I'm currently designing a new home cinema/hifi system for my living room.
On one end: an LG OLED TV with an HDMI eARC port. (I'm hoping the TV can always output LPCM to avoid format compatibility issues down the chain, not sure how well that assumption holds…)
On the other end: a set of what will likely be Genelec SAM monitors, possibly 8341. 5.1 multichannel setup.
Interconnecting consumer AV equipment and active monitors has always been a bit of a nightmare, especially in multichannel. Nevertheless, I can't believe that it's 2025 and there is still no clear, cheap, straightforward, hassle-free to connect these two things.
Genelec SAM monitors have AES/EBU digital inputs, so it's at least theoretically possible to keep the signal digital all the way to the speaker itself. I say "theoretically", because converting HDMI to 5.1 multichannel AES/EBU signal pairs seems much, much harder than it should be. Almost all products output a single S/PDIF stream which is not good enough as S/PDIF can't carry LPCM 5.1.
I am taking suggestions. This is what my research turned up so far:
One thing to keep in mind is I absolutely need this to work with ARC. There is no way I'm inserting a device in the middle of the chain - these tend to cause all kinds of issues with HDMI handshaking, future-proofing given increasing HDMI bandwidths/capabilities, etc. my friends have been bitten too many times for me to even consider this. Not to mention this won't work when the TV itself is playing content. There is this weird product that can apparently make any HDMI input ARC-compatible, but I'd prefer to avoid such schenanigans if I can avoid it.
If no-one has any better ideas I'll probably just give up, slap a MiniDSP Flex HTx on it, accept the pointless additional A/D-D/A conversion that this would involve, and have fun troubleshooting ground loops and other EMI noise issues. Sigh. (By the way, is there a cheaper product that also does HDMI to balanced analog out?)
On one end: an LG OLED TV with an HDMI eARC port. (I'm hoping the TV can always output LPCM to avoid format compatibility issues down the chain, not sure how well that assumption holds…)
On the other end: a set of what will likely be Genelec SAM monitors, possibly 8341. 5.1 multichannel setup.
Interconnecting consumer AV equipment and active monitors has always been a bit of a nightmare, especially in multichannel. Nevertheless, I can't believe that it's 2025 and there is still no clear, cheap, straightforward, hassle-free to connect these two things.
Genelec SAM monitors have AES/EBU digital inputs, so it's at least theoretically possible to keep the signal digital all the way to the speaker itself. I say "theoretically", because converting HDMI to 5.1 multichannel AES/EBU signal pairs seems much, much harder than it should be. Almost all products output a single S/PDIF stream which is not good enough as S/PDIF can't carry LPCM 5.1.
I am taking suggestions. This is what my research turned up so far:
- Audiopraise VanityPro: ticks all the boxes, but expensive - especially given it's just a basic converter, nothing else - and hard to source (looks like I would have to import it to the UK). Unclear how well it works day to day in practice.
- Some incredibly obscure chinese "HDMI to 4AES" device. Only available on AliExpress, docs are in chinese, unclear if it works with ARC, need to build your own cable to go from the DB25 pinout to XLR, sounds fun! (Not really)
- Trinnov Altitude 32, Storm Audio ISP Evo: the price tag on these things is utterly bonkers (£15k+). It would cost more than all the speakers combined!
- I've seen some people describe some unclear arrangement involving Meridian hardware, something to do with their SpeakerLink format, but couldn't quite figure out exactly what they were doing.
One thing to keep in mind is I absolutely need this to work with ARC. There is no way I'm inserting a device in the middle of the chain - these tend to cause all kinds of issues with HDMI handshaking, future-proofing given increasing HDMI bandwidths/capabilities, etc. my friends have been bitten too many times for me to even consider this. Not to mention this won't work when the TV itself is playing content. There is this weird product that can apparently make any HDMI input ARC-compatible, but I'd prefer to avoid such schenanigans if I can avoid it.
If no-one has any better ideas I'll probably just give up, slap a MiniDSP Flex HTx on it, accept the pointless additional A/D-D/A conversion that this would involve, and have fun troubleshooting ground loops and other EMI noise issues. Sigh. (By the way, is there a cheaper product that also does HDMI to balanced analog out?)
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