I have a Multi-Channel streaming DAC in my entertainment space and 2 CH Elac Z3’s spread around the house (kitchen, office, bedrooms, etc.). While playing a MC DSD file on my main system I decided to see what happens when I grouped in the Kitchen/Office Z3 zones. Was mainly interested in seeing the process and not the differences in sound quality.
Note: Core runs on NUC/ROCK. All zones/endpoints are Roon Ready with Ethernet.
The signal path looked as expected for the Z3 zone’s, with DSD conversion to PCM and MC mixing to Stereo identified - but they differed in Processing speed.
First one in the grouped signal path showed 2.9X while the second showed 90.3X.
No processing speed was shown for the MC DAC zone, as expected, with DSD to DSD direct playback, no conversion or channel mixing.
2 questions came to mind.
1: why the difference in processing speeds for the zones requiring conversions?
2: is the conversion preformed for each zone separately?