Pass-through for multichannel (5.1) audio

[Mickb]

Hi,
Not seen this mentioned, so apologies if I missed it, but what I would love to see (on the Pro) would be this feature. I listen to a lot of SACD / DVD_A rips in flac which are encoded with 5.1 surround.
I realise the DAC in these devices probably isn't suitable to decode, but wondering whether it could be configured to pass-through the signal to those using an external DAC capable of decoding (AV receiver / processor).

Any thoughts would be most welcome, & thanks

 

[DryTortuga]

I don’t think optical or coax digital has the bandwidth to carry multi-channel SACD. You need analog 5.1 outs, HDMI, or USB.

 

[Mickb]

AFAIK they could carry a 5.1 signal, though maybe not high def uncompressed.

 

[DryTortuga]

If you’re thinking OG Dolby Digital or DTS, then you’re correct - they’re compressed and bit rate limited to pass over traditional TOSlink and S/PDIF. That was the selling point to Dolby True HD and DTS-HD - they weren’t and can’t pass over optical or coax (HDMI or 5.1 analog only). I’m pretty sure coax and optical spec is 2 ch 24/192 max.

 

[Mickb]

Ok, fair point. In my case, my processor (Lyngdorf MP-50) doesn't have analog inputs, only digital). So what I'd like in a streamer is for HDMI output, which can then xmit the multi-channel, gapless signal (maybe in LPCM?). It's extremely difficult to find anything available to do this, even though there is a market (albeit small) for those wanting m/channel SACD or DVD-A streaming.

It can be done using the now discontinued OPPO disc-players streaming capability, but beyond that, virtually nothing else (that I'm aware of).

So if WIIM can achieve this, maybe as a new version of the Pro (with HDMI), I believe they would have an almost unique market segment (USP?) to exploit......

 

[onlyoneme]

What about fanless mini PCs instead?

 

[Mickb]

Yes, that's certainly an option. I just find it so frustrating that it's not implemented in the music streamers available on the market currently. If the likes of OPPO could do this on a disk-player decades ago, why is it so difficult in a modern device?

 

[WiimFan]

I also wonder about why Wiim Pro doesn't support multi-channel right now. Is it chipset limitation?

It seems likely to get a Wiim Max / Ultra with multi-channel support in the future, since Atmos, multi-channel, surround tracks are starting to become ubiquitous on various streaming sites.