Many Output Channels on the cheap.

[Wyzzy Moon]

I'm looking for a way to output a lot of audio channels (27 at least) independently to speakers.
And trying to do it as cheap as possible (preferably sub 500 euro or lower, but mostly just finding out how much it costs)

most USB interfaces do 8 channels at most, so I'd need 4 of those then. (if you can even use multiple on one PC)
Or the ones that do more than 8 have a lot of inputs. I don't need any inputs.

Does anyone know of any way to send 27 separate channels to speakers? Open to all kind of solutions like;
- 32 channel  USB Audio interfaces
- Mulitchannel digital audio with decoders
- Using Dante
- Stripping the 16 channels of of SDI audio
- Something with a whole bunch of Pi's

Anything
 

[Needfuldoer]

Are you using powered speakers that already have Dante interfaces? If not, you'd need something like a stage box and there goes your budget...

[Wyzzy Moon]

19 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Are you using powered speakers that already have Dante interfaces? If not, you'd need something like a stage box and there goes your budget...

Nope, just bare speakers, without the box even, just the speakers themselves with 2 wires each. So I don't think Dante is the right option.
 

[jaslion]

Just now, Wyzzy Moon said:

Nope, just bare speakers, without the box even, just the speakers themselves with 2 wires each. So I don't think Dante is the right option.
 

Oh well yeah good luck then. Because 27 individual powered speakers is NOT something you will get done for cheap at all. Your best bet would be a super ultra lucky used concert level amp.

[Needfuldoer]

19 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

Nope, just bare speakers, without the box even, just the speakers themselves with 2 wires each. So I don't think Dante is the right option.

Oof. You're going to blow past your budget just on amps, never mind any device to feed them a signal.

[Wyzzy Moon]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Oh well yeah good luck then. Because 27 individual powered speakers is NOT something you will get done for cheap at all. Your best bet would be a super ultra lucky used concert level amp.

 

53 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Oof. You're going to blow past your budget just on amps, never mind any device to feed them a signal.

It can be super jank-tastic.
To give some context:
I've got it working at the moment for less than 100 euro. With 27 miniDF players, (3 euro's each). They have build in 3W apms, so I've just sync them all up and I can play my 27 channel audiotrack just fine. It's just a bit of a hassel so I was wondering if there are easier options to just play straight from a PC.

Amps are not the problem, I can build Little Gem amp's (http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.html)  for a few bucks each. Just looking for some way to turn 27 audio tracks on 1 pc to analog signals.

I expected berhinger or something to make a 1u USB audio interface with just 30 jack outputs or something like that. but that doesn't seem to exist

 

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

 

It can be super jank-tastic.
To give some context:
I've got it working at the moment for less than 100 euro. With 27 miniDF players, (3 euro's each). They have build in 3W apms, so I've just sync them all up and I can play my 27 channel audiotrack just fine. It's just a bit of a hassel so I was wondering if there are easier options to just play straight from a PC.

Amps are not the problem, I can build Little Gem amp's (http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.html)  for a few bucks each. Just looking for some way to turn 27 audio tracks on 1 pc to analog signals.

I expected berhinger or something to make a 1u USB audio interface with just 30 jack outputs or something like that. but that doesn't seem to exist

 

Worst case you daisy chain some cheap powered lr jack splitters. There isn't really a limit there.

[Wyzzy Moon]

35 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Worst case you daisy chain some cheap powered lr jack splitters. There isn't really a limit there.

But that wouldn't be individual channels right? that'd all be the same source

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

But that wouldn't be individual channels right? that'd all be the same source

Ooh you want individual assignable sources that can be managed by a computer device?

[Barisaxman]

Without spending some serious coin on a thunderbolt interface with that many outputs, I think you're out of luck short of a solution like you're already using.  There just really aren't many real-world use cases for needing that many discrete analog outputs until you get into large scale commercial installations, which have the budget for commercial interfaces in the thousands (and up) price range.

[Ahoy Hoy]

My univeristy in the multichannel surround sound room used Focusrite Red Net as the output device. But its out of budget

Budget wise I think 3 Behringer interfaces with 10 outs each only way to go. Be around 600 euros. Motu makes one interface with 70 odd outputs but its 1000 euros

[Wyzzy Moon]

On 5/25/2022 at 6:55 PM, jaslion said:

Ooh you want individual assignable sources that can be managed by a computer device?

Yes, I'd like to output 27 channel audio. I need to send 27 tracks of audio to 27 speakers. all different, so you can have the sound "travel through a grid of speakers"

[Wyzzy Moon]

On 5/25/2022 at 8:02 PM, Ahoy Hoy said:

My univeristy in the multichannel surround sound room used Focusrite Red Net as the output device. But its out of budget

Budget wise I think 3 Behringer interfaces with 10 outs each only way to go. Be around 600 euros. Motu makes one interface with 70 odd outputs but its 1000 euros

intresting. Even if it's out of budget I'd still like to know the options and what they would cost.
Do you have specific model numbers for the behringer or motu one?

Rednet/Dante is awesome but indeed amazingly expensive

[Ahoy Hoy]

On 5/26/2022 at 10:38 PM, Wyzzy Moon said:

intresting. Even if it's out of budget I'd still like to know the options and what they would cost.
Do you have specific model numbers for the behringer or motu one?

Rednet/Dante is awesome but indeed amazingly expensive

https://www.thomann.de/gb/motu_24_ao.htm