Which multichannel music upmixer do you like ?

[Gedeon]

Each brand has his own, DTS has its NEO...

I'm already have tested those but very curious about your experiences.

 

[BDWoody]

Each brand has his own, DTS has its NEO...

I'm already have tested those but very curious about your experiences.

I find myself on NEO more than the others...

 

[Dimifoot]

Auro for me

 

[gene_stl]

The quadrophonic quad forum has lots of very detailed info on this subject.

Upmix threads

forum dedicated to upmix software

 

[Senior NEET Engineer]

The only one I've tried is Dolby Surround (Atmos). It works great for TV and classical music, but adds too many sound effects to rear channels with rock music. I'm considering to try out Penteo Surround, but will probably just settle with Auro 3D for convenience.

 

[Martin]

I think all upmixers sound hokey. I listen to stereo material as stereo. I do, however, like multichannel material. Alan Parsons original quad mix of DSOTM is cool. Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall and 3 Doors Down Monster Music concert recordings are both very good, too.

Martin

 

[Blumlein 88]

I concur with Martin.

 

[Chrispy]

Depends on the music IMO. Some works well with upmixers, some doesn't. Better to have actual multich content to start, tho. I've only got versions up to Dolby PLIIx/z and DTS Neo:X....and mostly prefer the Dolby PLIIx music mode. I hear nice things about the latest Dolby Surround but no experience....

 

[pierre]

I use Penteo Surround a lot. It is pretty well done, you can easily customize it per type of music, it adapt to your setup ( it support all atmos, aero ... configuration). Not cheap and you also need a daw with it. Reaper+Penteo is around 400$.
I have also use Nugen's Halo upmix which is not bad but more expensive.

 

[Senior NEET Engineer]

I use Penteo Surround a lot. It is pretty well done, you can easily customize it per type of music, it adapt to your setup ( it support all atmos, aero ... configuration). Not cheap and you also need a daw with it. Reaper+Penteo is around 400$.
I have also use Nugen's Halo upmix which is not bad but more expensive.

Do you have to convert the files offline or does it work live?

 

[StevenEleven]

I have dolby digital on my Onkyo (in addition to some other stuff). Onkyo builds on the Dolby digital to add additional flavors of the Dolby Digital. I read the Onkyo documentation to get a hint of what they are doing. It seems to me that Onkyo does an awful lot right once you get through the marketing speak and get the gist of what they are doing technically. For example, the room correction software focuses primarily or only on breaking up standing waves in the bass and doesn’t seem to touch anything above 200 hz. Perfect. Right in step with Dr. Toole’s book.

Anyway, I tend to choose upmixing options, Onkyo flavors of Dolby digital, that exaggerate the least effects (like reverb or delay or whatever they are extracting out of the original recording) but still upmix the stuff around. I guess you could say I’m looking to maintain a dry, precise sound, but with the obvious immersive benefits of upmixing. The Onkyo Dolby Digital based “Unplugged” variant seems to do this well for me, for example. The upmixing options and apparently the room correction algorithms have improved with firmware upgrades, and they do seem to work in tandem, which I’m very pleased about.

 

[Dogen]

Upmixing can sound pretty good or terrible. I’m not opposed to it on principle, and I tend to like NEO best. More subtle and AFAIK doesn’t touch the front left and right speakers. I’m very curious about Auro, though.

 

[pierre]

Do you have to convert the files offline or does it work live?

live for any channel count on a core i9 (doesn’t sweat). With a Celeron, it start to struggle at 7.1.

 

[Sancus]

I also like DTS: Neo X, it seems to do a good job of keeping the primary vocals out of the surround channels. It's definitely much better than Dolby PLIIx which I've found to put too much into the surround channels at too high volumes. You just want a touch of spaciousness added there, not so loud you can easily distinguish it from the front channels.

That said I also want to hear Auro since it seems to be so well-regarded and it works with height channels in a convincing way, allegedly. Also curious about Harman's Logic 16 and the manually-tuned Penteo approach.

 

[snickers]

NEO I never liked, but Dolby PLIIx was for me far better.
But still, for music I frefered only stereo over Dolby PLIIx.

Since I have Logic7, it's just always on for every source; movie, tv or music.

 

[Costas EAR]

But still, for music I frefered only stereo

What's your speaker setup?

I think that dts "neo 6 music", is a really good upmixer, i've used it for almost a year.

The latest Dolby surround is also a very good upmixer, and it maintains with great accuracy the tonality of the upmixed raw format.

Auro 3D is the most commonly used upmixer for me, as it creates the most pleasant result.

My setup is 7.4.4 and for all 11 satellites i use exactly the same speaker, and exactly the same listening distance.

 

[snickers]

My actual setup is a 5.0 system with 2x Klipsch RP280F, 1x RP-280C (a RP-280F modified as center) and 2x RP-150M for surround.
Receiver is a Harman AVR 760 (in USA 7550HD).

Here are my prefered upmixers:

AVR: Yamaha RX-A1050:
Movies: Dolby PLIIx
TV: Dolby PLIIx
Music: Stereo (sometimes Dolby PLIIx, depended on the source)

AVR: Harman AVR 760:
Movies: Logic7
TV: Logic7
Music: Logic7

I'm just wondering how would Auro3D or the THX upmixer from Onkyo or even the Anthemlogic from Anthem compare to Logic7.
But until now Logic7 is my prefered one.

 

[Abe_W]

IME,
DTS NEO 6 Music with varying levels of center spread sounds the best for music to me.
Atmos with Center Spread = ON works great for some music genres of music i listen to.
Neural X works great on some genres (electronica, etc)
Auro is a mixed bag.

Many classic rock albums sound bad with upmixing (best kept in stereo). To be fair, they sound like crap in stereo as well.

I have a 5.2.2 setup and switch back and forth between 5.2 and 5.2.2. I can do it with the single click on my receiver.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Auro for me

Ocassionally but, ultimately, none.

 

[Mnyb]

Trifield or Ambisonic 99% Trifield 5.1 system.