New Product: Arvus H2-4D Atmos Renderer, Simultaneous 16 channel AES/Balanced Analog/Dante Output

[stevenswall]

From their announcement today: (Re-Posting after asking permission to do so.) This is a soft release and the item isn't available for regular ordering.

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"After extensive design, development, testing and direct consultation with experts across the globe we are excited to finally release the H2-4D. I would like to personally thank the many dozens of engineers, external consultants and the team at Dolby for assisting us to make this product an elegant solution to support the audio industry’s transition to object-based audio production."

(accepting orders from 1st September for delivery December 2021)
USD4,860.00 including freight

CONVERT up to 16 Channels of HDMI audio simultaneously to:
DANTE® (AES67 included)
BALANCED ANALOG
HDMI® (Audio Only)
AES/EBU (AES3)

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
Decoding up to 16 channels at 44.1kHz/48kHz/88.2kHz/96kHz/176.4kHz/192kHz
16 & 24 bit compatible
Full ARC & eARC support
ARC & eARC Lip-sync delay
HDMI 2.0 pass-through output
Includes Power over Ethernet (PoE)
GUI for system set up (via Ethernet)
Ethernet access for firmware upgrades
Object based rendering from 5.1.2 to 9.1.6
Decoding status LED (Dolby/Green, DTS/Blue, PCM/Purple)
Both HDMI OUTS have EDID emulation for stable device / system communication

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Quite the expense, but this should solve a ton of issues if it can be used as a consumer device. You could for example mix analogue active speakers and Genelec monitors with XLR and AES respectively, while having surround sound speakers use a Dante adapter to go over Ethernet to hard to reach locations.

Whether it measures well or not with the analogue outputs, the digital capabilities would be wonderful, and you can always get your own device to go from Dante>Analog.

 

[chelgrian]

arvus.io currently just produces a 404 error which isn't a good start

 

[stevenswall]

arvus.io currently just produces a 404 error which isn't a good start

This is a soft release via email, so for the time being their site being down doesn't make a difference until they do an official release. They may be updating it.

 

[GXAlan]

This is a soft release via email, so for the time being their site being down doesn't make a difference until they do an official release. They may be updating it.

A broken website just doesn't give confidence in the company given how important software updates are for these exceedingly complex devices. Even Samsung/Harman (Arcam) have had lots of trouble with their current AVR/AVP line-up. The absence of room correction in Arvus may be beneficial and make it a good choice in a purpose-built room.

 

[alex-z]

Nice to see digital outputs. Could send the signal into a stack of miniDSP DDRC-88D, get Dirac 3.0 + bass management on all channels.

 

[stevenswall]

Nice to see digital outputs. Could send the signal into a stack of miniDSP DDRC-88D, get Dirac 3.0 + bass management on all channels.

Exactly. Or I think you could use AES adaptors for Dante stuff and use the wiring already in some houses to send it to other rooms and speakers.

I wonder if you could put an 88D in front of this somehow to route the corrected audio.

 

[gags11]

Nice to see digital outputs. Could send the signal into a stack of miniDSP DDRC-88D, get Dirac 3.0 + bass management on all channels.

Combine that with a couple of Okto 8-channel DACs and we would have a winner.

 

[gags11]

arvus.io currently just produces a 404 error which isn't a good start

I recently, about 1-2 weeks ago, was on their website looking at a discontinued H2-UDMA. It was working fine. They may be updating the site

 

[McFly]

Digital out only processors slowly becoming more affordable...

Imagine having an AVR with only digital outputs with Dirac built in that you can send all channels out in digital to do your own crossovers and DACs

 

[Sancus]

Assuming it does become a real buyable product, somewhat nice I suppose. I'd be very concerned about software bugs though. And the price is just terrible considering it has no room correction or upmixing capability at all.

 

[snickers]

Assuming it does become a real buyable product, somewhat nice I suppose. I'd be very concerned about software bugs though. And the price is just terrible considering it has no room correction or upmixing capability at all.

