I had an Oppo 203 that i recently sold, as i decided to build an HTPC as my only source for Video and Audio. Nevertheless, due to money and time constraints, the idea was to start this only by the end of the year, also waiting for the new graphic cards releases and potentially price drops.
The plan for this DIY speakers, and the only thing missing at the moment is the Active crossover, and the Monacor DSP-48 is the most likely candidate.
But as the Monacor/MiniDSP/Whatever will always be around 550£, i started to think that as the plan is to go for an HTPC, why not having the HTPC as the Active crossover? It would allow completely eliminating the external crossover Box, and at the same time, use the HTPC that should be much powerful than any external box.
Obviously, this may increase the complexity, but it can also be more rewarding and allow some money savings.
In order to provide a better picture of the plans on the table (External XO vs HTPC XO), i created two diagrams:
- The first represents the initial plan, using an external player as Zidoo, Oppo, etc, and the XO being an external DSP, the Monacor as the most likely candidate.
- The second, represents the changes in order to have the XO being performed in the HTPC.
External DSP XO
HTPC XO (DOES NOT WORK AS ITS NOT POSSIBLE TO DECODE ATMOS IN THE htpc)
@mattkhan , sorry for requesting your help directly, but as you not only have the better understanding on the Audio side, you also have the better understanding on the HTPC side, so could you please have a look at this, and share your input, potential problems, and all other details i'm surely missing.
Thank you very much in advance.