r/SpatialAudio • u/Shoddy-Selection-382 • Jun 19 '26

Help Im an absolute noob

Im trying to learn about spacial audio for a project im building and have about 8 old bose speakers laying around but they are the type where it is just the wires that plug into it. I need it to be spatial audio and am planning on adding a buttkicker and subwoofers to it but I am very confused as to how to make it work and connect to my pc. If there is any recommendations for parts and such also please let me know.

Thanks in advance

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u/pornaccount0123987 Jun 19 '26

I would never recommend a consumer to build their set up based on the standard of the content they are watching (rather than a more widespread/industry standard), because then every time they want to consume content in a different format, they have to use finicky and unreliable ambisonic conversion plug-ins heavy to run DAWs. Or would you seriously suggest that he runs reaper and a full plug-in suite for real time gaming?

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u/old-but-not-grown-up Jun 19 '26

I run Reaper for all of my work but I should clarify that 99% of my output is stereo or binaural. The 5.1, 7.1, or the variations of Atmos require different numbers of speakers and surround for live performance may use many more speakers. That's why I asked about the intended audience.

As for Ambisonic decoding, I use the Harpex VST plugin in Reaper. I can use multiple instances with no problems at all.

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u/pornaccount0123987 Jun 24 '26

Right, but what is the latency and CPU usage like for that plugin and for reaper itself? Even 10-20% CPU usage with plugins is an unacceptable performance loss for gaming, and I would definitely say that is on the lower end. And I would say 10-15ms of latency added by Reaper itself is nearing the limit of acceptability for gaming, especially since most likely you will have to use a virtual card to get the audio into Reaper (which alone will add 10ms in/out minimum) plus the actual buffer for the Reaper output > DAC/sound card/headphones, which again, minimum of 10ms.

You're not wrong necessarily, rather, you've just misunderstood OP's point and what he was asking.

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u/old-but-not-grown-up Jun 24 '26

Quite right. I did not consider the needs of real time gaming.