[LAU] ambidec: number of speakers and sound card configurations

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 09/18/2010 06:18 AM, Niels Mayer wrote:
>Seems like it would be better, say, with a 24 channel setup, to
> have three ADAT cards (like the $19.99 EWS88D i recently won) and then
> run lightpipe to a cheap D/A like http://www.aphex.com/141.htm or even
> better to an ADAT->AES/EBU ( http://www.aphex.com/144.htm ) and then
> run AES/EBU to small powered monitors.


or hunt an old rme digi or hdsp 9652 on ebay, they have 3 adat i/o (plus 
spdif), good for up to 26 speaker feeds, if you want to go there.

but before you spend several kilobucks on that many speakers: most of 
the content out there is first-order, which will actually sound worse 
over that many speakers than, say, a dodecahedron or (as fons 
suggested), a cube or bi-rectangle.

more power to you if you build a HOA system at home, but unless more 
people (i.e. other than yours truly and maybe a handful of mad 
scientists at orange labs) get out and do actual HOA recordings, you'd 
better be into contemporary electro-acoustic, big time :-D