PC for Multichannel Music Playback - What's your Setup?

[Kal Rubinson]

A huge section of settings one need not bother with at all in JRiver for bit-perfect playback, or trying to get dsf files playing in their full resolution state (no down-sampling). If you can see where I am going with this.

Not really. One can go either way.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Somebody bumped this old post with a "like," so I will update my post, now, 3 years later.

CAPS V3 Zuma with JRMC v19 connected to exaSound e28 mch DAC via USB and/or Meridian 621/861 via HDMI. EQ options include DiracLive on the server or MRC in the 861.

Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server with JRMC v23 (64bit) or ROON, connected to exaSound e38 mch DAC via USB. EQ options include DiracLive on the server and filters/convolutions in JRMC or ROON. Meridian gone.

Download files or Rip with dBPowerAmp, DVD Audio Extractor, PS3. Store on remote QNAP NAS.

Download files or rip with dBPowerAmp, DVD Audio Extractor, SACD-Extract on PS3 or Oppo. Store on remote QNAP NAS.

A continuing delight to have easy access to spectacular assortment of HD, multichannel music and there are thousands more to rip.

No change here.

 

[milt]

Somebody bumped this old post with a "like," so I will update my post, now, 3 years later.
Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server with JRMC v23 (64bit) or ROON, connected to exaSound e38 mch DAC via USB. EQ options include DiracLive on the server and filters/convolutions in JRMC or ROON. Meridian gone.
Download files or rip with dBPowerAmp, DVD Audio Extractor, SACD-Extract on PS3 or Oppo. Store on remote QNAP NAS.
No change here.

Kal, do you use any of the "De-Crapifiers", i.e., USB, Ethernet, etc., so en-vogue today?

 

[bmoura]

Kal, do you use any of the "De-Crapifiers", i.e., USB, Ethernet, etc., so en-vogue today?

The various enhancers I've seen on the market focus on USB.

With Ethernet, you just run long lengths of cable. No enhancing needed.
That's certainly been my experience running Ethernet to the Multichannel NADAC from Merging Technologies here.

 

[Steve Schoultz]

Somebody bumped this old post with a "like," so I will update my post, now, 3 years later.

Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server with JRMC v23 (64bit) or ROON, connected to exaSound e38 mch DAC via USB. EQ options include DiracLive on the server and filters/convolutions in JRMC or ROON. Meridian gone.


Download files or rip with dBPowerAmp, DVD Audio Extractor, SACD-Extract on PS3 or Oppo. Store on remote QNAP NAS.


No change here.

Hi Kal,

Appreciate the update. I've been looking at the Prodigy for awhile. Not sure the X version is in my price range. Might need to settle for the M-2 version. I intend to use the HDMI for multichannel to my Denon. SPDIF to my Oppo 105 initially until I can upgrade my DAC. I'm curious why you are using USB to interface with your exaSound. I see you have DiracLive installed on the server? Did Baetis assist you or Dirac? Thanks in advance for any reply or advice.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Kal, do you use any of the "De-Crapifiers", i.e., USB, Ethernet, etc., so en-vogue today?

I have tried several but, so far, none have stuck. More coming. I appreciate the attraction of getting a bootful of improvement from a gadget without buying a new major component.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I intend to use the HDMI for multichannel to my Denon. SPDIF to my Oppo 105 initially until I can upgrade my DAC.

Should be fine. I use a similar arrangement in my weekend place with a Win-based (bootcamped MacMini) server with HDMI into my Marantz prepro and DLNA to the Oppo.

I'm curious why you are using USB to interface with your exaSound.

What else could I use and get multichannel?

I see you have DiracLive installed on the server? Did Baetis assist you or Dirac?

Yes, I have it on both servers but, no, I did it myself. It ain't hard.

 

[Steve Schoultz]

Should be fine. I use a similar arrangement in my weekend place with a Win-based (bootcamped MacMini) server with HDMI into my Marantz prepro and DLNA to the Oppo.
What else could I use and get multichannel?
Yes, I have it on both servers but, no, I did it myself. It ain't hard.

Thanks Kal. I was confusing two channel and multichannel.

