Need a speaker selector that handles 2 inputs and 32 outputs

[KoolAidKid]

I am in the process of setting up a speaker array for research purposes. I have 32 speakers in the array. The array will be attached to a computer's sound card. Ideally, I would like a switch that takes up to 2 line-level inputs and outputs speaker-level signals to 1 or 2 of the speakers in the array. The switch must be controllable by computer.

After doing some searching around I can find switches that can handle up to 20 speakers, but the switching is done manually so these will not work for my application.

I could install 4 8-channel sound cards in the computer and attach the outputs to 4 8-channel amps. This would require controlling the output channels in software, which is less than ideal. I may have to settle for this solution, though.

Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[herm0016]

get a pic and a bunch of relays.

the 4 sound cards are probably your best bet, but im not sure how you would control the outputs.

what the heck are you doing?

 

[KoolAidKid]

Originally posted by: herm0016
get a pic and a bunch of relays.

the 4 sound cards are probably your best bet, but im not sure how you would control the outputs.

what the heck are you doing?

I don't have any experience with pics and relays, but I will look into it.

I am setting up a lab to study sound localization, so I need a big speaker array to play a single sound from one of 32 different locations.

 

[biggestmuff]

What's your budget? There are a few prosumer solutions that use firewire. If you're adamant on using PCI cards in a pc, then M-Audio has the Delta 1010LT that might work well, but you'd need 4 of them and then have to worry about amplifying their outputs.

 

[KoolAidKid]

Under $5k would be nice. I have no problem using a firewire solution, I just haven't been able to find one. I've looked at m-audio's web site as well as presonus, neither seems to have anything preferable to the 4-sound-card solution.