I thought I would share my experience and learning here; hopefully it will inspire others too.
I have been fascinated by the concept of a Full Digital Amp (FDA) ever since early models started to appear; I even had a pair of active monitors using FDAs (Nubert nuPro A-300)
But I have always wanted a multichannel solution which never existed and still does not exist (besides some FDA AVRs from the past)
A few months ago I have updated my home office setup with a Sabaj A30A FDA and I was simply blown away - the sound is not comparable to anything I have heard so far (and I am not exaggerating)
So I said to myself: now it is time (again) to venture into the FDA world for multichannel for my living room setup (which is a 4.0 system using this and this)
So how could I use one A30A to drive the fronts and another one to drive the rears?
I could connect both of them to my PC via USB and use the Aggregate device feature but I am using Windows 11 and not a Mac so that option won't work
Then I tried Voicemeeter Banana which worked well, besides the clock drift issue: each and every time I measured the time delay between my front left and rear left speaker I got different values (as in totally different values)........
Finally I managed to find a solution that actually works: I needed a multichannel DDC (digital-to-digital converter) that can convert USB to multiple SPDIF outputs
The only such device I am aware of is the RME Digiface USB.
So I have ordered one and hooked up the two amps using optical fiber SPDIF cables and voila it works like a charm!
This is how it looks like:
Now I do not have any clock drift issues and the sound is just as awesome as it used to be just by using these amps via USB
Needless to say, no DAC is involved in the signal chain and no analog interconnect cables are needed
I can totally recommend this solution to anybody who (like me) got hooked on the FDA concept and would like to use it in a multichannel system - or you can also use this to leverage multiple stereo DACs in a multichannel setup
Any questions/comments are welcome
I have been fascinated by the concept of a Full Digital Amp (FDA) ever since early models started to appear; I even had a pair of active monitors using FDAs (Nubert nuPro A-300)
But I have always wanted a multichannel solution which never existed and still does not exist (besides some FDA AVRs from the past)
A few months ago I have updated my home office setup with a Sabaj A30A FDA and I was simply blown away - the sound is not comparable to anything I have heard so far (and I am not exaggerating)
So I said to myself: now it is time (again) to venture into the FDA world for multichannel for my living room setup (which is a 4.0 system using this and this)
So how could I use one A30A to drive the fronts and another one to drive the rears?
I could connect both of them to my PC via USB and use the Aggregate device feature but I am using Windows 11 and not a Mac so that option won't work
Then I tried Voicemeeter Banana which worked well, besides the clock drift issue: each and every time I measured the time delay between my front left and rear left speaker I got different values (as in totally different values)........
Finally I managed to find a solution that actually works: I needed a multichannel DDC (digital-to-digital converter) that can convert USB to multiple SPDIF outputs
The only such device I am aware of is the RME Digiface USB.
So I have ordered one and hooked up the two amps using optical fiber SPDIF cables and voila it works like a charm!
This is how it looks like:
Now I do not have any clock drift issues and the sound is just as awesome as it used to be just by using these amps via USB
Needless to say, no DAC is involved in the signal chain and no analog interconnect cables are needed
I can totally recommend this solution to anybody who (like me) got hooked on the FDA concept and would like to use it in a multichannel system - or you can also use this to leverage multiple stereo DACs in a multichannel setup
Any questions/comments are welcome
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