Possible solution for DTS/Dolby/Atmos+eARC+HDCP to AES/EBU - via Dante? (for Okto DAC8PRO etc)

[uriy-ch]

That movie sound is practically always a blur sound. Every single time it is listened to in analog.

Sound from studios does not sound washed out due to the room being prepared for working with sound and the use of appropriate speakers with their frequency response control. If you use a multi-channel system in a room with a lot of reverberation and standing sounds, then whether it is a digital channel or an analog one, it will not affect anything much.

 

[Behrelec 37]

It just depends on how high-quality the studio equipment is and whether it's digital Genelecs or competitor's analog studio monitors. Yes, it really does matter. And then in home use, AV equipment always sounds mediocre with music.

 

[KitoDavy]

Consumers are always offered multi-channel analog sound from movies, and it has worked this way in practice for many decades. But in studios, movie sound is processed digitally from start to finish and everyone knows this, and it sounds much, much better than what all millions of consumers get to taste with their numerous different brands of AV amplifiers, Denon, Maranz. Onkyo, Sony, pioneer, Yamaha... dacs outputting analog sound to their speakers. That movie sound is practically always a blur sound. Every single time it is listened to in analog.

Agree. But hdmi is now the only way to transmit dolby atmos audio at the moment on the consumer side with online streaming, right? Or use computer to play blu-ray disks with AoIP to professional processors like Merging Hapi? what's your solution of watching other studio's movie in your studio?

 

[welwynnick]

Agree. But hdmi is now the only way to transmit dolby atmos audio at the moment on the consumer side with online streaming, right? Or use computer to play blu-ray disks with AoIP to professional processors like Merging Hapi? what's your solution of watching other studio's movie in your studio?

These are the options that I'm aware of that take HDMI from a player or streamer, perform immersive audio decoding, and output multi channel digital audio:

Processor	AES/EBU	AES/EBU	AES67	AES67	Dante	Dante	SINAD	DNR	Price	Limits
Model	Chan	Rate	Chan	Rate	Chan	Rate	dB	dB	GBP
Apantac HDMI to Dante	-	-	-	-	12	48	-	-	3,100	7.1.4
Arvus H2-4D	16	192	16	48	16	192	90	102	4,200
Arvus H1-D	-	-	16	96	16	48	-	-	2,500
Arvus HDMI-2A	8	192	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,600
AudioControl DPR-16	16	-	16	-	16	-	-	-	?
Audiopraise VanityPRO	8	192	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,400
Blustream SW42DA	-	-	10	48	10	48	-	-	1,260	7.1.2
Datasat RS20i	16	192	-	-	-	-	101	107	24,000
JBL Synthesis SDP-75	16	96	-	-	-	-	100	108	32,000
JBL Synthesis SDP-55	-	-	-	-	16	48	95	102	5,500
Lyngdorf MP-60	16	96	16	48	-	-	103	113	15,600
Lyngdorf MP-60 2.1	16	96	16	48	-	-	103	113	16,300
NuprimeX H16-AIP	-	-	14	48	14	96	-	-	900	9.1.4
NuprimeX H16-AES	14	96	-	-	-	-	-	-	800	9.1.4
SMYTH A16 Pro Dante	16	96	-	-	16	96	-	-	4,400
SMYTH A16 Pro AES3	16	96	-	-	-	-	-	-	4,000
StormAudio ISP Mk3	32	48	32	48	-	-	99	107	25,600
StormAudio ISP Evo	32	48	32	48	32	48	-	-	19,950
Trinnov Altitude 32	16	96	-	-	-	-	100	108	31,250
Trinnov Altitude 16	-	-	Future	Future	Future	Future	100	108	19,500

 

[Behrelec 37]

KitoDavy

I think ripped atmos movies are also an option. Of course, you need a computer, a bluray uhd drive, and ripping software. Of course, all technologies have bottlenecks, and here on the forum we are looking for a technology where the bottleneck would be as loose as possible or very smooth and easy to use naturally.



I don't have a studio myself. And I don't work in any studios.

I gather experience and knowledge, and share it with others.
I have audio as the second highest priority in my life. You have to be even more thirsty and greedy if you want to understand how far Genelec's accuracy reaches. It's hard bone and core. A person can't get better sound quality from other brands these days.


