Audiocontrol Hyperion Processor

[da Choge]

"If the Hyperion is receiving a Multi-Channel
signal from eARC, HDMI, or Digital inputs, it will transmit a downmixed stereo signal over
Dante."

That is concerning. I'm a newcomer to this AoIP thing (except for Roon RAAT, I guess), but I thought multichannel is what it is mainly all about.

 

[darth]

There are several decoders that output 12, 14 or 16 channels over Dante. That's Atmos, and I guess it works?

That's after decoding to discrete channels. But the source will always be HDMI. In other words you cannot send Atmos over USB from a HTPC. HTPC needs to send the signal over HDMI to the decoder which can then break it out to individual channels for playback. Can't speak for pro gear, maybe it's fine there.

EDIT: though I guess apple macs can decode it natively and send discrete channels, though not sure if they can be sent over Dante or USB. Probably worth a try.

EDIT2: Remember seeing some posts like this https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater/s/dQ8cbS1j6R where people still were forced to use HDMI to receiver to get height channels. Unsure how well it works. For PC it needs to use Nvidia HDMI audio for sure as Dolby access app doesn't give any other option.

 

[W2APS]

I've requested clarification on the Dante output channels/quantity.

 

[Highfidelity]

IMO the use case for DPR is avoiding a conversion loop. If your speakers are active or DSP assisted, it's theoretically nice to not have that spurious A/D conversion. For example, you could take a stack of Powersoft, Crown, etc. amps with Dante input (or in the case of Crown, even older ones with Blu-Link digital bus, using BSS BLU-DA to convert between Dante and Blu-Link) and avoid the A/D conversion into the DSP.

If you don't have DSP between your AVP and your speakers, IMO a digital-only AVP is dumb and a waste of money.

If you’re not improving the quality of the DAC’s in the chain better off buying the APR. Also making the DAC’s external allow you to insert PC DSP between the DPR and DAC. In my case I make my own 4 channel Dante input DAC/Amps with ES9039 DAC’s and Purifi 1ET6525SA amp section. And drive 4 way active speakers direct with them. So my suggestion was just for folks who don’t have amps like this at their disposal, and don’t want to use pro sound junk with SINAD in the mid 60’s-70’s and IMD in the mid 50’s.

 

[W2APS]

I've got 3 likely use cases for the DPR-16 when it's available.
2 demo cinemas, 1 using AudioControl Director M6800D and Origin Pro (Pascal based) amplification via Dante.
Cinema 2 using Theory Audio/Pro Audio Technology DLC amplification (also Pascal based) via Dante.
My own living room cinema system at home. I have a mix of bits (because who doesn't!). Lab Gruppen IPD-2400 for my subs which will connect via AES/EBU, Powersoft Mezzo 604AD Dante, Pascal/Blaze 504D Dante. I also have an older Linn Kivor Oktal 16x AES/EBU DAC which I can use for my other Rotel and Arcam full analogue amplifiers as required.

Professionally I expect most of our UK dealers to be installing them into large multi room system racks, being fed from Dante, HDMI matrix and eARC sources and then supplying a mix of Dante equipped speakers and power amps from a whole range of manufacturers. Almost certainly with a lot of architectural type speakers (in wall/ceiling/invisbles).

 

[Highfidelity]

I've got 3 likely use cases for the DPR-16 when it's available.
2 demo cinemas, 1 using AudioControl Director M6800D and Origin Pro (Pascal based) amplification via Dante.
Cinema 2 using Theory Audio/Pro Audio Technology DLC amplification (also Pascal based) via Dante.
My own living room cinema system at home. I have a mix of bits (because who doesn't!). Lab Gruppen IPD-2400 for my subs which will connect via AES/EBU, Powersoft Mezzo 604AD Dante, Pascal/Blaze 504D Dante. I also have an older Linn Kivor Oktal 16x AES/EBU DAC which I can use for my other Rotel and Arcam full analogue amplifiers as required.

Professionally I expect most of our UK dealers to be installing them into large multi room system racks, being fed from Dante, HDMI matrix and eARC sources and then supplying a mix of Dante equipped speakers and power amps from a whole range of manufacturers. Almost certainly with a lot of architectural type speakers (in wall/ceiling/invisbles).

