Which Soundcard(s) for multiroom?

[rhinoman]

My file server which resides in my garage doesn't do much, so it is the favorite target for being my main xlobby server. Its a 2.4 cel with 512mb ram on an asus p4p800 mobo with a couple of highpoint 454 raid 5 controllers (only one polulated at the moment as I've just upgraded the array).

I want to run 4 or 5 zones directly from this machine. It has onboard sound which will do for one zone.

I have a seperate HTPC in the living room with a RME pst which is where I'd actually sit and listen to music.

The other rooms; office, kitchen, gym, bathroom and bedroom are largly background listening so it probably doesn't warrant another card as good as an RME. I know that the RME with an addon analogue board will allow me to "address" each output seperatly which is what I beleive is necessary for each winamp running on the xlobby server. What else will, a Delta 410 perhaps?

Anybody doing anything similar?

[DLT]

I am also interested in a mulitiroom setup, I would like to know what of an inexpensive sound card that would work. I new to this whole HTPC enviroment so any help is greatly appericated.

Thanks,
D

[jmv]

I just got a 410 off e-Bay for this exact application ($100 shipped). Now I am questioning if XLobby is stable enough to run 7x24 on my server or if I need to put a second box next to it to run XLobby and pull the audio files off the server...any thoughts, anyone else doing this successfully?

[rhinoman]

I'm waiting for a 410 to arrive too. My intention is to install it in the file server.

At the moment experimenting this week I have been using the onboard sound of the p4p800 and an old cmedia chipset base card in an available slot. As far as reliability is concerened, its best ot stick to either the 39alpha or the latest exp7 but both seem fine.

Two zones has largly worked fine, the first and second zone aren't in sync though, apparantly the way to overcome that is to create a dummy first zone and not use it but at the moment I dont have enough outputs.

The biggest problem I see at the moment is if you use a PC client to control the xlobby server, there doesn't seem to be a way to end the client session without ending xlobby too. With a PPC it loses connection quite frequently so that doesn't give the same issue.

[ThE ScReW]

Is that so hard to do multizone?

Isn't it just possible to add just 3 simple stereo sound cards from creative at the pci slots ?

[jmv]

rhinoman, thanks for the feedback on stability. I believe my strategy will be to use a touch panel directly connected to the server.

Screw, you could, but doing 5 zones requires 5 slots...that's all I've got. So much for my RAIDCore card expansion. Plus a 410 at $100 gives you the same stereo capacity as 5 creative type cards. 410 is a much better option with better drivers and better DACs and better ASIO support...for $100 bucks getting this professional quality card is a no brainer...might be why they have jumped from the high 80's to the low $100 level in the last month on ebay.

[rhinoman]

I'm using a touchscreen monitor on my server (through the wall from our integral garage into the hallway). This works great as direct control and like this the stability (as far as a music jukebox is concerned) is not questionable. The only problems are when clients get involved but hopefully that will be better when the next alpha gets released.

[rhinoman]

Recieved my 410 today and it works a treat

[gravy]

Recieved my 410 today and it works a treat

That's great, Rhino! I'm also considering a 410.

DId you encounter any problems configuring multiple versions of winamp to use different channels?

Do each of the outputs of the 410 show up as a different device in winamp?

Thanks!

[rhinoman]

No problem with the 410's pairs of outputs being seperatly configurable, dont forget it has 4 analogue and a digital out which all show.

For the multiple instances of winamp I created a zones folder with a seperate folder for each zone called the zones name,
eg
x:\zones\office
x:\zones\gym
x:\zones\bedroom
x:\zones\bathroom

Then the contents of my c:\program files\winamp was copied into each of the zones folder.

Be sure to have the plugins that you require added to the original. Once copied start each version speratly by running the exe and then preconfigure the output of the souncard and turn the volume down from 100% if using poweramps.

Hope this helps.

[gravy]

No problem with the 410's pairs of outputs being seperatly configurable, dont forget it has 4 analogue and a digital out which all show.

For the multiple instances of winamp I created a zones folder with a seperate folder for each zone called the zones name,
eg
x:\zones\office
x:\zones\gym
x:\zones\bedroom
x:\zones\bathroom

Then the contents of my c:\program files\winamp was copied into each of the zones folder.

Be sure to have the plugins that you require added to the original. Once copied start each version speratly by running the exe and then preconfigure the output of the souncard and turn the volume down from 100% if using poweramps.

Hope this helps.

Sure does. I already have 2 zones (but on 2 sound cards) up and running. Just wanted to make sure the 410 worked well for ya! (and soon, me!)