Hey all,
So the blind comparison was a bust last night.
Here's why: friggin HDMI/smart TV inconsistencies, with a side of complex/non-communicative UIs. I was so frustrated with the AVR we used that I almost turned it into an "Office Space the AVR" event, with a side of Syn listening.
It's kind of a perfect ending, in a way. I said we did Syn at least in part as a reaction to the complexity of current surround products. And what we experienced illustrates this perfectly. I figured we would have an interesting time getting a Smart TV to output both a 2-channel optical to Syn and 5-channel HDMI surround to the AVR, so I tried it the day before in the "surround lab" in Valencia. After some fiddling and cursing, it worked fine on the Vizio TV we had there. I let David know the good news.
And yeah, he called it. Famous last words. Because unlike the Vizio, the LG wouldn't output both formats simultaneously.
I'd planned for that, though--we brought HDMI de-embedders (which, when switched to 2-channel, prevented the AVR from receiving the proper surround format), we brought an AppleTV (which didn't help), we experimented with eARC vs non-eARC, with the AppleTV into the AVR and TV and then eARCing out to a de-embedder, nope, we tried an optical splitter, but of course Syn needs 2-channel and the AVR needs surround, and I did want to give the AVR a fair shake, using native formats and even running the room correction (even though it was a bit inconsistent and weird in the Schiit surround room).
So, in the end, yeah, a bust. We listened to Syn a bit and that was it.
However, now that we know what we know, we'll try this again, most likely in June. This time we'll use the Vizio TV that works correctly, and we'll have a custom switching arrangement on the speaker end that will allow us to change instantly back and forth. Level-matching will be acoustic at the listening position. And we'll give this another go!
All the best,
Jason
