• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Audiopraise VanityPro Review (HDMI Audio Extractor)

Rate this product:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 3.2%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 15 9.6%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 77 49.4%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 59 37.8%

  • Total voters
    156

vivo

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2020
Messages
8
Likes
86
Location
France, Clermont-ferrand
do you know this:

an eARC extractor to send multichannels to the vanity!
I will test it next week to see if it works.
with this, your tv becomes an hdmi source selector !
 

rhollan

Active Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Messages
142
Likes
58
An HDFury Diva can accomplish the same thing before the TV, albeit at greater expense. It also drops HDCP on the audio over HDMI port.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
Just gone to firmware V4, but it worked like this before.
atv remote turns the atv on/off and the TV (it would be great if it could turn the AP on but I've not found a way of it doing this).
Then the atv remote can control the volume of the TVs speakers, which is pointless as they're not in use when you've an AP connected to fancy DACs and speakers.
I kind of expected the TV remote or Atv remote to adjust the AP's digital output volume to the XLR outputs, like with typical receiver, but then I can't see how that would work, typical analogue output processor's/receivers are doing DACing then adjusting analogue output volume to their amps or external amps.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
do you know this:

an eARC extractor to send multichannels to the vanity!
I will test it next week to see if it works.
with this, your tv becomes an hdmi source selector !
I am aware but haven't tried yet. Please share if it works as expected. As you say, this could ultimately resolve the eARC connectivity.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
atv remote turns the atv on/off and the TV (it would be great if it could turn the AP on but I've not found a way of it doing this).
I kind of expected the TV remote or Atv remote to adjust the AP's digital output volume to the XLR outputs, like with typical receiver, but then I can't see how that would work, typical analogue output processor's/receivers are doing DACing then adjusting analogue output volume to their amps or external amps.
Power ON control over CEC is a good idea, added to the to do list. The CEC volume control should work both ways, from TV as well as from atv. In the System menu of the VanityPRO the "ARC Volume" needs to be turned ON for the CEC control to work. This item will probably get renamed to "CEC Volume" in the next version.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
do you know this:

an eARC extractor to send multichannels to the vanity!
I will test it next week to see if it works.
with this, your tv becomes an hdmi source selector !
I think this would only "help" if your TV can decode to 7.1 LPCM and send back over eARC.
I suspect most TVs will want to send bitstreams of DD plus, etc for a receiver or sound bar to decode, so this extractor will only be passing this back.
ARC already works for the AP, in that if I want to listen to my speakers for aerial TV, I can, just in stereo 48Khz. Which is all you'll get from most streaming services from TVs if you can't get them to decode to LPCM.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
Oh hang on....
"At the same time, high-quality audio formats can be played as normal HDMI signals via the AV receiver. The VAX01202 converts the eARC audio signals into a conventional HDMI signal for this purpose"
Perhaps by "conventional" and "normal", they mean multi-channel LPCM, but they're not explicit in their blurb...
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
Power ON control over CEC is a good idea, added to the to do list. The CEC volume control should work both ways, from TV as well as from atv. In the System menu of the VanityPRO the "ARC Volume" needs to be turned ON for the CEC control to work. This item will probably get renamed to "CEC Volume" in the next version.
CEC volume control and menu browsing does work in both ways. Either my sony TV remote or apple TV remote can control the TV speaker's volume and browse the ATV interface. Pretty cool.
Does/can the AP adjust the volume of its digital outputs to DACs?

Bucket list but would be amazing.... Some output of the AP being made to work like the Genelec wired volume controller, so the CEC commands for volume and on/off are sent to the 3.5mm volume controller input of the Genelec GLM unit. Can't see how this would work though, as that's a physical device giving constant feedback as to the set volume level and the other remote controller is RF. Both are proprietary.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
CEC volume control and menu browsing does work in both ways. Either my sony TV remote or apple TV remote can control the TV speaker's volume and browse the ATV interface. Pretty cool.
Does/can the AP adjust the volume of its digital outputs to DACs?
We have just tested this with the atv4k. If you enable ARC Volume in the HDMI setup menu of the VanityPRO it will allow the volume to be controlled from CEC. This way you can use the VanityPRO as a digital preamp with Apple remote :)

Controlling the Genelecs via CEC would be a little more tricky. Not technically of course, it is just the Genelec's communication protocol.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
With that set, my apple remote controls the TV's volume.
I see no indication that it is the digital output volume of the VP that is changing.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
You're right, for the source to adjust the volume via CEC the VanityPRO needs to have the ARC active as well. I didn't realize this while testing it. We will adjust this in the next firmware version so the CEC volume control is ARC independent and then it will work just as a digital preamp.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
That's great! switching the VP off and on and as a digital preamp, would make it an easier set up to use.
It's already the best sounding system I can imagine.

I've tried it in ARC mode and can confirm it does digital volume control for the ARC signal from my Sony TV.

Was a bit baffling at first because the source (my TV) was "set" to a low volume and I couldn't hear anything; had to set it to what (if using the TV speakers) would be a very high volume, to match the VP's normal HDMI input. Exasperated further by my TV's on screen volume level display, looking exactly the same for this, controlling "Audio System" as it does for it's own speakers, so I wasn't at first tempted to up the volume as I figured it was adjusting the TV speakers, not the digital level.
This isn't a fault of the VP. Just sharing to help anyone else who tries.

One other thing, the audio meters continue bounce up and down, even when you've muted with the TV. I suppose this makes sense as it's still receiving a signal, it's just being told not to pass them out.
 

