5.1 Home theatre on apple dongles for that sweet sweet audiophile gore

[mdsimon2]

I tried separate USB 2-channel DACs some time ago on RPi and CamillaDSP while trying to integrate my sub. There was a random delay offset of +/- 5-30 msec between signals out of the DACs. I moved to a Motu M4 DAC for that reason. It might not be noticeable watching a movie on this very cool setup.

That seems totally unusable to me. Even if you said the offset was only 30 ms in one direction (+ only) that is the equivalent of moving a speaker 30 ft away from where it started.

On a Mac I think drift correction is good enough for home theatre setups but definitely not a non-bass crossover, I made some measurements of it here -> https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...vice-i-need-ca-25-ms-delay.40051/post-1411908.

Michael

 

[antcollinet]

Love this - utter madness.

 

[Mister_magister]

I tried separate USB 2-channel DACs some time ago on RPi and CamillaDSP while trying to integrate my sub. There was a random delay offset of +/- 5-30 msec between signals out of the DACs. I moved to a Motu M4 DAC for that reason. It might not be noticeable watching a movie on this very cool setup.

Gotta say i'm not some pro but i don't notice any issue especially that LR are on single dac, Surrounds are also on single dac, and C/LFE are on third dac, so it's configured in a way that delay/drift will be least noticable

If i could measure delay then doing offset in camilladsp is baby level easy. I love this software

 

[phoenixdogfan]

So I can use this OTG with my V20 and Crinacle Truthear Zeros?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Gotta say i'm not some pro but i don't notice any issue especially that LR are on single dac, Surrounds are also on single dac, and C/LFE are on third dac, so it's configured in a way that delay/drift will be least noticable

If i could measure delay then doing offset in camilladsp is baby level easy. I love this software

There are things that allow you to combine various Spidf dacs on one clock like the miniDSP UDIO-8 with a USB input to the minDSP unit. Works for up to 8 channels worth of DACS which would solve the problem of clock drift on the independent DACS which always seems to be the problem with these types of set ups.

 

[marcheloka]

Hello everyone, you might be terrorized (that's the goal) but if you read it i should convince you that it's reasonable.

I was constantly joking about doing 5.1 on apple dongles ever since I realised how easy splitting 6 channels between 3 devices would be. So one day I got convinced that the joke is actually NOT that dumb of an idea. @Weeb Labs was the one that convinced me. He also recommended me cheap 6 channel amp. I wanted 6 channels for future 7.1 setup.

So what's the setup. I got linux HTPC with camilladsp running room correction and mixing. Here's plot of pipeline

View attachment 280286

I use alsa for mixing output into 3 separate devices. For now i'm using 2 dongles and onboard audio because t5v wanted higher signal. About that…

Speaker setup is:

• LR - Adam t5v - had them on my desktop and decided they were wasting playing youtube
• C - Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UC52
• Surrounds - wharfedale diamond 220
• LFE - Klipsch R-121SW

Cheap amp I mentioned ealier is WONDOM AA-AB34181 TDA7498. That is powered by 36V 16A PSU, gets 3 inputs from two apple dongles. T5V are connected to onboard because they needed more Volts on RCA. Path is basically USB A -> USB C -> apple dongle -> 3.5 TRS to 2xRCA female -> RCA male to male (interconnect) -> amp. or in case of t5v trs -> rca and in case of sub the sub goes directly to rca female.

So here are the gore pics. Enjoy

Split with overcurrent protection and plug with switch because PSU doesn't have any
View attachment 280287

Here's psu and amp, i'm printing nice stand for amp and psu is sitting in it's foam because why not (oh ye and they're on top of htpc)
View attachment 280288

Here are the dongles. Pic from before i switched to onboard. Bit of cable mess but what can you do
View attachment 280289

Dry setup
View attachment 280292

AMP + printed stand:
View attachment 280301

Hope you enjoyed xd Might sound cursed, and look cursed, but it sounds awesome and IS CHEAP AS HELL

