Using 5.1 on Linux isn’t something very common in the first place. But using it over the S/PDIF is even less common so finding documentation about how to do it is close to impossible. After hours and hours of struggling, I found a working solution so I decided to write an article about it. What is 5.1? The 5.1 technology allows audio to be sent to the speaker through 6 independant channels: left, right, center, rear left, rear right and the .