Just look at the full lineup of Audiocontrol Dante input multichannel amps to see the true intended use case of the DPR. What makes it better yet is the end user can decide the performance of the DAC’s/amps they want to use in their setup. And they’ll receive a bitperfect 24/48 signal. Unfortunately the selection of no-compromise options for Dante input DAC/amps are non-existent now (Dante in to speaker binding post SINAD out north of 110dB). Which is why I made my own. But that may change.

 

[W2APS]

I fully expect AudioControl to add a 1U 8 channel Dante input amp using the GaN modules that are in the Bijou and RCV-11 units. I'd be very surprised those GaN modules don't appear in refreshed versions of all their products given time also.

 

[welwynnick]

And they’ll receive a bit perfect 24/48 signal.

Not if they're using Dante they won't. Dante re-clocks everything so the digital audio has to be re-sampled. But you know that. Whether it makes an audible difference is another question entirely, but it won't be bit-perfect. What Dante avoids is DAAD conversion loops, which are certainly worth avoiding.

 

[Highfidelity]

Not if they're using Dante they won't. Dante re-clocks everything so the digital audio has to be re-sampled. But you know that. Whether it makes an audible difference is another question entirely, but it won't be bit-perfect. What Dante avoids is DAAD conversion loops, which are certainly worth avoiding.

I mean the signal is bit-perfect from the Dante out to the downchain dacs. Regardless if the signal is sent out of the AVP via Dante or direct to internal dacs in the AVP there’s the same amount of SRC stages. All AVP’s other than the Trinnov run the DSP at 24/48 internally and the SRC happens prior to the DSP. With the APR and DPR the exact same clock either clocks the internal DAC chips, or the internal hardware Dante board. The only difference using Dante is you get to move the DAC external closer to the speakers, and loop the digital audio through PC based DSP. Clocking and SRC is the same on the processor side regardless.

For anyone who wants a rock solid black box style Dante in/out server that can run VST3 plugins for room correction, active crossovers etc a solid option has been launched. They have a higher channel count 64 channel version released a couple years ago but costs $10000. No pricing on this yet but I’m guessing $2000-3000. And will run the best room correction, PEQ or whatever possible and be dead reliable without dealing with Windows or OSX BS:

Fourier Audio - transform.go

transform.go brings studio-grade audio software plugins to engineers around the world in a compact robust engine.

fourieraudio.com

The 16 channels pair perfect with the DPR if one wanted to add virtually unlimited DSP horsepower to the DPR. Crunching DSP processing capability numbers adding this box to a DPR based chain would allow approximately 6-7x the DSP power compared to the dual 21569’s in the DPR.

 

[pablitho]

For anyone who wants a rock solid black box style Dante in/out server that can run VST3 plugins for room correction, active crossovers etc a solid option has been launched. They have a higher channel count 64 channel version released a couple years ago but costs $10000. No pricing on this yet but I’m guessing $2000-3000. And will run the best room correction, PEQ or whatever possible and be dead reliable without dealing with Windows or OSX BS:

Fourier Audio - transform.go

transform.go brings studio-grade audio software plugins to engineers around the world in a compact robust engine.

fourieraudio.com

So why not build an HTPC with a DANTE soundcard?

 

[Highfidelity]

So why not build an HTPC with a DANTE soundcard?

You can but then you need to deal with Windows updates screwing things up, messing around if there’s a power outage. And other things many people don’t want to deal with. And all Linux based VST3 based hosting setups currently available such as Carla are glitchy and difficult to setup. This unit works like a black box once setup. Load on your configured VST3 curves and done. Never touch again unless you move the room around or change components. And if you want to access the plugins to tweak your configuration, use your iPad.

 

[Littletycoon]

So why not build an HTPC with a DANTE soundcard?

decoding of lossless movie formats (e.g. true hd) and above the pcm channel limit is not possible/not possible real time (yet).

 

[PGAMiami]

And then there is also this from Mitch Barnett that could be out sometime this year. Includes a mic preamp for accurate room measurements and even hdmi inputs, but for now no Dolby processing.

