multiple clients to achieve 5.1 sound ?

[notedop]

notedop

21. Dezember 2015 at 23:39 #17456

Hi,

I’m using the raspberry pi 2 with OpenElec – Kodi since half a year now. I’m really loving the little device! Some time ago I was browsing through our local mediastore and got introduced with the SONOS devices. I really loved the sound and the functionality of the device but hated the price of the thing…. 300 euros for one speaker is a bit too much…

So then I realized that the RPI2 might be useable to create something similar and figured that others would have realized this too. So in my search for a solution I came across this site.
I am actually looking for a setup with these requirements

1. 5.1 surround sound via WiFi connection
2. Multi room sound via WiFi connection
3. Cheaper than SONOS
4. Easy to use interface so I don’t have to instruct my girlfriend each and every time she wants to listen music gehehehe

So I believe the 2,3 and 4 are covered
On the first point I am having doubts if this is feasible

So I was looking for a setup similar to the following.
There is 1 RPI2 server – running M2P and connected to the TV. Used for Kodi playback features and controlling the 5 clients
There are 5 RPI2 clients with DAC – running M2P each client is representing 1 single channel of a 5.1 surround sound setup

What I do not seem to understand is if M2P or Sqeezebox or whatever server application is able to configure a single client as a single channel in the 5.1 surround system. So you would configure as following;

Client #1 -Front left
Client #2 -Front center
Client #3 -Front right
Client #4 -Back left
Client #5 -Back right

I believe the Hifiberry AMP+ has options to multiple channels (max 2) so the number of clients could be reduced to 2 or 3 theoratically.

So, does the above make any sense and if not why not? And if it does make sense, is it even possible? And if so, is there anything that I should take into account?

Looking forward to be enlightened :p

[Maximilian premium]

Maximilian premium

1. Februar 2016 at 11:52 #18270

Hi notedop,

thank you for your interest in Max2play. I confirm your thoughts about 2, 3 and 4 are correct. With several Max2Play clients and one of them running a Squeezebox Server is a common use case.
Your plans regarding a 5.1 surround sound seem difficult when we think about the signal latency WiFi would cause.
We recommend to acoustically measure the room’s distances with a microphone, find out the best position for your surround sound system, buy a good AV receiver and speakers and use a Raspberry Pi connected to the recevier via HDMI. This way, you can make sure to achieve a good sound quality.

Regards

Maximilian from Max2play