 

[drphibes]

The Saga of HDMI and Disappointment, but victory lies ahead.

Back when I upgraded the Mac Mini to a model that came with HDMI, I was delighted. Finally I could play lossless multichannel audio on the same computer that controlled the TV and Stereo music. Previously I had to encode everything into DTS to fit it through the TOSLINK connection that was "required" on earlier models.

(Obviously I had non-Mac options. I had reasons other than music for this decision)

With great anticipation, I ripped Amused to Death into high res FLAC.

The tragedy was that (I thought at the time) the Mac Mini would see the TV in the HDMI chain and immediately downmix to stereo. Infuriating. The MIDI output would see all the channels, but when I'd play music, it would downmix to stereo. I was limited to 2-channel, 16 bit, 44.1 khz output with encoded digital audio to hear surround. Depressing.

By chance I learned that the problem was not the computer, but the software. iTunes and COG would force playback to stereo, but Songbird, Nightingale, and VLC would play multichannel music just fine.

Why?

I have no idea. I've been gleefully re-ripping all of my physical medial into multichannel flac. It's been a delight. Nightingale, which was created from the ashes of Songbird, works just fine for my needs.

One moment of sadness - the Bowie Young Americans DVD-A won't rip anymore. Depressing as hell. I can get to track four, and then blooey. I've tried cleaning the disk, using different programs, but no dice.

My advice: fiddle with everything if it's not working. There might be some dumb reason why it doesn't work, and you might happen upon a happy solution. I suspect there might be a setting in iTunes that will fix this, but I've tried everything in there and can't figure it out.

 

[drphibes]

My advice: fiddle with everything if it's not working. There might be some dumb reason why it doesn't work, and you might happen upon a happy solution. I suspect there might be a setting in iTunes that will fix this, but I've tried everything in there and can't figure it out.

Followup to this - I have friends who know a great deal more than me about HDMI, and they tell that it causes a lot of strange behavior and has some voodoo to it.

 

[stevendive]

One of my playback routes for a specific purpose, playback of ambisonic B-Format files, setup as follows.

Comp, MacBook Pro 13”.
App, VLC.
Output from VLC to USB DAC, U-DAC8 (miniDSP) 8 channel asynchronous box. Output to line level phono to
Meridian G61RSL digital surround processor.

Using Audacity I first convert the ambisonic files in AMB format to WAV, which VLC van play back. As I don’t have a spherical decoder, I use just the first three, horizontal only, channels WXY.

 

[The Bright Side]

Hey guys! Since questions often pop up about setting up PCs and surround, I went ahead and made 3 videos this morning showing my setup, in the hopes they might be useful to you guys. Here you go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caMys8TDzd8&list=PLwAM0xfvNGyYul38W00tVyy0_qFoPCScV

 

[humprof]

I also had problems with it at first but I think I forgot to start the server (not sure though).

View attachment 16911

After updating to the latest stable version of foobar2000 (1.3.17?), I can no longer get foobar2000 controller to work. Even though it "sees" the computer (and its IP address) on which I have foobar2000 installed, it tells me that I'm "Disconnected" from that computer. Meanwhile, on the computer side, when I open the "HTTP Control" setting, the gray bar next to the "Start Server" box simply says "Bind failed." (I manually updated my foobar2000 controller dll to the latest version I could find, 0.9.17, and that made no difference.)

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

 

[kvsawilson]

After updating to the latest stable version of foobar2000 (1.3.17?), I can no longer get foobar2000 controller to work. Even though it "sees" the computer (and its IP address) on which I have foobar2000 installed, it tells me that I'm "Disconnected" from that computer. Meanwhile, on the computer side, when I open the "HTTP Control" setting, the gray bar next to the "Start Server" box simply says "Bind failed." (I manually updated my foobar2000 controller dll to the latest version I could find, 0.9.17, and that made no difference.)

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

I had that bind failed problem at some point and finally got it to work by changing the port from 8888 to 8000 . Not sure why it worked, but didn't argue. Now you have me wondering if I want to do the next update. I hate doing an update just to have it cause new problems.

