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[flac.rules]

I am looking for a solution for my mulitroom-setup, 5 rooms, stereo speakers in each. And as far as I can see I have 3 options

1. Getting a 10 channel PCI-soundcard from M-audio or similar. Disadvantages: Drives seem to be spotty with these "special" soundcards, compatibility in the future not guaranteed.
2. Getting a 10 channel USB-soundcard. Disadvantages: Do they exist? Do they exist at a reasonable price? Do they have the same driver issues? I don't know that much about USB-soundcards.
3 Getting 5 USB- 2 channel soundcards, like the MUSE for instance. Disadvantages: MC gets trouble with syncing that many zones maybe? Is there a limit to amount of sound cards in windows?

Any tips?

[mwillems]

I am looking for a solution for my mulitroom-setup, 5 rooms, stereo speakers in each. And as far as I can see I have 3 options

1. Getting a 10 channel PCI-soundcard from M-audio or similar. Disadvantages: Drives seem to be spotty with these "special" soundcards, compatibility in the future not guaranteed.
2. Getting a 10 channel USB-soundcard. Disadvantages: Do they exist? Do they exist at a reasonable price? Do they have the same driver issues? I don't know that much about USB-soundcards.
3 Getting 5 USB- 2 channel soundcards, like the MUSE for instance. Disadvantages: MC gets trouble with syncing that many zones maybe? Is there a limit to amount of sound cards in windows?

Any tips?

1) Asus makes two decent relatively cheap 8-channel PCI/PCI-X soundcards that I can personally vouch for (the DX and the ST+H6 combo), but if it has to be ten channels, you're probably better off with a USB soundcard.  My experience with the M-Audio PCI cards on modern operating systems has been spotty and driver support is dwindling.

2) USB 10+ channel DACs definitely exist but are not necessarily cheap.  RME, Lynx, and Steinberg all make well regarded 10 channel+ USB DACs, and if you check out these threads you'll see some useful discussion:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77508.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=79235.0

3) Multiple Cards can work in multiple rooms, but you can see my response in the other thread for more info on my experience and impressions on that.

[mojave]

Here are some options not yet mentioned:

1.  Get a 7.1 channel PCI or PCI-E sound card and use it for 4 rooms. Use the SPDIF output on your motherboard to an external DAC for the 5th room. Some PCI or PCI-E also have SPDIF output. Since SPDIF carries the clock info, using the SPDIF output on a PCI soundcard should keep the external DAC in sync. I have used 10 channels out of my Creative X-Fi Elite by utilizing the SPDIF output for subwoofer output to a Behringer DCX2496 for EQ. The subs always stayed in sync with the other channels. The SPDIF was simultaneous with the other channels so I don't think you can play different stuff on its zone.

2.  Use a multi-channel USB DAC with SPDIF output. I have a Steinberg UR824 with 8 channels of analog output and 2 more via SPDIF. You also get 8 mic inputs for connecting a measuring microphone and 2 headphone outputs. You could use the headphone outputs for 4 more channels, too.

3.  Get a Firewire card for your PC and buy an Echo Audio Audiofire12 for 12 channels of outputs. You can usually buy them from Musician's Friend for around $500 with the discount code.

3.  Get a Lynx AES-16e card for the computer and output to two-channel or multi-channel DACs. The AES signal will keep all identical DACs in sync. I just bought the AES-16e, a two channel DAC, and an 8 channel DAC for 10 channels of output. One card will output 16 channels and you can install (if you have enough spots) up to 8 cards in a computer for 128 channels of output.

4.  Buy a Focusrite RedNet card for the computer. It gives you 128 channels of output via ethernet. You then need to buy Focusrite RedNet DACS. This could get expensive.  

[kiwi]

4.  Buy a Focusrite RedNet card for the computer. It gives you 128 channels of output via ethernet. You then need to buy Focusrite RedNet DACS. This could get expensive. 

I bet those aren't cheap... but they look awesome.

I've always been a little surprised that there aren't other "network audio interfaces" like this?  Even just 2 or 8 channel?  For instance, a virtual sound card that could send the signal via ethernet to a receiver/preprocessor.  Rather than relying on DNLA or AirPlay etc.

[mwillems]

Here are some options not yet mentioned:

1.  Get a 7.1 channel PCI or PCI-E sound card and use it for 4 rooms. Use the SPDIF output on your motherboard to an external DAC for the 5th room. Some PCI or PCI-E also have SPDIF output. Since SPDIF carries the clock info, using the SPDIF output on a PCI soundcard should keep the external DAC in sync. I have used 10 channels out of my Creative X-Fi Elite by utilizing the SPDIF output for subwoofer output to a Behringer DCX2496 for EQ. The subs always stayed in sync with the other channels. The SPDIF was simultaneous with the other channels so I don't think you can play different stuff on its zone.

I can second that this approach worked for me in one specific application.  I had an M-Audio card that (setting aside it's other problems) had one analog out and one SPDIF out. I hooked the SPDIF out to another DAC, and the external DAC's output was perfectly synced to the analog output of the card.  While the sync was perfect in that case (and it sounds like in Mojave's case as well), I remember reading reports from other folks that had a harder time getting the SPDIF-sync to work correctly with some external DACs (asynchronous DACs, I think?).

But it definitely can work, I'd just make sure to test it first (if possible) with your proposed equipment before you make substantial investments.