Just for your information, I don't actually have any Atmos movies physically or on hard drives, except for Dune 2 and some other movies bought for Apple TV. I have an Onkyo AV amplifier that has Atmos support for my active speakers with XLR outs. 7.2.4 It's reasonably good in principle. But it's not the same level of movie sound as my digital speakers. Connecting the coax output to the back of the bluray player already gives a much more authentic presence of movie enjoyment to my digital speakers already in stereo. Few people know and few people even know how to try this golden path on their own initiative.

 

[darth]

https://www.kaleidescape.com/ is also a new option but at a price. I wish they weren't so stingy on storage considering how cheap fast SSDs are today, but hey seems they are following the greedy business practices of what gaming consoles used to be before they allowed swapping in our own ssds.

 

[KitoDavy]

KitoDavy

I think ripped atmos movies are also an option. Of course, you need a computer, a bluray uhd drive, and ripping software. Of course, all technologies have bottlenecks, and here on the forum we are looking for a technology where the bottleneck would be as loose as possible or very smooth and easy to use naturally.

What a lovely community here!

I don't have a studio myself. And I don't work in any studios.

I gather experience and knowledge, and share it with others.
I have audio as the second highest priority in my life. You have to be even more thirsty and greedy if you want to understand how far Genelec's accuracy reaches. It's hard bone and core. A person can't get better sound quality from other brands these days.

Now you made me very intrigued to know what's your first. : )

Just for your information, I don't actually have any Atmos movies physically or on hard drives, except for Dune 2 and some other movies bought for Apple TV.

Dune is the best! Hail Hans Zimmer!

I have an Onkyo AV amplifier that has Atmos support for my active speakers with XLR outs. 7.2.4 It's reasonably good in principle. But it's not the same level of movie sound as my digital speakers. Connecting the coax output to the back of the bluray player already gives a much more authentic presence of movie enjoyment to my digital speakers already in stereo. Few people know and few people even know how to try this golden path on their own initiative.

Glad you are here. Almost everywhere I ask, they all say, you wouldn't benefit anything from analog to digital... And glad of your appreciation of the genelec. This is also my long time decision.... That's why I want to feed them well. But given the analog ones like stormaudio 16, and trinnov 16 costs about $12k and 19k. The digital ones like stormaudio evo 20aes and tirnnov altitude 32 cost $20k and $30k. I don't get it. Why i'm getting less functions, but paying more...

 

[KitoDavy]

https://www.kaleidescape.com/ is also a new option but at a price. I wish they weren't so stingy on storage considering how cheap fast SSDs are today, but hey seems they are following the greedy business practices of what gaming consoles used to be before they allowed swapping in our own ssds.

This was recommended to me from my dealer as well. Then we figured my Sony 4K laser projector wouldn't benefit more compared to Apple Tv. I probably need JVC to tell the difference.

 

[Behrelec 37]

I myself started my music and film hobby with Genelec when I bought 5 1029a series and a 1092a subwoofer, later a 1094a. In 1997..98 ?. It has become the master series of many larger Genelecs, and I have not regretted a single day of this life path that I have walked on the road of this brand. Greedy must be in a positive, positive mood and even greedier if you want to truly learn from this brand and uncover great secrets. Now GLM is a big weapon.

 

[sfogg]

These are the options that I'm aware of that take HDMI from a player or streamer, perform immersive audio decoding, and output multi channel digital audio:

Does the Audiopraise VanityPRO perform decoding? I don't see that listed in the specs. To me it reads as if the source needs to decode to LPCM and then it will take that and output it digitally.

 

[KitoDavy]

I myself started my music and film hobby with Genelec when I bought 5 1029a series and a 1092a subwoofer, later a 1094a. In 1997..98 ?. It has become the master series of many larger Genelecs, and I have not regretted a single day of this life path that I have walked on the road of this brand. Greedy must be in a positive, positive mood and even greedier if you want to truly learn from this brand and uncover great secrets. Now GLM is a big weapon.

What are your active speakers now? and the 7.2.4 cinema speakers?

