Am I the right situation for the MiniDSP Flex HT?

[Mort]

I'm new to the MiniDsp world and so far I like both the native software and the DiracLive DSP. I'm thinking about purchasing a Flex HT and I'd like to make sure I'm thinking about this correctly.

My room has two sets of stereo speakers that share two subwoofers, so six total speakers. I use 2 bookshelves at a nearfield desk, and 2 towers in a recliner behind. I also have a headphone stack. Wiim streaming and Windows desktop are the primary sources but I also have a google streamer for 2.2 movies and TV that I use occasionally. Everything, including TV is stereo/2channel/PCM. Getting the speakers to share the subwoofer is doable but clumsy one way or another.

I added a DDRC-24 DAC to one set of speakers and like DiracLive and the MiniDSP system. Now I'd like it on both sets of speakers and I think the HT or Eight will streamline my speaker selector and subwoofer sharing system. This is the use-case for a flex eight or HT, yes? 2 in 6 out? I'll have one preset for bookshelves plus subs and another preset for towers plus subs? And I can run DiracLive on each set separately?

I can even use the last 2 as line-out for my headphone stack, right?

This is a world I did not even know about a few months ago.

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

- Flex 8 (stereo to 8 outputs) would do the job if all your sources are stereo.
- Flex HT (8 inputs to 8 outputs) would the job if your you have stereo and multi channels PCM inputs (usb, digital, hdmi) and for hdmi, if source has earc and sends multi channel PCM (as flex HT does not perform bitstream decoding), which is rare.

You can have custom routing+gains+DSP for each preset

Note that flex HT does not have input FIR filters while flex 8 has.

 

[Mort]

Thanks. That confirms my analysis, which is helpful as I'm not confident about my knowledge.

I think I'll go with the HT, although I'm concerned that my HDMI won't work because I use an extractor. Does it have to be ARC/eARC if it's 2 channel? Or only if one wants multichannel?

The Eight also has bluetooth input which I don't need. And if I remember correctly, the input filters are not available if one is using DiracLive, which I will be using.

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

HDMI will only work with eARC, whatever content.

 

[Mort]

HDMI will only work with eARC, whatever content.

Bleh. So I have to keep my Wiim ultra upstream. Or buy an active splitter.

Edit: or just use an HDMI splitter and use the Toslink input.