[CALUG] Linux Sound System

[Alan Bromborsky]

I am trying to locate people with expertise in alsa or alternative sound 
sytems for linux.  My objective is to build a surround sound processor + 
digital electronic crossover using a linux computer and a high quality 
sound card(s).   Currently I am running ubuntu studio 14.04 on my home 
entertainment computer.  I have a asus Xonar 7.1 sound card with optical 
input and output.

All the sound sources are internal to the computer (files, cd's, dvd's, 
blu ray's) and can be played with vlc (cd, dvd, blu ray) or xbmc 
(files).  My one main problem is that I have a Tivo box with a optical 
Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) output that I wish to play via my computer.

I know the optical input works since I can play stereo wav streams from 
my CD player and play them on the computer.  How do I decode the AC3 
stream and pass it to my sound card?

I hope others in this group are interested in high quality surround 
sound systems using Linux computers for the sound processing (decoding, 
equalization, crossovers).