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BLUESOUND goes Dirac Live
- Thread starter pogo
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tjf
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Lenbrook has not handled this very well...Looks like the acquisition of MQA has jinxed them -- not a good look!
Looks like the Icon has Dirac but what version and only single subwoofer output. I just picked up a Denon 3800 for $1,300 new in box. For just a streamer I think the Icon should come with a few more features, as it stands its just a lifestyle product and an expensive one at that.
StefanSweden
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Unfortunately a huge let down. I was hoping the news would be that Bluesound goes full Dirac with backward compability to older models. Not sure what this new lineup can offer that others cheaper cant?
From another site....
"The 2024 NODE and NODE Icon will be ready for Dirac Live when they begin shipping in September and November respectively. My contact at Bluesound has confirmed that the Dirac-adjusted signal can be piped out digitally or in the analogue domain. BYO Dirac licence and room measurement microphone. The 2024 NODE will sell for US$529 / €599 and the NODE Icon for US$999 / €1099. The NODE Nano is available from today for US$299 / €349."
"The 2024 NODE and NODE Icon will be ready for Dirac Live when they begin shipping in September and November respectively. My contact at Bluesound has confirmed that the Dirac-adjusted signal can be piped out digitally or in the analogue domain. BYO Dirac licence and room measurement microphone. The 2024 NODE will sell for US$529 / €599 and the NODE Icon for US$999 / €1099. The NODE Nano is available from today for US$299 / €349."
tjf
Active Member
So now that all the press releases have escaped into the wild, here's a nugget from July about the new MQA tech that Lenbrook is trying to sell to potential licensees -- and one specific version of the Bob Stuart digital processing "time smear elimination" tech from MQA will appear in the Node Icon as part of the ESS DAC filter processing - "QRONO" - here's the july article from Audioholics --
www.audioholics.com
MQA Labs' QRONO d2a technology
Lenbrook Media Group (LMG) has just announced the formation of MQA Labs, a new subsidiary in charge of developing MQA technologies. At the same time, Lenbrook has introduced three of these technologies, which together “bring audio processing enhancements across the music supply chain,” according to Lenbrook. Though details are slim at the time of writing, we know that SCL6 has been rebranded as “AIRIA by MQA Labs,” and is still positioned to deliver high resolution audio while seamlessly scaling from full lossless to very lossy rates, depending on the delivery pipeline being used. (Though often discussed as a Bluetooth codec, SCL6 can also work over WiFi, a cellular connection, or really any method of digital signal transmission.) So AIRIA is the first of three technologies introduced by MQA Labs. What are the others? Next comes FOQUS by MQA Labs, which “represents an innovative approach for analogue to digital conversion,” according to Lenbrook. Finally, QRONO by MQA Labs “brings a variety of audio processing enhancements within playback devices.”
These developments confirm our instincts around this team and the value of the IP. While the choice and accessibility of MQA content remains a priority for us, this was never about a single codec.
— Gordon Simmonds, CEO of The Lenbrook Group
Lenbrook is continuing MQA’s hardware licensing business, and these new technologies are reportedly expected to debut in a variety of licensee products before the end of next year. According to Lenbrook, the creation of MQA Labs and its newest product families “reflect (the company’s) passion to improve the whole audio chain and bring the highest quality recording, distribution, and playback technologies to benefit the entire specialty audio industry and its fans.” FOQUS, which involves the analog-to-digital conversion process, reportedly tackles the same “time smear” distortion that MQA creator Bob Stuart described when introducing the technology some 9 years ago. For the unfamiliar, here is how MQA Labs defines time smear:
Time smear is a form of distortion that is the result of representing sound waves as 1s and 0s – think of it as translation from one language to another. Inaccurate translations can sound awkward to a native speaker just as digital audio can sound unnatural if the conversion contains inaccuracies. Time smear is a particular inaccuracy in which sound impulses are not fully aligned, meaning that if you analyze wave graphs from digital audio there is often noise surrounding sound impulses, indicating for example, that sound is being produced even before a sound actually happens in the music. Contrast this with the natural world, where a cymbal clap happens when it happens and does not start a few microseconds before. Therefore, time smear results in unnatural-sounding audio, which often manifests in muddiness or a lack of clarity in the sound.
— MQA Labs
QRONO will apparently address time smear when converting digital back to analog, though we don’t know much more about how this will be achieved, nor what sets these technologies apart from MQA as we know it. But lest MQA-haters assume that FOQUS and QRONO are just MQA with new names, Lenbrook assures us that these new technologies are “independent of the original MQA codec, meaning that they neither require nor result in MQA encoded files.” Whether these new technologies can win over the throngs of anti-MQA audiophiles remains to be seen. There are, of course, other audiophiles who liked MQA, most of whom got their fix via Tidal. And although Tidal has made the jump to FLAC, Lenbrook says that the original MQA codec will continue as a product family within the MQA Labs portfolio.
The most highly anticipated of LMG’s future products is certainly AIRIA, formerly knowns as SCL6. The codec was reportedly developed to “transform audio across wireless connections” via an ability to ensure the best resolution possible regardless of bandwidth availability, making seamless adjustments without playback interruptions. Lenbrook says that the company has recently completed successful pilot runs using SCL6 as a distribution codec, and that it is destined for (as yet unnamed) music streaming services. LMG says that AIRIA “shines” as a high-resolution transmission codec “with dramatic operational savings and reliability.”
