Audiocontrol Hyperion Processor

[darth]

From cedia

Will ship with ART activated.
Status: "Aquiring component to do mass production"
$8000 for processor
$9000 for receiver

Dpr 7k??

 

[W2APS]

DPR-16 $4K

 

[welwynnick]

The DPR-16 is the same digital hardware as the APR-16 has inside. 4 x HDMI input, 1 x HDMI eARC, + coaxial, optical & Dante inputs.

Are you sure about that? The APR-16 has seven HDMI inputs, which suggests that it has different digital hardware.

 

[W2APS]

Are you sure about that? The APR-16 has seven HDMI inputs, which suggests that it has different digital hardware.

Yes. It has the same digital processing capabilities inside it.
The i/o boards are all AVPro designed in house and will be using the same architecture and chips etc with the quantities of the driver chips being dictated by the i/o on each model in the range. There're no 3rd party HDMI boards as used elsewhere.
I imagine the 4 HDMI input choice is dictated by the smaller back panel space.

 

[welwynnick]

The i/o boards are all AVPro designed in house and will be using the same architecture and chips etc with the quantities of the driver chips being dictated by the i/o on each model in the range. There're no 3rd party HDMI boards as used elsewhere.

Is that what someone from AVPro told you?
Are you a member of AVForums by any chance?

 

[W2APS]

Yes and yes (since day 0).
I work for a UK distributor for AudioControl and speak to them on a daily basis when I'm in the office.

 

[welwynnick]

Now I'm going to have to guess who you are

 

[W2APS]

You did prompt me to actual check I had updated my bio on here and I hadn't so have done now. (So many forums to keep up on!)
I have a feeling we've probably met in the past at various things organised a long time ago! ReTrO on there.

Apologies to everyone else for these off topic posts. It's a really exciting product range to have access to and I very much can't wait to get my hands on them all. So I'm doing my best to get any information I have/allowed to those interested.

 

[danstahl]

So for the pure digital processor...would something like https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1738071-REG/sonifex_avn_ao16_16_output_dante_interface.html work for converting the Dante to analog?

 

[W2APS]

Yes it would.

For the AES/EBU output I've got an old Linn Kivor Oktal to try! (which will be interesting). Also a Lab Gruppen IPD2400 (less interesting but will definitely work).

 

[welwynnick]

So for the pure digital processor...would something like https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1738071-REG/sonifex_avn_ao16_16_output_dante_interface.html work for converting the Dante to analog?

Yes, maybe, but that might be throwing away one of the great advantages of a digital processor - the ability to use good off-board D to A conversion.
The Sonifex might be great, but we don't know.
Better to use one of these, which do have good sonic provenance:

 

[danstahl]

Yes, maybe, but that might be throwing away one of the great advantages of a digital processor - the ability to use good off-board D to A conversion.
The Sonifex might be great, but we don't know.
Better to use one of these, which do have good sonic provenance:

View attachment 479245

Yes, the stated specs on the Sonifex are quite a bit worse than that list. But PoE is a big plus from a simplicity standpoint!

 

[welwynnick]

I've nothing against Sonifex, I think they're a great company (I have an AVN AES IO 8R) but I don't think DA conversion is their core competency.
Don't forget the Sonifex is worse than the APR-16 according to the specs, and that would be a convenient solution instead.
I doubt that POE will be any great advantage when you will need power for a power amp or active speaker anyway.

 

[danstahl]

I've nothing against Sonifex, I think they're a great company (I have an AVN AES IO 8R) but I don't think DA conversion is their core competency.
Don't forget the Sonifex is worse than the APR-16 according to the specs, and that would be a convenient solution instead.
I doubt that POE will be any great advantage when you will need power for a power amp or active speaker anyway.

Yes, but then I couldn't decouple my computer equipment from my AV equipment. With Dante I could put the processor anywhere in the house (likely my networking/computer rack), and only have the (1 mu!) DAC in my AV rack.

 

[W2APS]

Yes, the stated specs on the Sonifex are quite a bit worse than that list. But PoE is a big plus from a simplicity standpoint!

I'm assuming you've got a full set of existing power amps already hence the conversion required.

Long term if you change the amps they'll almost certainly have Dante onboard. The last 4 series I've had launch have all had it as an option at the very least (Origin Pro - Pascal based, Theory Audio DLC & PLC - Pascal & Powersoft based) and AudioControls Hyperion revisions of their cinema amps.

 

[W2APS]

Yes, but then I couldn't decouple my computer equipment from my AV equipment. With Dante I could put the processor anywhere in the house (likely my networking/computer rack), and only have the (1 mu!) DAC in my AV rack.

That is very true. I'm expecting to see most of the DPR-16 being installed in larger multiroom install racks away from the actual rooms they're processing for and the associated amps/active speakers.

 

[dlaloum]

Everything I heard about Dante over the last 10 years has led me to keep away from it.... constant reports of finicky setups and gear from different manufacturers refusing to play nice with other manufacturers etc....
Although it was supposed to be another industry standard, it didn't seem to work as a cohesive standard to encourange interoperability - and whenever I saw a dante setup that worked it was single manufacturer.

Have things changed? can you truly mix & match dante kit nowadays?

 

[W2APS]

I've only had the opportunity to use it in the multi-room sector so far with AudioControl and Origin/Theory amps (Pascal based) and no issues so far.
My friends in the pro/live side of the industry used for years and now have it in most systems and haven't complained (albeit I've not specifically asked them about interoperability issues).

 

[welwynnick]

There are lots of different AOIP schemes, and all have their foibles.
I think Dante is closest to being plug and play, but it's still nothing like AES3 for example. There's still work for the integrator to do.
For those that want to know about Dante, this video by hollywoodzuhause about the Trinnov Altitude CI is worth watching.
The Trinnov rep insists that analogue outputs are still the best, and Dante is there for convenience rather than quality. Go to 02:30.
A Dante network operates at the audio sample rate set by the Dante controller, so if the source runs at a different rate, it will have to be sample rate converted.
That much I already knew, but what's added here is that Dante ALWAYS performs SRC, suggesting that Dante is at the top of the audio clock hierarchy.
In conventional digital audio replay systems, the source is top of the hierarchy, and everything else follows that.
Not so with Dante it seems - the source has one clock, and Dante has another clock, and they're not synchronised.
The two digital domains have to be connected with an SRC, and some of them are good and some of them are bad.
Dante is digital, but to the best of my knowledge, it's definitely not bit-perfect to the source, and the conversion can cause degradation.

 

[darth]

There are lots of different AOIP schemes, and all have their foibles.
I think Dante is closest to being plug and play, but it's still nothing like AES3 for example. There's still work for the integrator to do.
For those that want to know about Dante, this video by hollywoodzuhause about the Trinnov Altitude CI is worth watching.
The Trinnov rep insists that analogue outputs are still the best, and Dante is there for convenience rather than quality. Go to 02:30.
A Dante network operates at the audio sample rate set by the Dante controller, so if the source runs at a different rate, it will have to be sample rate converted.
That much I already knew, but what's added here is that Dante ALWAYS performs SRC, suggesting that Dante is at the top of the audio clock hierarchy.
In conventional digital audio replay systems, the source is top of the hierarchy, and everything else follows that.
Not so with Dante it seems - the source has one clock, and Dante has another clock, and they're not synchronised.
The two digital domains have to be connected with an SRC, and some of them are good and some of them are bad.
Dante is digital, but to the best of my knowledge, it's definitely not bit-perfect to the source, and the conversion can cause degradation.

I am guessing the AES3 outputs will be the closest to source, more than the analog. They didn't talk much about those in the video.