Multichannel Playback - ideas and music?

**Audiotic** · 2015-01-24, 17:07

Hmm, I do not use the Squeezebox for multi-channel at all. I use the SACD and DVD / BluRay - way for this. I have a lot of DSD files that in principle are multi channel files but have the 2 channel in them. This is played through Audirvana and a USB connection. As stereo.
My DAC can only handle stereo, the DAC in my pre-amp can decode multi-channel but that's only used for movies :-)

**Archimago** · 2015-01-24, 17:25

Yeah, just to clarify. No Squeezebox in the multichannel pathway for me either. The only place the signal intersects with the stereo gear is thru the preamp in home theater pass through mode to play the front channels.

Sounds good.

If anyone hasn't done so, check out some of the upsampled DTS conversions from stereo CD (you can find some as SPEC conversions). Little Feat's 'Waiting for Columbus' is a good one. Sounds almost like a pro mastering to me!

**Mnyb** · 2015-01-24, 18:48

The only way to get multichannel is ac3 or dts files compressed as flac or wav .
Thats what toslink or spdiff supports

But with so many third party players aviable with hdmi capable hardware ,
Maybe its time to support 5.1 flac files ?

**darrenyeats** · 2015-01-25, 01:37

I am not a fan of multichannel. Ok for movies.

**Pascal Hibon** · 2015-01-25, 10:05

I'm not interested in multichannel music. I don't care about multichannel for movies either.
The hassle of the increased number of cables and speakers just doesn't justify it for me. I prefer a decent stereo system, even for movies. I find a good quality recording way more important than multichannel music. The industry seems to have a lot of difficulties of providing good quality recordings. I would prefer they would focus more on that part instead of high res and multichannel.

**Mnyb** · 2015-01-25, 11:16

I do have a lot of DVDA in 5.1 it does really sound good , some mixes are gimicky but there are good ones like the discs AIX put out a decade ago .

As i have a Meridian system i have well functioning surround modes even for 2ch music I often use these they enhance the experience in some situations .

I think even paul klispsh was onto it in the 50's or something with an idea of a center fill channel for stereo .

Even if things are recorded with 2 ch does not necesarily mean that you must play them back with 2 ch .
I dont think these things are mutually exlusive , for example combining home theater and hifi .

And I only did 2ch rips of my DVDA discs , I have no way of playing back discrete 6 ch files . I guess i'm open to suggestions on what to use for that , do you guys use a htpc or something and what software ?

My experience is that video and music demands completely different strategies and tagging and also browsing software . Whats good for films and tv series might not be ideal for music .
Would be nice if multichannel where supported by LMS and if the software players supported it ,it could be used with a wandboard or similar .
But I realise that downloads in 6ch and hirez is an even rarer thing than real music in DSD , so maybe it's not worth anyone’s time unless for the fun of it .

I think my old pile >100 DVDA is what could have been and history , but music bluerays is a thing , but they often come with video too ?

**ralphy** · 2015-01-25, 11:42

I use linux and the process described on the wiki which uses spdifconvert.py to encapsulate ac3 or dts into flac. There's a link to download the script on the wiki.

To avoid a blast of static on a stereo only setup, make sure you tag those flac files as multichannel, I use GENRE=multichannel, and exclude that genre from automatic mixes, in my case SmartMix, for players that aren't connected to an amp that supports AC3/DTS decoding.

**Mnyb** · 2015-01-25, 12:05

Originally posted by ralphy

I use linux and the process described on the wiki which uses spdifconvert.py to encapsulate ac3 or dts into flac. There's a link to download the script on the wiki.

To avoid a blast of static on a stereo only setup, make sure you tag those flac files as multichannel, I use GENRE=multichannel, and exclude that genre from automatic mixes, in my case SmartMix, for players that aren't connected to an amp that supports AC3/DTS decoding.

Yes that's a good idea to keep them out of the mix, I also have some ac3 files and know the static blast .
Also keep volume at 100% for this to work and be carefull when syncing , another opurtunity for static

**ralphpnj** · 2015-01-25, 14:25

Originally posted by Archimago

Hi guys, wondering how you all are running multichannel rigs and what format you're enjoying?

......

Are you folks doing multichannel streaming/playback like this? Still playing SACD/DVD-A/Blu-Ray directly?

Any favourite albums on multichannel?

