Surround sound over network with Windows 8

I’ve got a notebook with some fancy HD Audio sound card (stereo!), and a single output jack — not a sane way to get surround sound (sure, cool kids use HDMI these days). Even worse, connecting an external amplifier to the jack results in catching a lot of electrical interference. Since I also have a PC which has surround speakers connected, I figured it would be a good idea to stream the audio over the network.

On non-Windows, the streaming would be trivial to setup. Likely PulseAudio on both machines, few setup bits and done. If you are looking for a guide on how to do such a thing in Windows, you’re likely end up setting up an icecast server listening to the stereo mix. Bad twice. Firstly, stereo-only. Secondly, poor latency. Now imagine playing a game or watching a movie with sound noticeably delayed after picture (well, in the movie player you could at least play with A/V delay to work-around that). But there must be another way…

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