JBL SDP-55 Audio/Video Processor Review

[Newman]

Tidal

Thank you. I am looking at the Tidal webpage on audio quality, https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002599997-What-Audio-Quality-Does-TIDAL-HiFi-Offer- , and I can't see any at mention of Atmos or of any kind of multichannel. Is it embedded in one of the listed quality formats?

 

[Zedly]

Information about Tidal's Atmos music is at https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004255778-Dolby-Atmos-Music

 

[Newman]

Thanks! Has anybody who has the Tidal Hi-fi membership looked to see if there are a lot of titles available in Dolby Atmos music?

Also, does anybody know of any other streaming services that do this for music?

Cheers

 

[Zedly]

I did the free trial a month or so ago, and wasn't particularly impressed. Many of the tracks I listened to didn't seem much different than what I get when I use the Dolby upmixer to upmix stereo into 5.1.4. The one exception was Elton John's "Rocket Man". It had a sense of spaciousness that went beyond mere upmixing, and the backing vocals appeared in the rear channels and made you feel like you were in the middle of the music. There was a good bit of hip-hop music, which isn't to my taste, so I can't comment on those.

 

[peng]

Updated comparison table:

Just so you don't have to download it, but resolution is not as good now.

 

[Newman]

(Regarding Tidal music with Atmos (which was the only reply I got when asking about music streaming with Atmos))

I did the free trial a month or so ago, and wasn't particularly impressed. Many of the tracks I listened to didn't seem much different than what I get when I use the Dolby upmixer to upmix stereo into 5.1.4. The one exception was Elton John's "Rocket Man". It had a sense of spaciousness that went beyond mere upmixing, and the backing vocals appeared in the rear channels and made you feel like you were in the middle of the music. There was a good bit of hip-hop music, which isn't to my taste, so I can't comment on those.

Okay. So the words, “If you watch any content at all from streaming services you'll want an Atmos setup...”, that inspired me to ask about music services, were carefully chosen with the word ‘watch’. The statement does not apply so much for music listening. Sadly for me.

 

[Zooqu1ko]

[...]This is why lawyers and courts exist. Presumably, this is what the courts untangled with this lawsuit unless it was settled out of court. But the court of public opinion had already formed the verdict on Monoprice (as a cloning case) and it has persisted.

Apparently that Monoprice/Klipsch lawsuit has indeed been settled out of court, with the terms of the agreement being confidential, and Monoprice withdrawing those speakers from the market: https://www.cnet.com/news/klipsch-monoprice-settle-patent-dispute-over-speakers/

 

[beatelund]

First time i´m doing this. So maybe it is not correct, so dont hang med for this

Just did some tests with REW
Was a little curious how Dante would perform against analog

Here are the signalpath for the measurments:
48khz 24bit in REW
1khz test Tone -10dBFS

Blue= REW-->Bss Asio drivers-->USB-->Blu usb-->Blu link-->Blu 160-->Blulink-->Blu usb-->USB-->Bss Asio drivers-->REW

Red= REW-->Asio 4all drivers-->HDMI-->SDP-55-->Analog XLR-->Blu 160-->Blulink-->Blu usb-->USB-->Asio 4all drivers-->REW

Green=REW-->Asio 4all drivers-->HDMI-->SDP-55-->Dante-->Blu 806DA-->Blulink-->Blu 160-->Blu link-->Blu usb-->USB-->Asio 4all drivers-->REW

Can somebody give me some feedback on this

 

[Zooqu1ko]

First time i´m doing this. So maybe it is not correct, so dont hang med for this

Just did some tests with REW
Was a little curious how Dante would perform against analog

Here are the signalpath for the measurments:
48khz 24bit in REW
1khz test Tone -10dBFS

Look suspiciously like you used a different window for the green plot, just as illustrated in the REW manual: https://www.roomeqwizard.com/help/help_en-GB/html/spectrum.html

For those not familiar with the various BLU products you've used, could you explain where in the chain for the green and blue plots D/A and A/D conversions take place (if any), or if there's any other signal processing enabled in any of the devices?

 

[beatelund]

Look suspiciously like you used a different window for the green plot, just as illustrated in the REW manual: https://www.roomeqwizard.com/help/help_en-GB/html/spectrum.html

For those not familiar with the various BLU products you've used, could you explain where in the chain for the green and blue plots D/A and A/D conversions take place (if any), or if there's any other signal processing enabled in any of the devices?