I think I'll get the stormaudio evo piece to pair with my 8361s.. Do you think I still need the GLM, to run besides the Dirac ART from stormaudio?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Does the Audiopraise VanityPRO perform decoding? I don't see that listed in the specs. To me it reads as if the source needs to decode to LPCM and then it will take that and output it digitally.

Nope. PCM and DSD only.

 

[welwynnick]

Does the Audiopraise VanityPRO perform decoding? I don't see that listed in the specs. To me it reads as if the source needs to decode to LPCM and then it will take that and output it digitally.

No it doesn't. You have to set the player to output LPCM instead of bitstream .

 

[sfogg]

No it doesn't. You have to set the player to output LPCM instead of bitstream .

And make sure the player has the proper decoders too. Thanks.

 

[kfrancis]

But I found dolby atmos recommend all speakers to be the same. Although I know all ones series have identical tonality. But I compared 8341 with 8351. There are some differences, to be honest. The sound is more natural and not tight. I thought about going all 8351. But then I want the best. So I decided to go all 8361 at least the bed level.

The Dolby studio guidelines also indicate running all speakers at full-range, but allow for bass management if necessary. You should have the headroom for that with 8361s, and just use the sub for the LFE channel. Doing that with the H16-AES and using GLM for volume control would be pretty simple, if you wanted to save $20k on the StormAudio. You could always get it later if you end up needing to get better control of room modes with Dirac ART, etc.

 

[kfrancis]

Are you using any AVR at this moment? Since you are on this thread, you are in the process of finding one? I found the dolby atmos content is quite limited to apple TV streamers now. I tried to use mac and 9401 AoIP solution, then I only ended up with apple music...no movie at all, except the ones in apple+...

I use an Arvus H2-4D and a Mac Mini running GLM and some software the pretends to be a AVR so I can use a remote control for GLM volume (see this other post in this thread). It's working well enough, but I don't necessarily recommend this!

I pre-ordered an H16-AIP because the Arvus doesn't even decode DTS-HD MA correctly despite costing 5 grand. Its Dante implementation is much, much better than the JBL SDP-58's, though, which costs even more.

 

[kfrancis]

https://www.kaleidescape.com/ is also a new option but at a price. I wish they weren't so stingy on storage considering how cheap fast SSDs are today

The profit margin has to be astronomical, or maybe it subsidizes the arrangements with the studios? The movies themselves are pretty comparable in price to Blu-ray or streaming options, and they run sales on them all the time.

I have a Strato V without any extra storage, and it only takes ~10 mins to download a movie with gigabit internet. Faster than a trip to Blockbuster! Definitely hard to stomach the initial $4k investment though.

 

[Behrelec 37]

KitoDavy

With glm, of course, room correction is done for each speaker together and separately for the genelec subwoofer, and finally the volume of all channels and the subwoofer is adjusted.

It doesn't matter which audio source is involved, but that the overall control is glm ethernet cat network and the sound input is pure digital up to the speakers aes/ebu.

 

[KitoDavy]

I use an Arvus H2-4D and a Mac Mini running GLM and some software the pretends to be a AVR so I can use a remote control for GLM volume (see this other post in this thread). It's working well enough, but I don't necessarily recommend this!

I pre-ordered an H16-AIP because the Arvus doesn't even decode DTS-HD MA correctly despite costing 5 grand. Its Dante implementation is much, much better than the JBL SDP-58's, though, which costs even more.

After reading your post and the lessons learnt, which is REALLY helpful. I decided to move forward with Stormaudio evo 32 AES one and call it the day. Otherwise I would continue searching, getting more similar A16s, or even thinking about JBL 58, etc....I admit it is an expensive piece, but seeing your path, I can already see myself spending more the same way as you.

 

[poopy]

I use an Arvus H2-4D and a Mac Mini running GLM and some software the pretends to be a AVR so I can use a remote control for GLM volume (see this other post in this thread). It's working well enough, but I don't necessarily recommend this!

I pre-ordered an H16-AIP because the Arvus doesn't even decode DTS-HD MA correctly despite costing 5 grand. Its Dante implementation is much, much better than the JBL SDP-58's, though, which costs even more.

In terms of decoding, what does the H16-AIP support that the Argus H2-4D doesn’t and vice-versa?