This was also my thought. At the end, it's nothing else than a audio extractor from the HDMI source, like there are many on the market. The only difference is, that it's the first one with digital outputs.
Ok that's really nice and helpful, but 5k?

With no additional functionalities and this price, for me it will come to use only in special cost-no-matter installations.

 

[abdo123]

Assuming it does become a real buyable product, somewhat nice I suppose. I'd be very concerned about software bugs though. And the price is just terrible considering it has no room correction or upmixing capability at all.

I agree. 5k for what? it has no DTS decoding or Auro 3D and only one HDMI input. and no room correction either.

the SINAD obsession must be out of this world for someone to buy this.

Seriously 1 HDMI input? who are they targeting with this bullshit?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

AV hdmi licensing is just stupid. These days either atmos or any other digital track are ripped even before hdmi output is reached.

Hdmi people should just allow for digital output even in cheap devices and stop this nonsense and users suffering

 

[apgood]

Digital out only processors slowly becoming more affordable...

Imagine having an AVR with only digital outputs with Dirac built in that you can send all channels out in digital to do your own crossovers and DACs

Already exists but it isn't cheap. You can get a StormAudio ISP Mk2 AES Digital Edition which has 32 digital AES/EBU channels and supports 24 decoded Atmos or DTS:X Pro channels and Dirac DLBC. You can just add whatever DACs you want.

 

[McFly]

HMU when its sub $2K - there's also the JBL Synthesis AVR - SDP 55 I think, can do the same/similar for $6K Edit: only via Dante

 

[Ozymandias]

I agree. 5k for what? it has no DTS decoding or Auro 3D and only one HDMI input. and no room correction either.

the SINAD obsession must be out of this world for someone to buy this.

Seriously 1 HDMI input? who are they targeting with this bullshit?

It does decode DTS, Dolby. Here’s a snippet from the product sheet I received by email.

RENDER
DOLBY Atmos® DTS-X®

DECODE
DOLBY® - Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Surround (from Atmos)
DTS® – DTS, ES, HD Master Audio, HD High Resolution Audio, Express-HD LBR, Neural:X
PCM - 2ch, PCM Multi-channel, Downmix

However, I do agree that $5K is too much, even with the above features.

 

[dlaloum]

ARVUS.COM

Arvus Home Page

www.arvus.com

 

[benjaminbraxton]

Hi everyone, I've a question to understand if I'm right about how to use this device :

1- Connecting Hdmi sources to TV (Tv will send only Atmos audio thru E-arc)
2- Going out from Tv using the E-arc Hdmi port to the only Hdmi input of the Arvus

Meaning :
- Having only one HDMI input on the Arvus isn't an issue as all sources are connected directly to the Tv isn't it ?
- Arvus only has to carry /decode sound From TV to Dante out (which I want to use)

Thanks a lot for confirming

P.S : Price is too much :/

 

[Kal Rubinson]

1. What the TV will send by eARC depends on the TV, not the Arvus.
2. You can also get an HDMI switch to directly connect multiple sources to the Arvus.
I don't see any issues here.

 

[chelgrian]

I agree. 5k for what? it has no DTS decoding or Auro 3D and only one HDMI input. and no room correction either.

the SINAD obsession must be out of this world for someone to buy this.

Seriously 1 HDMI input? who are they targeting with this bullshit?

This is not a consumer device it's a low production run product targeted at the professional content creation market who need a way to do Quality Assurance on encoded Atmos and get the decoded channels back in to the studio. For the market it is aimed at it is extremely cheap, also for the market it is aimed at they don't want extra processing features they want it to do HDMI to discrete channels and that's it.

It does do decoding of all the major Dolby and DTS formats and rendering of Atmos and DTS:X

The initial production run has now started to show up in studios and the product appears to work as advertised. Studios are dumping the consumer level AVRs that they were forced to use until now and installing this thing instead.

I think they will sell some of these in to the domestic market and the custom home cinema install market in to places where you have TV or other device with sufficient inputs, eARC and a speaker system which is doing its own room correction and EQ.

I'd buy one if I had a suitable TV but sadly mine is just a little too old to be able to do TrueHD through ARC.