I thought it looked weird to. But i have used exactly the same settings.. Maybe a bug somewhere in REW or my settings when measuring.

Both green and Blue plots have no AD or DA conversion. They are pure digital signalpaths.
The only signal processing is routing of the signals in the BSS BLU dsp

 

[Krobar]

I thought it looked weird to. But i have used exactly the same settings.. Maybe a bug somewhere in REW or my settings when measuring.

Both green and Blue plots have no AD or DA conversion. They are pure digital signalpaths.
The only signal processing is routing of the signals in the BSS BLU dsp

Is Dante running at 16 bit?

 

[beatelund]

Is Dante running at 16 bit?

How do i test that?

Rew generator is at 24bit
In Dante controller it is possible to choose encodings: pcm16, pcm24 or pcm32. I have it at pcm24

When i listen to music or movies Dante outputs have a constant ticking noise, not so loud but very annoying. So a very big bug that makes it impossible to use.
Maybe it is this that interfers with the measurements.

 

[Krobar]

How do i test that?

Rew generator is at 24bit
In Dante controller it is possible to choose encodings: pcm16, pcm24 or pcm32. I have it at pcm24

When i listen to music or movies Dante outputs have a constant ticking noise, not so loud but very annoying. So a very big bug that makes it impossible to use.
Maybe it is this that interfers with the measurements.

OK, have you actually had any feedback from JBL/Harman on the ticking issue?

 

[beatelund]

Did some new measurments to investigate why the Dante was so different.
With some shorter and easier signal path

PC with REW generator ASIO flex driver HDMI output
HDMI Input on JBL SDP-55
Dante output vol 69 on SDP-55
PC with Dante Virtual Soundcard and Rew RTA Analyzer

If i change the the following settings in RTA analyzer
FFT lenght: 8k
Averages: None
Window: Blackman-Harris 7

1 second it shows the green graph and in the next second it shows the red graph....
But if i paus the measurement in the right second and save. It look like this.

So maybe it is some interference bug in the sdp-55 that are causing this .

But the red measurment is good so hopefully it will stay that way after next firmware update

Green: THD+N: -100,9 dB [20..20000 Hz]
Red: THD+N: -123,4 dB [20..20000 Hz]

 

[beatelund]

OK, have you actually had any feedback from JBL/Harman on the ticking issue?

No feedback on that at all

 

[HTNut1975]

No feedback on that at all

Have you called them and talk to a field support engineer?

 

[zCDoXiHcXspD]

I've trying to decide between this and the Monoprice HTP-1 and the Dante measurements are exactly what I've wanted to see. I figure Dante would be a way to move away from the apparently mediocre preamp output stages and other issues surrounding analog interfaces that are present in most processors. So these Dante figures are very interesting to me to see how 'clean' the digital processing is. I can take the rest from there.

Would really be interested in how the latest green vs red analysis shakes out and whether it's reproduced.

Ideally we'd also have Atmos/DTS encoded test signals to see what all of the DSP does to the signal.

 

[Zooqu1ko]

How do i test that?

Rew generator is at 24bit
In Dante controller it is possible to choose encodings: pcm16, pcm24 or pcm32. I have it at pcm24

You could record the test signal on a PC and then look at the least significant byte of the signal (assuming you record at 24bit). You could record a few 10s of seconds of a low frequency full scale signal and just count how many different 24 bit values there are (>>65536 would indicate more than 16 bit) or just record a test signal at << -96dBfs and see if it's still a sine (possibly after increasing its volume in your favorite sound editor).

Recording the signal may show hints what's going on with the ticks.

Have you tried asking about the weird behavior with the red/green signal at the REW forum at https://www.avnirvana.com/ ?

 

[beatelund]

Have you called them and talk to a field support engineer?

No but i have sent them an email with my graphs

 

[beatelund]

You could record the test signal on a PC and then look at the least significant byte of the signal (assuming you record at 24bit). You could record a few 10s of seconds of a low frequency full scale signal and just count how many different 24 bit values there are (>>65536 would indicate more than 16 bit) or just record a test signal at << -96dBfs and see if it's still a sine (possibly after increasing its volume in your favorite sound editor).

Recording the signal may show hints what's going on with the ticks.

Have you tried asking about the weird behavior with the red/green signal at the REW forum at https://www.avnirvana.com/ ?

ok i will try that when i have time.

Before i have only used rew for speaker measurments, so this is new for me.
I am happy for all the help I can get to make these measurements correctly