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[mschneid]

Garage sale find is a Lexicon MC-1  vintage pre-pro which has

Lexicon MC1
Section 8 EXPANSION PORTS
3 coaxial digital audio inputs capable of accepting stereo PCM signals up to 24-bit/ 96kHz. Note: These inputs completely bypass the digital signal processing path, including the crossovers and effects, passing the audio signal directly to the following channels: A to the L and R Front channels, B to the Center and Subwoofer channels and C to the L and R Surround channels.

These coaxial digital audio inputs are capable of accepting stereo PCM signals up to 24-bit/96kHz. Expansion Port A feeds the Left and Right Front channels directly. Expansion Port B feeds the Center and Subwoofer channels directly, and Expansion Port C feeds the Left and Right Surround channels directly. Note: These inputs are designed to completely bypass all of the digital signal processing of the unit,  including the crossovers and effects. For DVD players that support true 24/96 digital audio outputs, we recommend connecting one DVD digital audio output to Expansion Port A, and another DVD digital  audio output to one of the MC-1's eight S/PDIF digital audio inputs.

NOTE: Whenever playback of a 24/96 disc is desired, press 2-CH while holding down the Shift button on the remote control. If you are using SMALL loudspeakers, these inputs will send a full frequency response signal to the outputs, completely bypassing the internal crossovers. Do not use this input with Dolby Digital or DTS signals. Whenever playback of non-24/96 discs is desired, select the regular input on the MC-1 remote control or front panel.


So... it would appear that I can us MC to create a 5.1 full bandwidth audio path using MC for room correction and any digital processing.

What PC audio card do I need to give this a go?  IE 3 digital coax outputs that the boards drivers will route as needed

Would MC allow me to put these 6 digital channels into the same zone properly synced  with the Lexicon MC-1 for full res Blue ray audio?

do you use digital volume control before the pre-pro  or do use the lexicon analog volume control?
My hunch is that I have to worry that the lexicon has a master clock which keeps everything in sync.     Any thoughts or help?

[mojave]

You can use a Lynx AES16e card, but that is an expensive solution. You can get the custom cables necessary at proaudiola.com. The AES16e shows up as a single multi-channel soundcard in JRiver with digital output. RME also has a soundcard that would work, but it is even more expensive. I don't know of any other multi-channel soundcards with multi-channel AES/SPDIF output.

I would recommend using digital volume control in JRiver.

You might consider using JRiver's Dolby Digital output encoding and use a single SPDIF cable to the Lexicon and see if it decodes to 5.1. That would be an easier method. Many motherboards have a single SPDIF output or you can buy a soundcard with it (internal or USB) for under $50.

[mschneid]

Got it..

Back in the day of transports and Dacs.... the clock running the spdif interface in the transport was important since the devices were real time.... the transport was key to reducing jitter.  Digital cables often had passive circuitry in the pathway ... all to reduce the jitter issues.  The DAC clock was also important in generating the input to the DAC from the buffer.   (I think I remember this correctly)

So... would a mother board provided spdif optical or coax interface be  good enough here...  (The goal is to play with MC's DSP settings and not spend a lot of money on re-purposing old digital technology).

Does a stand alone board provide its own clock for the spdif interface .... and  so... is there a decent one to purchase?

Can you put two of these boards on the pci bus in the PC?  One to encode into dolby digital 5.1 in MC  and send to the Lexicons mc 1 digital processing front end... and the other to send two channel 24 96 pcm directly to the DAC and then the output stage.

Obviously a sound card is mostly evaluated by the dacs and output stage amplifiers and the optical or coax spdif output is not the big deal..