![]() ![]() I've reviewed a number of these, and appreciate them for offering multichannel at all. Usually, such servers will play files of resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM or DSD64, yet don't comfortably support DSP. A very few of these give a slight nod to multichannel by supporting multichannel files, but unless they take on the cost of including beefier processors, that support is limited. The result is that the server market is dominated by a wide range of products that take no notice of music files of more than two channels. Multiply everything by three to take the step from two to 5.1 channelsnot to mention 7.1 channelsand makers of proprietary servers have logically decided that the added cost of accommodating those few multichannel-music fans would create a significant cost deterrent for the bulk of their market. In the more specialized market for music servers, it still takes pricey and heat-generating DSP horsepower to handle higher sample rates. Remember the hue and cry that went up when it was revealed that even top-of-the-line processors downsampled everything to 48kHz in order to use Audyssey EQ? Nothing has changedincreasing DSP horsepower to enable higher sample rates costs money for something that the vast majority of buyers don't care or even know about. ![]() Those of us who use home-theater preamplifier-processors and audio/video receivers (AVRs) should be familiar with such constraints. In addition, because most EQ products work within a limited range of sampling rates, PCM files sampled at high rates may have to be downsampled before being subjected to EQ. Because most EQ software is PCM-based, format comversion is needed to convert DSD files to PCM. One of the recurring themes of this column has been my search for servers that will support the playback of high-resolution multichannel files with DSP for speaker/room equalization (EQ), as well as the format conversion and downsampling that are often part of those processes. ![]()
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