K

 

[humprof]

I had that bind failed problem at some point and finally got it to work by changing the port from 8888 to 8000 . Not sure why it worked, but didn't argue. Now you have me wondering if I want to do the next update. I hate doing an update just to have it cause new problems.

K

Magic! Worked for me, too (once I changed the port number on both the computer side and the controller app side). Thanks, K!

 

[timbre4]

Okay, searched and didn't find what I need. Have to send laptop ready for upmixing back to friend in San Diego. I have Exact Audio Copy, R8Brain and SPECWeb configured with Sound Forge 10 to select individual tracks to send to USB interface box and Zektor switchbox. Tested here and all is good. (very similar to my PC setup here to do the same thing)

I know the first thing I'll be asked is "how do I playback whole FLAC albums rather than individual tracks via Sound Forge? I tried to get Foobar and a 5.1 plugin to work when I was out there at his place but the clock was ticking and I never got Foobar to play 5.1 FLAC files. Is that still the way to go or is there something else I can use on a WIN 7 Pro laptop? The linkage to the Behringer FCA610 interface box is USB 2.0 and then 6 analogs into the Zektor then Denon's 6CH EXT IN.

Any tips appreciated in advance.

 

[timbre4]

Okay mystery solved (almost); I got Foobar2000 to play multichannel FLACs out the USB cable to Behringer box and Zektor switcher into Denon. I was chasing a surround plug-in when it was actually an ASIO plug-in that allows Foobar to select proper output to talk to the Behringer FCA610. Works great on my friend's fresh laptop but not on my desktop, despite re-install of Foobar and re-checking and correcting which folder where the ASIO plug-in belongs. It would tell me "unrecoverable playback error - cannot initialize plug-in". Then when I got the folder correct I could select ASIO Behringer FCA 610 and select a track to play and it would immediately announce "playback ended". Latest theory is a DLL conflict or something preventing it from working properly. Don't really have to have it working on my PC as I use Sound Forge and down arrow to preview tracks before making discs or moving to external drive.

 

[marpow]

There are a lot of titles when I search for Intel NUC, so I just picked this one.
My NUC/JRiver combo has been running perfectly. Dr. Simple has been helping me a bit, as of this Saturday the NUC wanted a windows update and I did. Now my NUC does not want to read my NAS as it did before, files are there, but will play back some and not others, some thumbnails show, and then when I go to play they revert yo the red and don't play. I have rebooted NAS and NUC multiple times and with mild success, I have changed the what JRiver looks for, in my case the NAS is \\M:, which it always has been.
JRiver works perfectly, the NUC works perfectly but the connect between the two seems all messed up. I am at work now and all I can think of is how smart it was to backup the NAS. I was thinking, of course I would only do a couple files for experiment and that is to delete the NAS files and replace with the back up files, time consuming of course but not as time consuming as re-ripping which I would cry if I had to do that.
I believe in the future I will not do a Windows update or if I do I will turn off the NAS before I update the NUC.
I am so dissapointed as it was working perfectly. I even uninstalled my JRiver 24, it did not help, plus, no big deal, but I lost my players, which I now have to remake my Stereo, 5.1 and 4.0 players.
Any suggestions for fixing the connection between NAS and JRiver after a Windows update?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

In Windows, check what device is being used to output music. Also check the drivers being used with the device. Be sure sound ids being sent to the correct device.

I don't see how a windows update could have changed anything on the NAS. I would not go through restoring from the backup yet. If the files are still on the NAS, they should be unchanged from the time before the windows update.

I don't use JRiver, I use Kodi, so I cant help with JRiver specifics. But Kodi allows you to choose various drivers for sound output. JRiver probably does that as well. Check those settings.

When you say some files play and others do not, is there a difference in format between what will and what will not play?

 

[marpow]

I don't know as much as you guys, but I rebooted the NAS from the web portal and now is working, but a lot is all goofed up still. I have stereo titles working and I still need to put back my 5.1 and my 4.0 player. I have a lot of double tracks because I used two different names for importing the \\M: server, NAS.
I am a blood hound and i know nothing about computers but I do know how to dig. All my thumbnails are showing in JRiver so no matter what I can clean up this mess now.
Yikes, they say mistakes are good for learning, ugh=