I need assistance on this said subject. If this has been answered already, please forgive this repeat request.

I just downloaded four FLAC files of a 5.1 surround sound album from this forum. Each of the 4 files has the same number of tracks. I stored them on a flash drive and I would like to play it from the flash drive to my surround sound receiver via USB port. Is this possible? If it is, is there something I have to do to these 4 file before I play them?

Thanks,
Alex

Your reciever has to be 5.1 and accept USB as an input.

And it has to accept 5.1 FLAC audio as input file.

Just plug it in and see if it can play.
If not, you'll have to use a bluray player and use HDMI cable (or toslink or digital coaxial) to connect to receiver.
Or PC to receiver (same as BD player) and use a media player than deliver in 5.1.

Yep! That did the trick.

It seems that the 5.1 FLAC signal from my USB port has to travel through the HDMI cable so that the decoder in my multi-channel receiver could change that signal to surround sound.

I inserted my flash drive into my Oppo Blu Ray/DVD player and it was able to play the flac files and my Onkyo receiver decoded the signals. Just played Goldsmith’s The Omen score in 5.1 sound. Now, I’m ready for John Williams’ E.T. in 5.1 sound.

Thanks so much for responding.

Commercial players like Oppo should be pretty compatible with a lot of the new "modern" multichannel formats.
WAV 5.1, FLAC 5.1, etc.

Also, it's so much handier to deliver it as originally created with HDMI.
Most other methods (even toslink) will usually be limited to just a few formats/channels.

I still have a really old Kenwood from 2001 or something and have to use 6 RCA (red/black) cables to get 5.1 audio.
It's all transferred analogue from PC to receiver, but still delivers booming surround sound.
I just have way more things to configure before doing anything (not only media player on PC, but also the system speaker config on my PC).

Technology that advances is only good when you have such technology. :smrt: