Seeking Advice - Digital Surround Gear/System For A Specific Application

[Quadguywayback]

Ok, Here's the background: I am a long time collector and user of Quad Reels, CD-4, QS, SQ LP's , and Q8's. Been at it since the 70's. So I have a library of that source material and
I currently play it through Sansui QRX 8001, Several Panasonic and Technics 8 track decks, Teac 3340 Reel, and Technics turntable, Technics CD-4 demodulator, and Pickering 4500 Stylus.
4 Polk tower floor speakers. I also have two Sony stereo receivers which I use with my quad equipment as well.

All hard wired. The system is in my basement level man cave.

Goals: I want to go digital and wireless with some new gear and incorporate as much of my current system and all that source material with the new digital wireless system.
I envision putting in 4 speakers possible 5 for a 5.1 upstairs in our main living area and keeping all the new equipment in the basement and beaming the music to the 1st floor over wi fi.

I have looked at the Sonos Port system which I believe I could attach to my analog equipment to beam the current analog source material upstairs to wireless speakers.

I have also done a little research on the Denon/Marantz Heos system, and Yamaha Musicast Systems and some of their AVR receivers that have this all built in.

I'm thinking rather than just messing with a Sonos Port, is there a way to use a new Digital AVR system with built in Wifi cast to play both digital source music from a blue ray player like an Oppo or
a Sony X800 and somehow connect the old system into this as well?

Or must I keep the two systems completely segregated and separate with separate means to beam music to the wireless speakers from each?

I also notice on some of these modern AVR's they may play multichannel in 1 room, but if you go to more than 1 room, then they default to only multichannel in 1 room and stereo in the other,
ie they cannot play multichannel in more than 1 room at the same time.

I'd sort of like to be able to maybe eventually be able to do multichannel in several rooms or the back porch even.

Does anyone have any good tips, advice, or thoughts on how I can best reach my goals with integration of my old technology, purchase of new technology, and not go broke all at the same time?
All tips appreciated.

 

[jimfisheye]

Any standard audio interface would facilitate this. You could digitize any analog sources you wish with pro studio quality ADC to preserve and conveniently play. (Think of it like recording vinyl to cassette back in the day for those reasons. Except now the "cassette" is full quality 24 bit ADC.)

You could still keep your analog inputs connected and listen live (albeit through a AD/DA in and out).

Get an audio interface with the ins and outs you need to connect your analog sources and deliver your output channels.

The AVR solutions feel more Rube Goldberg-esque and get into copy protection shenanigans that turn things off or reduce quality. And there would be plenty of live AD/DA conversions going on inside that kind of system too if you wanted to monitor live inputs.

At the budget end there's this Behringer/Midas UMC1820 interface on sale at Sweetwater right now for just under $300. 8 analog inputs and 10 analog outputs. SPDIF and ADAT digital inputs as well. Two channels short for full 7.1.4 Atmos but you'd have 4.0, 5.1, 7.1 or 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 covered. You could have two quad sources connected live.

Anyway, look at audio interface solutions like this in your searches.

 

[Quadguywayback]

Any standard audio interface would facilitate this. You could digitize any analog sources you wish with pro studio quality ADC to preserve and conveniently play. (Think of it like recording vinyl to cassette back in the day for those reasons. Except now the "cassette" is full quality 24 bit ADC.)

You could still keep your analog inputs connected and listen live (albeit through a AD/DA in and out).

Get an audio interface with the ins and outs you need to connect your analog sources and deliver your output channels.

The AVR solutions feel more Rube Goldberg-esque and get into copy protection shenanigans that turn things off or reduce quality. And there would be plenty of live AD/DA conversions going on inside that kind of system too if you wanted to monitor live inputs.

At the budget end there's this Behringer/Midas UMC1820 interface on sale at Sweetwater right now for just under $300. 8 analog inputs and 10 analog outputs. SPDIF and ADAT digital inputs as well. Two channels short for full 7.1.4 Atmos but you'd have 4.0, 5.1, 7.1 or 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 covered. You could have two quad sources connected live.

Anyway, look at audio interface solutions like this in your searches.

It sounds like you are offering me two ideas or potential solutions:

1) Convert all my analog source library to digital format like Flac or other files. ( I might do this for some items in my library,
but I am not overly ambitious to try to convert the whole library.......way too big a job.)

2) Find a Digital to Analog converter to plug into my existing analog equipment or possibly to send analog source into a digital AVR/amp?

Am I understanding this correctly? How is the Behriger 1820 device different from a DAC with decoding chips?
Does it work both ways, ie, Analog to digital and digital to analog as well?

If I am going to go with some sort of DAC, wouldn't I want one with a higher end processing chip? Seems I've read the chipset
makes a big difference in frequency response and quality of the music?

I'm just learning about all this digital stuff, so I'm probably asking some elementary questions.

 

[jimfisheye]

That UMC1820 audio interface I mentioned includes 8 channels of ADC and 10 channels of DAC. Most audio interface products are a USB connecting interface with ADCs, DACs, digital I/O, and then mic preamps and DIs on some of the analog inputs. There are often features with some audio routing options or input mixing options.

An AV receiver is usually a HDMI connecting audio interface + analog preamp (volume control and routing) + amps all in one box.

So choose your adventure and get the pieces you need in the most convenient or logical format with those options to choose from. I think driving from the computer and growing a FLAC collection is the way to go. And you can still keep analog devices connected to listen live. The "studio" audio interface will likely give you more options and control over stuff like making a pure analog listening connection for when that's important vs a live connection with AD/DA in between than with some AVRs.

Something to consider. Some AVR might be just perfect with its feature set. But if you find yourself with adapters and multiple external ADC units connected and settling for resamples or conversions in the AVR in your travels, the computer model might be more convenient and better quality.

Depends on what you already have too! If you already have your own power amps, you kind of don't want to buy them over again bundled into an AVR. An interface patching into your preamp/amps would make more sense. Shopping for a surround system means minding all the combo products, making sure you can connect all the devices you get (especially digitally and losslessly), and not buying expensive bits twice.