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[robertisonline]

I was recently trying to configure a 5.1 Logitech Z506 to run off a Fiio E17K Alpen 2 running Windows 10 and MC 20. The 5.1 inputs on the Z506 are divided into two sets. One provides RCA stereo that is designed to be connected to a game console and the other is 6 channel using 3 1/8" cables that are color coded green, orange, black. Green is dedicated as a stereo IN for computers without inputs for 5.1, while green, orange, and black should be used for a computer with onboard or dedicated inputs for multi-channel output.

This particular computer has an onboard Realtek sound card supporting 5.1 surround sound and an annoyingly redundant "Realtek HD Audio Manager" that allows the user to set the output to stereo or multi-channel, change (destroy) "acoustical environment", etc. which should be uninstalled in my opinion.

What is unclear to me is whether there is necessarily a benefit to connecting the DAC to the RCA stereo or the "green" cable. And, what to do inside JRiver regarding Output Encoding, Channels, and Mixing. The Fiio DAC does support DSD for Windows and PCM playback of 32/96. I selected 5.1 with JRSS, stereo sources mixed to 2.1 and moving center to front L/R. The differentiation is unclear to me what "2 channels in a 5.1 container" is trying to specify. Also, what happens to 5.1 and stereo PCM source material when DSD decoding is selected when using DoP and when not.

All this was and is an attempt to help a friend share in the JRiver experience. I work in stereo only, so I really don't know how to optimally configure his hardware to work with JR's audio engine. The ASUS Xonar U7 Sound Card is something that I think would help him out quite a bit, also.

[JimH]

The wiki has this topic:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Surround_Sound

[blgentry]

If you want stereo, connect to either the green 3.5mm jack or the pair of RCA inputs.  They are just two different inputs.

If you want surround sound, you'll need a 5.1 surround sound source.  That on board realtek sound card might work for that.  You'd just need to connect the (3) 3.5mm outputs of the realtek to the (3) 3.5mm inputs of the Logitech.

For your output format Channels setting, I would set it to 5.1 channels.  Because that's the number of speakers you have.  That's the recommended way.  Setting JRSS mixing to on will allow it to take care of any unusual sources you might have like 4.1 .

I'll leave the DSD questions for someone else, but I don't think you should be messing with DSD at all in this setup.

Brian.

[Hilton]

The new E17K II does DSD so you can playback DSD DoP natively but I wouldnt be transcoding your sources to DSD.

For what I think you want to do, you may be best to set up two zones in MC21. One with dedicated 2 channel that can do DSD or whatever 2 channel source you want to play through your DAC and then stereo connection to the Logitech RCAs.

For 5.1 I would just use the realtek output from the PC using optical or if you must with the line outs and match the colour coding to the Z506 inputs. Set this up in another Zone in MC21.

Playback 2ch and DSD content in the E17 DAC Zone
Playback movies, multichannel in the Realtek 5.1 Zone

I would stay away from JRSS unless you want to upmix stereo to psuedo surround or downmix multichannel to 2 channel.
Each zone can have it's own upmix and downmix settings, so you have a lot of flexibility but I'd just leave 5.1 as 5.1 and playback 2 channel as just 2ch for now.

You could possibly get funky with ASIO and DSP channel routing to get 2ch from the the E17 DAC with subwoofer coming from the optical or analog inputs to create 2.1 but that's another whole advanced topic.
You probably dont even know yet what your best use case is until you understand what MC DSP engine and Zones can do.

I suggest starting out simple with what I suggested above with 2 completely separate zones treating the E17DAC and Realtek 5.1 as completely separate playback devices. When you get that working and understand how MC21 DSP and Zones work, then move on to learning more.  It's just like the analogy, you have to learn to walk before you can run, and you're going into complex territory there cowboy!

You cant just walk in to Einstein and ask him to explain how to build a time machine without first understanding the laws of physics. Hope you understand, you really need to take this one step at a time. It'll be more satisfying to get the solution working and understanding how it works.  The wiki Jim pointed you at is a good place to start, do a search for Zones to understand how that works and do some reading. cheers!