Multi-channel version?

[shayking]

Edit: i remember now, I was looking for a true Audio processing Hd Sound card and came across these products

Lynx/ Aurora & Lavry engineering.
www.lynxstudio.com/product_section.asp?i=1
www.lavryengineering.com/productspage_pro_blue4496.html


My ulti dream is to use a custom HTPC as the processor, but we are a ways away from that, close though....

[roadrunner]

Nov 2, 2010 15:52:01 GMT -5 jmargaglione said:

I guess what I am looking for is a souped-up UMC-1, using DACs of similar quality to those of the XDA-1. If that is the XMC-1, I will be thrilled. But I believe the XMC-1 will still be using CirrusLogic DACs that will almost definitely be of lower quality.

I suppose I can always use the 2-channel mode on my SACDs, but that doesn't help with DVD-Audio disks.

The XMC-1 will thrill you, then. You need to be aware of a mistake in your understanding of the DSP chips. Emotiva uses Cirrus DSPs for the brute power for handling decoding and secondary processing -- not for DAC. Those are totally different functions and Emotiva does use high quality DACs in the UMC and the XMC. The choice to use the Cirrus Chips was based on the fact that they were the fastest, most sophisticated option on the market that would allow simultaneous processing of decoding at 192/24 and the post processing functions. No other competitor offered a chip set that could do that.

As it turns out, Cirrus released a buggy chip set that Emotiva has been struggling to write code to "fix" the bugs in those chips. Emotiva is currently working with Cirrus to code a "workaround" to the remaining problem that is hard coded in the Cirrus chip.

The "magic" sound that the XDA-1 reproduces is based on the discrete, dual output stage that Emotiva borrowed from their upcoming pre/pros. It is a differential balanced output stage with extraordinary sound quality. Based on what Lonnie has shared with us so far, the XDA-1, XSP-1 and XMC-1 will have the best sound quality of any product they have yet released.

[overtheair]

I did some investigation a while back for an "HDMI DAC" with the following results which may be of interest as I don't think anyone listed them.

www.octavainc.com/HDMI%20switch%204x2_7_1audio.html
www.ambery.com/2hddodtsdihd.html
www.atlona.com/Atlona-HDMI-1.3-Audio-De-Embedder-with-3D-Support.html
www.gefen.com/gefentv/gtvproduct.jsp?prod_id=9164

From a quick look I couldn't determine the DACs used, or potential audio quality or lack thereof but I didn't contact any of the companies to find out.

For context, my current home theater configuration is HTPC with analog audio out of an ASUS DX sound card going directly to XPA-5 amp and on to speakers. For video, HDMI from graphics card direct to projector. I don't have any sources other than the HTPC for HDTV, music, DVD/Blu-ray.

In my case I'm playing with doing decoding, digital room correction, bass management, delays etc in the HTPC so don't need anything other than DAC functionality, assuming I get it all to work well, its actually not bad now :-). So my options in this scenario are then to stick with internal sound card technology, either my current solution or a more upmarket one, or HDMI DAC.

However, as implied earlier an HDMI DAC produced and marketed as "quality audio" for our typical budgets is probably (definitely?) a niche application because of price points. Pricing wise its unlikely to be priced less than or even similar to an XDA-1 or similar DACs if it has similar quality for all 7 channels, unless one of the products I linked to is a wolf in sheep's clothing. At higher price points its likely to look expensive compared to a UMC-1, or perhaps a Pioneer VS-1120K at $450-$500. BTW the same observation might also be made for using more expensive sound cards in the $500+ range. In any event I plan to evaluate again after other priorities get addressed.