Multichannel streaming, anyone? 'Transporter Ultimate' fantasy :-)

[Archimago]

Over the years of building my digital music server, I've been adding 5.1/5.0/4.0 FLAC's along the way as I rip DVD-A and SACD's (haven't done any Blu-Ray yet). They're either 24/96 or 24/88.

I looked at the directory today and see that I already have about 100 albums at this point of multichannel material.

I'm curious, is anyone doing any multichannel streaming out there? I assume the most likely way to do this currently would be a PC/Mac --> HDMI receiver. I would certainly love to be able to integrate this collection into my LMS library as a single point of access some day!

If something like the following exists, I suspect I'd be set for life :-):
- Decodes 16/24-bit, 44/48/88/96/176/192 kHz stereo
- Decodes 16/24-bit, 44/48/88/96 kHz 5.1 multichannel
- Analogue Output: RCA and balanced with quality close to the Transporter (quite hard to beat based on measurements)
- Digital inputs: gigabit Ethernet, TosLink, coaxial, HDMI, USB, WiFi 802.11ac (coming later this year I think)
- Digital outputs: TosLink & coaxial downmix, HDMI passthru for multichannel to outboard DAC
- A good screen that's dimmable / switch off - like the Touch, maybe higher res and larger, no need for touch screen function
- A few buttons would be nice like on the current Transporter (no need for the feedback wheel despite the coolness!)

- Integrates into the LMS server!

Price: ~$3000 seems fair...

[Mike Sargent]

Over the years of building my digital music server, I've been adding 5.1/5.0/4.0 FLAC's along the way as I rip DVD-A and SACD's (haven't done any Blu-Ray yet). They're either 24/96 or 24/88.

I looked at the directory today and see that I already have about 100 albums at this point of multichannel material.

I'm curious, is anyone doing any multichannel streaming out there? I assume the most likely way to do this currently would be a PC/Mac --> HDMI receiver. I would certainly love to be able to integrate this collection into my LMS library as a single point of access some day!

If something like the following exists, I suspect I'd be set for life :-):
- Decodes 16/24-bit, 44/48/88/96/176/192 kHz stereo
- Decodes 16/24-bit, 44/48/88/96 kHz 5.1 multichannel
- Analogue Output: RCA and balanced with quality close to the Transporter (quite hard to beat based on measurements)
- Digital inputs: gigabit Ethernet, TosLink, coaxial, HDMI, USB, WiFi 802.11ac (coming later this year I think)
- Digital outputs: TosLink & coaxial downmix, HDMI passthru for multichannel to outboard DAC
- A good screen that's dimmable / switch off - like the Touch, maybe higher res and larger, no need for touch screen function
- A few buttons would be nice like on the current Transporter (no need for the feedback wheel despite the coolness!)

- Integrates into the LMS server!

Price: ~$3000 seems fair...

Why not just use a $400 laptop (with HDMI out) and foobar2000 to drive it?

[TheOctavist]

Yep! foobar does this wonderfully!

[Mnyb]

a hdmi only squeezebox reciever for 100$ no other output

(8*spdif would be interesting to me but very few people other than meridian owners could benefit from it )

[Archimago]

Why not just use a $400 laptop (with HDMI out) and foobar2000 to drive it?

Cuz it'd be nice to integrate all the 5.1 music into one system like LMS... Mainly though, it'd just be cool :-)