Home Theater audio question

Right now I have a self built 8 channel system with a thrift store av receiver. I am looking at the prices for av receivers and the pros and cons of each price point. My experience and job are in IT support so understanding stuff about home audio is a bit outside my wheel house.

I started looking at doing the ‘separate’ path. Lets say I wanted to spend no more than $1.5K on an 10 to 12 channel amp capable of driving:
Front 8 ohms 150w
Center 8 ohms 175w
SR/L, SBR/L, and Height channels 8 ohms 10-150w
What amp would be recommended?

I would also need a decoder which I was thinking of using a PC to be the brain. The issue is the most channels I have seen on any sound card is 8. That would be fine at this time because I do not yet have the height channels, but I would like to buy them this year.

What ‘brain’ would you recommend? I would like it to decode all the latest tech dolby true hd and dts x.

If possible, I would like the brain to be a computer solution rather than an appliance.

How do you plan to do volume control? (Pre-amp, Software, etc.)

Because if you got a pure power-amp (like an Emotiva A-400z or similar), you don’t get volume control on the amp itself.


Do you have experience with software to manage Audio-zones? Else an AV-Processor (like an AV-Receiver, but without amplifiers) would likely be easier to use.

There are ways to get hundreds of channels out of a computer, just not for cheap.
Cheapest way I am aware of is running an RMA Digiface USB into Behringer ADA8200’s.

The two big problems with the above workaround is sound quality (Behringer is not great) and if that actually works (because ADAT is not a consumer protocol and software may not understand the DigifaceUSB correctly). Yes it looks like TOSLINK, but is way smarter.

Just FYI so you’re not looking for the wrong thing.
Dolby TrueHD is not the latest tech and also not equivalent (or even a competitor) to DTS:X.

The direct competitor to Dolby TrueHD is DTS-HD Master Audio. The direct competitors to DTS:X would be Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D.

Dolby Atmos is based on the Dolby TrueHD encoding, but a Dolby TrueHD capable decoder is not necessarily Dolby Atmos compatible. Although conversely a Dolby Atmos capable decoder is always Dolby TrueHD capable.

Lolz, thank you, I am not sure why i typed truehd cus i had atmos in my head. But yeah, ty for pointing that out.

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I will have to look at the info you provided. I was not aware that the volume couldn’t be controlled on most amps. Aside from using the volume control in windows what would you recommend? Spending two to five hundred on a good quality sound card shouldn’t be an issue. Another thing I was considering was rack mountable audio gear since I already work with rack mount hardware in the server space.