6 to 8 channel audio player w/ amps for art installations?

[Michael Zacherl.]

On 2.11.2011, at 00:10 , Martin Naef wrote:

> Hi Michael
> 
>>> Keep in mind that S/PDIF will only carry an encoded surround signal, not 6 fully discrete channels.
>> 
>> yeah, thanks for noting - wasn't really aware of that.
>> Need to do some further reading.
>> My idea was to have a purely digital connection to the amplifiers to avoid noise.
>> If this amps are digital it's probably also possible to spare the D/A-A/D conversion.
>> At least in theory - if something like that is available, don't know.
> 
> I think you should tell us a bit more about the installation, in particular regarding your requirements and budget. I'm quite confused at this stage - on the one hand, we're talking about dedicated ADAT converter boxes and you seem to be worried about noise (this is 2011 - even cheap digital is pretty darn good...), on the other hand you want to keep the costs low.

it's two things I tried to manage to achieve in one go:
There's this installation which needs at least three audio channels. 
Since it consists of two parts being in the same room it would be nice to have six channels so that compositions 
for that installation could take advantage of the separation and achieve some sort of spatialisation. 
"Some sort of" because it's transducers being driven and not usual loudspeakers.
So high frequencies are audible in the room while lower and lowest frequencies just can be perceived while you're in contact with the object.
We're negotiating to have this installation permanent, i.e. all components would stay there for the time being.
Money is an issue there - there's virtually none.
Noise is a big issue at this particular venue because power lines there are very dirty due to a permanently installed lighting system.
Currently it's driven by a DVD-player using three channels of AC3-encoded audio powered by one t.amp S-75 and four t.amps pm40c.

Starting from this I'm basically interested how multichannel installations in general can be realised, without leaving a laptop.
(a laptop and audio interfaces, that's easy, don't need help for that ;-)
I'm thinking more of a self-contained box.
This is some basic research I'm doing to explore the possibilities and find out what's feasible.

--
noise chasers: http://blauwurf.at 
http://soundcloud.com/noiseconformist