspmixer is the app that allows you to control it. It's part of the alsa-tools package.
I've read in the audiophile press that usb/firewire is more desirable then spdif because usb/firewire has lower levels of jitter. Of course if the difference is truly inaudible i don't care.
If you truly care about this then get an external word clock generator from someone like Apogee. However I think starting with an HDSP 9652 and using it's word clock output would be more than acceptable for studio level quality.
The less components and cables between the computer and the amps the better (generally unless you need extra gain provided by a pre-amp). If i were to use an RME Hammerfall DSP 9632 and go straight into an amplifier (monoblocks)
You cannot. The HDSP 9636/9652 has no analog conversion. You must go HDSP->DAC->Amp. I drive my studio monitor power amp directly from my 8 channel D/A. No need for a preamp. <SNIP>
So if need to send it out to a breakout box. Would this be better done through adat or spdif? I'm looking for at least 4 channels of 24/192 being delivered to 4 monoblocks and i thought that neither could do that. If i got 2 Benchmark DAC1s they would not necessarily be in synch right?
Wrong. They must be in sync but they will be since your HDSP would be the master and the DAC1's would be the slaves.
I've always liked the RME cards and i just read somewhere that Paul is actually a RME dealer. I'd be looking to buy a card sometime this summer. I'll contact you then.
Paul is a nice guy who can always use a sale I suppose. Cheers, Mark