Hang Loose Processor - Accurate Sound

Hang Loose Processor State-of-the-Art Digital Signal Processing A new type of high-resolution audio DSP hardware Stereo version shown HLP Stereo (2 Channel) HLP Multichannel (8 Channel) HLP Multichannel (16 Channel) HLP Multichannel (24 Channel) HLP Multichannel (32 Channel)...

accuratesound.ca

 

[welwynnick]

decoding of lossless movie formats (e.g. true hd) and above the pcm channel limit is not possible/not possible real time (yet).

Keep an eye on what Cavernize is doing.
Currently it can decode Atmos with file conversion, but a real time version is in the pipeline.

Cavernize

Free room correction suite and Dolby Atmos decoder for PC. Improve the sound quality of your home theater and enhance your listening experience.

cavern.sbence.hu

Cavernize - Another Option For Extracting Lossless TrueHD Dolby Atmos Files

Audio: Listen to this article. I can only speak for myself on this topic, but I know a lot of people who think the same. I really wish Dolby licensed its decoding technology in software products for consumer playback. More specifically, I’d pay whatever it costs for a VST3 TrueHD Dolby Atmos deco...

audiophilestyle.com

Atmos finally decoded in PC/Mac

Since other Korean users were getting interested in your software’s VB-Cable–based Atmos playback, I decided to give it a quick try too. If I used Atmos more often, I could have tested more things, but I don’t, so the info I provided is just from my own playback attempts—and as I mentioned...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Littletycoon]

Keep an eye on what Cavernize is doing.
Currently it can decode Atmos with file conversion, but a real time version is in the pipeline.

Cavernize

Free room correction suite and Dolby Atmos decoder for PC. Improve the sound quality of your home theater and enhance your listening experience.

cavern.sbence.hu

Cavernize - Another Option For Extracting Lossless TrueHD Dolby Atmos Files

Audio: Listen to this article. I can only speak for myself on this topic, but I know a lot of people who think the same. I really wish Dolby licensed its decoding technology in software products for consumer playback. More specifically, I’d pay whatever it costs for a VST3 TrueHD Dolby Atmos deco...

audiophilestyle.com

Atmos finally decoded in PC/Mac

Since other Korean users were getting interested in your software’s VB-Cable–based Atmos playback, I decided to give it a quick try too. If I used Atmos more often, I could have tested more things, but I don’t, so the info I provided is just from my own playback attempts—and as I mentioned...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It's in the pipeline well over a year, i suspect it will remain in the pipeline for a while (unfortunately) as it needs integration with a software based player to become practically useful. But if that happens it would be killer!

 

[Highfidelity]

And then there is also this from Mitch Barnett that could be out sometime this year. Includes a mic preamp for accurate room measurements and even hdmi inputs, but for now no Dolby processing.

Hang Loose Processor - Accurate Sound

Hang Loose Processor State-of-the-Art Digital Signal Processing A new type of high-resolution audio DSP hardware Stereo version shown HLP Stereo (2 Channel) HLP Multichannel (8 Channel) HLP Multichannel (16 Channel) HLP Multichannel (24 Channel) HLP Multichannel (32 Channel)...

accuratesound.ca

You could run his convolver right in the Transform engine. It’s just a VST3 plugin.

 

[Highfidelity]

decoding of lossless movie formats (e.g. true hd) and above the pcm channel limit is not possible/not possible real time (yet).

He’s referring to room correction not Atmos decoding.

 

[Littletycoon]

He’s referring to room correction not Atmos decoding.

a HTPC in my definition still stands for Home Theater Personal Computer, the home theater part of HTPC involves movies, this makes decoding the important part of the question.

 

[Highfidelity]

a HTPC in my definition still stands for Home Theater Personal Computer, the home theater part of HTPC involves movies, this makes decoding the important part of the question.

But we were talking about using it as a DSP server for room correction together with the DPR-16. If you have a DPR-16 in the system you don’t need to decode Atmos on the HTPC.

 

[Oddball]

I just checked the manual. APR-16 seems to have pretty limited features vs. what the Monoprice HTP-1 offers.

Well, many AVPs can look upon HTP-1 nowadays. It's a 16ch Storm for quarter of the price. I placed my bet on AV10 due to higher channel count, but if not for that consideration, HTP-1 clearly is the winner. Most people probably don't get BEQ support as that is a HT not audiophile thingy, but that is rare and just additional bonus that HTP-1 has over most of the AVPs.