Review and Measurements of Essence HDACC II-4K HDMI DAC

[SIMJEDI]

Just wanted to let everyone know my recent issues with the Evolve II as it may have some issues with certain streaming boxes / services and 5.1 audio. I was just able to confirm this when connected to my nVidia shield, the following services will only play 2 channel stereo:

Netflix
Amazon Prime
Disney+

After some reading and discussing this with my friend who also has the same setup as I do with the Evolve, apparently those streaming services all use Dolby Digital +

The Essence Evolve II does support this format but it looks like its not working with the Shield specifically.

Now, I was not really familiar with Dolby Digital + before this starting happening and from what it looks like after some reading, the streaming companies may use this format for better compression and data size savings.

Long story short after a rigorous amount of testing specifically with the Essence Evolve and the nVidia Shield with the latest software version, we have concluded that no matter which variation of options you try on the shield and the settings within each streaming service, EX: Netflix, you will only get 2 channel audio.

We confirmed this by testing the Apple TV, which DD+ does in fact work with the Evolve. However we ran into other audio sync issues when playing movies. Still testing that right now as well. We will also be testing the Roku Ultra soon for issues.

Now to Bobs credit we contacted him already and he is looking into the issue right now. Basically replicating this situation on his side for a fix soon. Bob was very quick to respond to all our requests and a very professional person!

I have tried all the different streamers on the market over the years. Roku, Shield, Apple TV, Firestick, etc. The nVidia shield in my opinion is by far the best device for multiple reasons. UI speed and consistency, frequent Android updates, customer support, new features available. nVidia has really done a remarkable job supporting this device. If you get the chance to try it out I highly recommend it.

With that said I am sticking with the Shield for obvious reasons and waiting to hear back from Bob on the resolution. I am sure he can do it.

The Evolve II is fantastic product and solves a huge problem. Being able to use your old receiver you have lots of $$ invested into with the newest AV formats is awesome!

@aztecsurf @bobrapoport

Any word on a fix yet? I'm very interested in this device as I also have a Shield.

This is my plan. Sources into a HDFury VRRoom with video out going to my projector and the audio out of the Fury 1080/720 port into the Evolve II-4K.

 

[bobrapoport]

Hi @astecsurf, my engineering dept. is still working on a revised firmware that will restore Nvidia compatibility with the Evolve II-4K, estimating end of Sept for it to be complete. In the meantime, Apple TV4K works fine with the Evolve II-4K because it allows the end user to configure the audio output for LPCM Multi-channel output or 2 channel output, a feature the Nvidia no longer supports. It did support the LPCM audio options several years ago and I have lots of Evolve II-4K users happily using Nvidia Shield earlier versions. We have notified Nvidia that dropping support for selectable LPCM audio output was un-wise so keep an eye out for their own firmware updates. For now, its not a good choice to use with the Evolve II-4K as a primary source device.

Since LPCM is the industry recording standard, its supposed to be the default option on all audio video streaming source devices and Blu-ray players. Dolby Digital + is a compression algorithm to reduce the file size and is the successor to original Dolby AC3 and first appeared for consumer use at home in 2001 but is outdated now and does not support hi res audio, see the chart below for the specs of each of the primary audio streams on Blu-ray.

Two notes of caution about using HDCP strippers; the highest resolution audio is highly encrypted and can only be decrypted by HDCP authentication of a secure connection that cant be copied. Whatever you're hearing after stripping HDCP, its not the highest resolution available, its lossy. Circumvention devices are illegal because they support copyright infringement. At the beginning of every Blu-ray, the FBI warns us all of the penalties for copyright infringement, 5 years in prison and a $250K fine. All that's required to be lawful is to follow the security protocols, an HDMI point to point connection, its not worth the risk to bypass the rules. I've paid dearly for the circumvention device I manufactured in 2005 that stripped HDCP, paying a $30K fine and destruction of my inventory. I learned the hard way, as the Borg Queen said, "resistance is futile". If you're going to use such a device, don't say so in writing. Intel has an army of lawyers looking for people to sue for copyright infringement.

Specification of Blu-ray Primary Audio Streams:
	LPCM (Lossless)	Dolby Digital	Dolby Digital Plus	Dolby TrueHD (Lossless)	DTS Digital Surround	DTS-HD Master Audio (Lossless)
SMax. Bitrate	27.648 Mbit/s	640 kbit/s	4.736 Mbit/s	18.64 Mbit/s	1.524 Mbit/s	24.5 Mbit/s
Max. Channel	8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz)	5.1	7.1	8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz)	5.1	8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz)
Bits/sample	16, 20, 24	16, 24	16, 24	16, 24	16, 20, 24	16, 24
Sample frequency	48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz

 

[theblackangus]

Was there ever an update on this to support earc/arc?
Specifically with downmixing to 2.0?

 

[Hifi7890]

I understand this post is older but I just came across it. I have a question I'd appreciate if could be answered. If you plug a blue-ray player into this dac and plug headphones into the dac will you get dolby atmos audio on the headphones?

 

[Ongii]

Can it pass-through an untouched (multichannel) HDMI coded(DTS, Dolby...) audio video signal? For example in stand-by mode?
I'd like to put in the signal chain between the source and the AVR, so to get advantage of the better headphone amp of the Essence, compared to AVR (...if this is actually true...)

 

[TimW]

Does anyone know if the SPDIF outputs are controlled by the volume control? In other words, can this device be used as a digital output preamp?

 

[danity_project]

Does this correctly modify the volume from the HDMI ARC signal? And does it modify the digital output volume from that?

If so - this could be a holy grail device that lets me use "one remote" with my fancy audio setup with my TV.

Unless I'm missing something, I can't find another way to hook up a setup with a volume knob to HDMI ARC w/o a full all-in-one dac-amp bundle.