Surround Sound decoder
 

I have power speakers and was planning of getting some more (centre and 2 rears) for a surround setup but then realised I'd need something to decode the signal.
Does anyone know of stand alone units that will take a digital audio signal (via coaxial or optical) and give you the seperate analogue line outs for powered speakers?

I'm hoping to get something fairly cheap as the speakers will blow my budget.
Surely there are some decoders floating around.

A lot of home-theatre receivers have optical or S/PDIF inputs and line-level outputs. Might be easier and more economical than locating a stand-alone hardware decoder - they seem to be pretty scarce.

Yeah but I don't think they have a line out for each channel and I already have a pair of powered studio monitors so I don't really want to buy an extra amp and speaker set.
For mixing I prefer to stick to the powered reference monitors.

I can't speak to all of them but my Teac AGD9320 has line outputs for each 5.1 surround channel that are intended to drive powered monitors. The line outs are taken off between the preamp and power amplifier sections of the receiver and the receiver acts as the preamp driving the speaker's own amplifiers when used in that mode. That particular receiver has both optical and S/PDIF digital inputs and both Dolby and DTS surround decoders.

thanks Steve
I'll check it out

There is actually a very good device by Creative that does this job called the DDTS-100. I'm plannng to buy one for my computer eventually.
Here's a link - http://www.creative.com/products/pro...6&product=9468

Interesting. I wonder if the 3 audio outputs (front, centre and rear) would work with 3.5mm stereo jack to rca leads.
It's definitely the sort of thing I'm after.

Is there much difference in the decoders? Or is there some sort of standard for dolby digital and dts decoding?

I believe you can easily adapt 3.5mm to RCA. I think all the decoders use the same standards - Dolby Digital/DTS. In terms of audio quality, the device has some good ratings, but I haven't actually listened to it myself - it will depend a lot more on the speakers you're using since this decice just decodes, it has no amp.

Well if all the decoders are pretty much the same, then this sounds great. Plugged into some Mackies, it should be very clear.