To answer your questions:

I have a home theater set up which uses an older Marantz HTR (which still works fine) with front, center and rear speakers plus a subwoofer. Playback is via either an Oppo blu-ray player (for SACD, DVD-A, DVD and blu-ray) or through a SB Touch (for DTS encoded flac files)

Multi-channel for the most part is pretty much a joke - for movies and videos the rear channels have almost no content except for sound effects or crowd noise (sports broadcasts). About the only good thing is the center channel which does provide for nice clear dialog. For music it's pretty much equally useless with the rear channels just providing a little ambiance, which is more often than not barely audible.

As for favorite multichannel albums I've heard one that actually uses the extra channels with any degree of artfullness: Björk's Medulla (on SACD). On Medulla any and all of the front, center or rear channels can be used as the primary point of origin for the music. Gimmicky? Yes but at least the rear channels get to do something besides play some barely audible "ambiance".

**pablolie** · 2015-01-25, 19:40

Originally posted by Pascal Hibon

I'm not interested in multichannel music. I don't care about multichannel for movies either.
The hassle of the increased number of cables and speakers just doesn't justify it for me. I prefer a decent stereo system, even for movies. I find a good quality recording way more important than multichannel music. The industry seems to have a lot of difficulties of providing good quality recordings. I would prefer they would focus more on that part instead of high res and multichannel.

my exact same sentiments on the subject matter. i'd rather spend more on fewer components, plus i truly have never been impressed by any multichannel system when it comes to music. note i am not saying there possibly aren't extremely awesome sounding multi-channel systems out there, but i haven't heard one yet. and it seems people need to fool around from movie to movie with settings so something isn't overly boosted, which would annoy the hell out of me. i just change the source and volume. anyone that tried to adjust anything in my system better never make plans to visit me again. :-) and the little system sounds great for all sorts of video entertainment to me, too.

i can confidently say i shall never buy a system beyond 2.1. then again, i was once on record saying i'd never ever buy a single piece of audio equipment after buying my dream system in 1999, and yet here i am. :-)

**atrocity** · 2015-01-26, 15:14

I've got a dedicated computer in the living room that I turn on when I want to play multichannel DVD-A rips. Since I'm running Windows, I also have to keep the monitor on. Definitely not optimal, but I have yet to hear of any other way to do it that works as reliably.

As for encapsulating DTS and AC-3 in a FLAC container, the spdifconvert.py script + DVD Decrypter used to work perfectly for me but at some point I started getting gaps when using it for AC-3. I've since started using AudioMuxer (free!) which is easier to work with and (so far, anyway) hasn't given me any gaps.

I'm not sure why people feel the need to answer this question with "I don't like it" though I suppose I'm just as guilty for whining about that.

**ralphpnj** · 2015-01-26, 15:30

Originally posted by atrocity

I'm not sure why people feel the need to answer this question with "I don't like it" though I suppose I'm just as guilty for whining about that.

I believe that in my previous post (#10 above) I outlined why I don't think that multi-channel audio (and to a lesser extent, video) is at the present time basically useless.

**atrocity** · 2015-01-26, 15:41

Originally posted by ralphpnj

I believe that in my previous post (#10 above) I outlined why I don't think that multi-channel audio (and to a lesser extent, video) is at the present time basically useless.

And that's fine, you don't have to like multichannel music (or anything else, for that matter). But when someone asks "How can I..?" it seems pointless to respond with a version of "Who cares?" To me, it's no different from responding to "I have one Beethoven FLAC that won't play, any ideas?" with "Beethoven sucks!"

**ralphpnj** · 2015-01-26, 15:50

Originally posted by atrocity

And that's fine, you don't have to like multichannel music (or anything else, for that matter). But when someone asks "How can I..?" it seems pointless to respond with a version of "Who cares?" To me, it's no different from responding to "I have one Beethoven FLAC that won't play, any ideas?" with "Beethoven sucks!"

Look I'm not trying to start some kind of flame war but I really, really think that you should actually read my entire post before you reply. I clearly stated how I listen to multi-channel audio and video and I clearly outlined what I find lacking about the current state of multi-channel/surround audio and video. Plus I gave an example of one recording that at least begins to show a way to make multi-channel/surround audio worthwhile.

Multichannel Playback - ideas and music?

Multichannel Playback - ideas and music?

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