Hey Mister_magister! Someone just pointed me in your direction to check out your ideas since i was thinking about something like that for a long time. In my scenario i was thinking about using active speakers in 4.1 setup. And the problem with that was big cost of audio interface + long (5m) xlr cables to connect the speakers. So now i am thinking about sending digital signal throught some cables to the speakers, but next to the speakers i am going to use that little dac dongles, and then 3,5mmjack->2xrca into my active speakers audioengine a5+. Would that work? will the digital signal be okay after travelling 5m from my laptop to DAC? how to send 3 digital signals from my laptop? Do i use USB hub and plugin 3 usb cables? What are your suggestions on that because i basically feel like im walking in the mist and its so complicated while i only need one thing. The budget working way to watch my movies on my laptop (video through hdmi to projector and audio somehow to 4.1 or 2.1 speakers) To be honest i would like to start 2.1 and only then upgrade to 4.1 after a year or so. The problem is i do not want big and expensive avr since i do not need 99% of its functions since i got my laptop that can do everything on software like DSP and stuff. I only watch movies from my HDD and sometimes live events through live internet streams.

 

[Mister_magister]

Hey Mister_magister! Someone just pointed me in your direction to check out your ideas since i was thinking about something like that for a long time. In my scenario i was thinking about using active speakers in 4.1 setup. And the problem with that was big cost of audio interface + long (5m) xlr cables to connect the speakers. So now i am thinking about sending digital signal throught some cables to the speakers, but next to the speakers i am going to use that little dac dongles, and then 3,5mmjack->2xrca into my active speakers audioengine a5+. Would that work? will the digital signal be okay after travelling 5m from my laptop to DAC? how to send 3 digital signals from my laptop? Do i use USB hub and plugin 3 usb cables? What are your suggestions on that because i basically feel like im walking in the mist and its so complicated while i only need one thing. The budget working way to watch my movies on my laptop (video through hdmi to projector and audio somehow to 4.1 or 2.1 speakers) To be honest i would like to start 2.1 and only then upgrade to 4.1 after a year or so. The problem is i do not want big and expensive avr since i do not need 99% of its functions since i got my laptop that can do everything on software like DSP and stuff. I only watch movies from my HDD and sometimes live events through live internet streams.

I would consider getting cheap AV Receiver with preouts, that will do the job.

Apple dongles are not synced together and while i didn't have any issue whatsoever it still remains. To route audio, I used alsa (yes linux), but if thats over your head i would just stick to cheap avr that will do the job just as well

 

[marcheloka]

I would consider getting cheap AV Receiver with preouts, that will do the job.

Apple dongles are not synced together and while i didn't have any issue whatsoever it still remains. To route audio, I used alsa (yes linux), but if thats over your head i would just stick to cheap avr that will do the job just as well

alright thanks for your reply. that makes sense. what money you think we are talking right now with these prices for the cheapest used avr with preouts? is it like 100$ or more like 300$? Since i am going to get used audioengine a5+ for 200% a pair it seems like couple hundreds on just avr which does nothing to improve my sound, in contrary to couple hundreds to buy better spekars, well it hurts that that money does nothing to me it just lets the signal through LOL. Funny thing is if that cheapo avr to just decode signal and pass through wouldnt even degrade sound quality? And also connectivity problem since my laptop got usb outputs and i wont plug that usb to cheap avr well problems just multiplicate. and if i wanted lossless audio for my movies then only hdmi servers that purpose right? so another problem occurs with only one hdmi out in my laptop.

OMG do these things need to be that complicated?

A week ago i bought external 10$ 5.1 USB audio card with 3 x 3,5mm stereo jacks out. And i just plugged some old computer speakers to it. and it worked pretty nice, the fronts were plying only front sounds, surrounds proper surround sound. Well i really dont know what about subwoofer since i got none so cant test it but probably would work fine too. The only problem was it gave quite a big hum and probably some distortions as well since it was extremeely cheap chi-fi. I just thought that i almost got it - jest need some better audio card or something. Then i found out that i cant just send the line level analog singal through 5m rca cause it will catch thrash along, i need xlr. So for xlr i also need audio interface lol. these things aint cheap. and it all turned out a misery and i sent that audio card back. is there really no simple solution for like cheapest 5.1 ever? or at least 2.1 since i got budget for 2.1 only at the moment and i am planning to upgrade in the future.

 

[Drengur]

I love it! Well done.