Lenbrook Introduces MQA Labs With 3 New Audio Technologies
What happened to MQA since Lenbrook, the parent company to PSB, NAD, and Bluesound, purchased the company last autumn. The new MQA Labs unveiled three new technologies: AIRIA, FOQUS, and QRONO.
www.audioholics.com
MQA Labs' QRONO d2a technology
Lenbrook Media Group (LMG) has just announced the formation of MQA Labs, a new subsidiary in charge of developing MQA technologies. At the same time, Lenbrook has introduced three of these technologies, which together “bring audio processing enhancements across the music supply chain,” according to Lenbrook. Though details are slim at the time of writing, we know that SCL6 has been rebranded as “AIRIA by MQA Labs,” and is still positioned to deliver high resolution audio while seamlessly scaling from full lossless to very lossy rates, depending on the delivery pipeline being used. (Though often discussed as a Bluetooth codec, SCL6 can also work over WiFi, a cellular connection, or really any method of digital signal transmission.) So AIRIA is the first of three technologies introduced by MQA Labs. What are the others? Next comes FOQUS by MQA Labs, which “represents an innovative approach for analogue to digital conversion,” according to Lenbrook. Finally, QRONO by MQA Labs “brings a variety of audio processing enhancements within playback devices.”
These developments confirm our instincts around this team and the value of the IP. While the choice and accessibility of MQA content remains a priority for us, this was never about a single codec.
— Gordon Simmonds, CEO of The Lenbrook Group
Lenbrook is continuing MQA’s hardware licensing business, and these new technologies are reportedly expected to debut in a variety of licensee products before the end of next year. According to Lenbrook, the creation of MQA Labs and its newest product families “reflect (the company’s) passion to improve the whole audio chain and bring the highest quality recording, distribution, and playback technologies to benefit the entire specialty audio industry and its fans.” FOQUS, which involves the analog-to-digital conversion process, reportedly tackles the same “time smear” distortion that MQA creator Bob Stuart described when introducing the technology some 9 years ago. For the unfamiliar, here is how MQA Labs defines time smear:
Time smear is a form of distortion that is the result of representing sound waves as 1s and 0s – think of it as translation from one language to another. Inaccurate translations can sound awkward to a native speaker just as digital audio can sound unnatural if the conversion contains inaccuracies. Time smear is a particular inaccuracy in which sound impulses are not fully aligned, meaning that if you analyze wave graphs from digital audio there is often noise surrounding sound impulses, indicating for example, that sound is being produced even before a sound actually happens in the music. Contrast this with the natural world, where a cymbal clap happens when it happens and does not start a few microseconds before. Therefore, time smear results in unnatural-sounding audio, which often manifests in muddiness or a lack of clarity in the sound.
— MQA Labs
QRONO will apparently address time smear when converting digital back to analog, though we don’t know much more about how this will be achieved, nor what sets these technologies apart from MQA as we know it. But lest MQA-haters assume that FOQUS and QRONO are just MQA with new names, Lenbrook assures us that these new technologies are “independent of the original MQA codec, meaning that they neither require nor result in MQA encoded files.” Whether these new technologies can win over the throngs of anti-MQA audiophiles remains to be seen. There are, of course, other audiophiles who liked MQA, most of whom got their fix via Tidal. And although Tidal has made the jump to FLAC, Lenbrook says that the original MQA codec will continue as a product family within the MQA Labs portfolio.
The most highly anticipated of LMG’s future products is certainly AIRIA, formerly knowns as SCL6. The codec was reportedly developed to “transform audio across wireless connections” via an ability to ensure the best resolution possible regardless of bandwidth availability, making seamless adjustments without playback interruptions. Lenbrook says that the company has recently completed successful pilot runs using SCL6 as a distribution codec, and that it is destined for (as yet unnamed) music streaming services. LMG says that AIRIA “shines” as a high-resolution transmission codec “with dramatic operational savings and reliability.”
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billou5767
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OP
pogo
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A comparison between the BluOS/Dirac Live devices NODE ICON and NAD M66 would be interesting. For many users, the ICON should be sufficient, which can also be expanded with up to four remote Bluesound HUBs.
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tjf
Active Member
yeah, the THX AAA circuit headphone amp - correct -- but with the 6.5mm port on the side of the device???
and by your "software have years too" comment -- are you implying a concern about Eversolo's Android OS longevity?
and for that matter Fiio's R7/R9 devices will have the same Android OS stability concerns as we go into the 3rd and 4th years of their operation...
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billou5767
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bluesound have 10 years , sold a lot of product ..
wiii is not here
the magic brand , the magic produc in hifi less expensive have decade ; the is very few alive ...
wiii is not here
the magic brand , the magic produc in hifi less expensive have decade ; the is very few alive ...
OP
pogo
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The new NODE also has the DL option. A 4.2 setup is currently possible under BluOS and physical connections to just one device are not necessary. With the new BluOS version 4.0 and higher, larger surround setups should also be possible in the future.
kyuu
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I would guess full bandwidth will be available, but there's nothing that specifically says one or the other that I can see.
Barring any kind of special pricing arrangement, the price for Dirac licensing is pretty much always the same: $259 for limited, $349 for full.
OP
pogo
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Since Lenbrook owns Bluesound and NAD I think it would be awesome to see an M10x built similarly but with dual sub outs and DLBC pre loaded. Then make a matching pair of monoblock 1/2 size 200/400 watt amps. Maybe throw in a phono pre and balanced inputs as well. I bet that would sell.
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