HooStat

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
856
Likes
933
Location
Calabasas, CA
@PavelV -- Just curious as to whether it is technically possible for the VP to do the digital summing of the other, non-sub, channels with the LFE channel. Right now, the other major limitation in its use is that it is very difficult to set up a 5.1 or 7.1 system with bass managment. For Genelec, you have to buy a $1,100 device to do this so that your sub can take care of all of the bass. The Genelec subs only have 1 digital input (but 5 analog ones -- go figure). In fact, doing this would allow someone to use a "regular" sub if they use an outboard DAC for it. I realize this is probably outside what the scope of the AP is though.

On a related note, I wonder if the AP could be enabled to use Dirac? Again, maybe outside the scope of the product but just curious.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
@PavelV -- Just curious as to whether it is technically possible for the VP to do the digital summing of the other, non-sub, channels with the LFE channel. Right now, the other major limitation in its use is that it is very difficult to set up a 5.1 or 7.1 system with bass managment. For Genelec, you have to buy a $1,100 device to do this so that your sub can take care of all of the bass. The Genelec subs only have 1 digital input (but 5 analog ones -- go figure). In fact, doing this would allow someone to use a "regular" sub if they use an outboard DAC for it. I realize this is probably outside what the scope of the AP is though.

On a related note, I wonder if the AP could be enabled to use Dirac? Again, maybe outside the scope of the product but just curious.
Would that mean "if no dedicated sub channel received, send everything you are getting to the sub channel as well" on/off?
That'd mean you wouldn't need the Genelec digital box (or my case I could sell it).
 

HooStat

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
856
Likes
933
Location
Calabasas, CA
Would that mean "if no dedicated sub channel received, send everything you are getting to the sub channel as well" on/off?
That'd mean you wouldn't need the Genelec digital box (or my case I could sell it).
That is similar to what I was thinking. I was thinking of offering an option to redirect bass or the full range signal + LFE for further processing. I don't know for sure, but I assume a digital summing process isn't that complex (which is different from being "easy'). If one had that, then one could run up to 7 Genelec (or other digital input speakers) and send the combined signal plus LFE to a separate box to process for the sub(s). And in that case, one could go with any subs that are desired, including Genelec.

EDIT: I don't know exactly what Genelec needs in terms of bass. Maybe you can run the LFE separate from the summed signal, in which case I think you would just need the non-LFE summed. I am assuming a Genelec sub would be able to handle the low pass filtering.

But to use other subs, then it might be easier to have a single signal. Of course, if you have a summed signal and a separate LFE signal, then you could send those both as L & R to a DAC and route those into the L & R of many subs (which would simply sum them). The sub would have to have the ability to do its own low pass filtering in this case.
 
Last edited:

ThatGuyYouKnow

Active Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2023
Messages
140
Likes
133
Any talk as to whether some company intends to make a device similar to this that decodes Dolby Atmos/DD+ bitstreams and uses Atmos for Headphones? I suggested it to Schiit, though I know they have their hangups about HDMI.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
I've tried it in ARC mode and can confirm it does digital volume control for the ARC signal from my Sony TV.
One other thing, the audio meters continue bounce up and down, even when you've muted with the TV. I suppose this makes sense as it's still receiving a signal, it's just being told not to pass them out.
Yes, the meters will always show the audio signal coming in, so you can always see the signal presence and its level. The volume control is at the end of the signal processing chain. Below is a little demo of the digital preamp functionality - we have added the volume control indicator to the home screen, remapped the range to 0-100 with 100 steps by 0.5dB, so it matches other devices (atv, TV, BD players, etc.) Volume 100 is mapped to 0dBFS so the whole control range is about 50dB.
 

Nattage

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
82
Likes
71
Location
London, UK
looks good, can't wait!
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
@PavelV -- Just curious as to whether it is technically possible for the VP to do the digital summing of the other, non-sub, channels with the LFE channel. Right now, the other major limitation in its use is that it is very difficult to set up a 5.1 or 7.1 system with bass managment. For Genelec, you have to buy a $1,100 device to do this so that your sub can take care of all of the bass. The Genelec subs only have 1 digital input (but 5 analog ones -- go figure). In fact, doing this would allow someone to use a "regular" sub if they use an outboard DAC for it. I realize this is probably outside what the scope of the AP is though.

On a related note, I wonder if the AP could be enabled to use Dirac? Again, maybe outside the scope of the product but just curious.
I think I understand what you mean with the bass routing and management. To be honest I think this would need a little more thinking and analysis of a few use scenarios to make it universal and useful, but technically it should not be difficult (summing two signals digitally is relatively easy indeed). I think it could be a nice addition to the speaker management/downmix feature set. Maybe some basic low pass filtering could be done as well.
Edit: As for the Dirac, I am afraid this is a bit too far outside the feature set we originally planned for this product. I believe some VanityPRO users have added DDRC-88D to the signal chain with good results.
 

PavelV

Member
Audio Company
Joined
Feb 8, 2022
Messages
43
Likes
40
Any talk as to whether some company intends to make a device similar to this that decodes Dolby Atmos/DD+ bitstreams and uses Atmos for Headphones? I suggested it to Schiit, though I know they have their hangups about HDMI.
I am afraid there are no talks about something like this (yet). Decoding of Atmos and other compressed formats is outside of our area of interest, not mentioning the potential limitations in Atmos licensing policy etc. We wanted to make HDMI audio available to audiophiles with some extra multichannel and DSD processing on top, in which we seem to have been achieved, but Atmos, DTS:X and other is a slightly different discipline. But I appreciate that from the user perspective it belongs into the same "box".
 
Top Bottom