[audiohobbit]

Foxes seem to have good eyes...

As a compensation for the long wait they should add the Dolby Atmos Demo Disc to every Realiser...
Because afaik this disc is not so easy to get and I really want to get one...

 

[SergioPOE]

demolandia.net seems to have a good selection of demo trailers for different sound formats, though I haven't been able to test them because I don't have a sound system (which is why I ordered the A16), And of course if you don't mind a little piracy, there are sites where you can get the Dolby demo disc.

 

[Dixter]

At one time VUDU had the Atmos Demo for free... not sure they do now or not... I got my disk off of ebay... not a cheap disk... another good source for testing out Atmos is Youtube... just search down " Best Movie Trailers 2018 " and another source is Apple TV 4K....

 

[audiohobbit]

Thanks guys, I know there are several sources for such trailers but I'd prefer a disc. More convenient for me... I'm a lazy guy...

But never mind, it was just an idea... I think it would not be feasible anyway for them.

 

[Citizen Zombie]

I can't find it on that link. Can you please give me some additional hint.

I was referring to the other videos of the channel. In the Edelkrone and many other videos they honour the victory of Mr. Thomas. And in the Multicam Orchestra video you can see this poster.

This is for the Spring season of the Welsh National Opera at the Wales Millennium Centre.

I had the chance to listen to the Mobius at the HighEnd in Munich. They played several videos, but no music. I sat down for the echo dance scene of the The House of Flying Daggers.

The Mobius and the A16 are totally different concepts. The A16 recreates the sound of a given loudspeaker in a certain room over a headphone. The Mobius like Creative, OOYH and many other products tries to emulate a virtual surround sound over a headphone. I have heard most of these and disliked all of them. For me, they coloured the original signal significantly and sounded terribly out of phase. Concerning a dimensional impression I'm a difficult listener. I rarely experience a realistic 3D field in stereo recordings and can tell you within minutes where midrange and tweeter of a speaker are positioned if they are hidden behind a curtain. I'm NOT a golden ear, actually this is an ability I could live happily without. The stage of headphones is always positioned between my ears, even with my HD800 or the Stax Omega I've owned. The Mobius was a pleasant surprise, while I had not the feeling to listen to a good surround system, it showed no obvious colouration and had a dynamic and lively tone. It was airier but it did not portray a sound field at the distance of the monitor.

 

[musicday]

Maybe we will see the Realiser A16 soon mentioned along BBC 3D audio sound technology.
https://www.whathifi.com/news/bbc-3d-audio-technology-aims-to-revolutionise-home-entertainment

 

[sander99]

https://www.whathifi.com/news/bbc-3d-audio-technology-aims-to-revolutionise-home-entertainment

There is a link to a page about binaural audio. Unfortunately there is a horrible simplified explenation about what binaural audio is. Totally ignoring the individual differences that make it so difficult. "...your brain is easily fooled...", ridiculous, if you don't do it right, taking the individual hrtf into account the brain rejects the out of your head experience as most of us here know by now. Horrible piece of text.

 

[462429]

I was referring to the other videos of the channel. In the Edelkrone and many other videos they honour the victory of Mr. Thomas. And in the Multicam Orchestra video you can see this poster.
...

Thank you, now I see the misunderstanding. I thought you were talking about some additional mentioning of the A16. And you were talking about the poster which could indicate the time when the first video ('BBC') was recorded.
Thanks again for the additional explanation and also for sharing your experience with different 3D audio systems.

 

[dsperber]

I had the chance to listen to the Mobius at the HighEnd in Munich. They played several videos, but no music. I sat down for the echo dance scene of the The House of Flying Daggers.

The Mobius and the A16 are totally different concepts. The A16 recreates the sound of a given loudspeaker in a certain room over a headphone. The Mobius like Creative, OOYH and many other products tries to emulate a virtual surround sound over a headphone. I have heard most of these and disliked all of them. For me, they coloured the original signal significantly and sounded terribly out of phase. Concerning a dimensional impression I'm a difficult listener. I rarely experience a realistic 3D field in stereo recordings and can tell you within minutes where midrange and tweeter of a speaker are positioned if they are hidden behind a curtain. I'm NOT a golden ear, actually this is an ability I could live happily without. The stage of headphones is always positioned between my ears, even with my HD800 or the Stax Omega I've owned. The Mobius was a pleasant surprise, while I had not the feeling to listen to a good surround system, it showed no obvious colouration and had a dynamic and lively tone. It was airier but it did not portray a sound field at the distance of the monitor.

As I posted back in April after my visit to CanJam LA where Smyth was exhibiting as well as Mobius, my own experience listening to "The Echo Dance Scene" through Mobius (as they were using it for their demo in LA as well) was kind of disappointing. All in all I felt it the virtual surround was artificial and forced, compared to how my memory recalls it sounding played through real 5.1 speakers (the BluRay version has Chinese 5.1 PCM lossless audio).

I'm very familiar with how this scene sounds, going way way back. I saw it first for real in the theater and remember that experience. I've heard it on a friend's [not really fantastic, but pretty good] 5.1 speaker system. And I've heard it through my A8 using my AIX PRIR, both via my analog A8 and also via my HDMI A8, through both my Stax SR-Omega/SRM-T1S as well as through my Stax SR-009/SRM-007tII. I've used this scene for demos and as reference material over the years largely because it's fantastic surround (both the pebble portion and then the sword fight that follows), looks great on a calibrated TV, and because it really can be used to "grade" the ability to have virtual surround attempt to reproduce real speakers.

So when I saw your post I decided to re-watch this scene again using my BluRay, as I hadn't looked at it in a few years. And I actually wanted to double-check confirm that the [VERY expensive] Stax factory repair of my SR-009 a few months back really had brought it back to the way it had sounded before it got damaged. I wanted to be sure I was once again wow'ed, and that the two ears were once again "in balance" and performing properly. And I was wow'ed, and the headphones do thankfully absolutely appear to be "good as new". I guess I did get my money's worth from that repair bill.

Now I suspect it may be somewhat subjective (since I don't have a Mobius in front of me to tray via A/B comparison), but my own characterization is that the way this scene sounds through the A8 via my AIX PRIR and my Stax SR-009/SRM-007tII equipment is significantly more realistic (i.e. that it sounds more like actual 5.1 speakers arrayed around me) than my recall of what I felt after listening to it through Mobius at CanJam LA. Of course it might due be the difference in the headphones, as honestly the SR-009 is remarkable. But I just feel that the directional clarity of the sound as it moved around in the scene was noticeably inferior with the Mobius than with the A8. I would definitely vote to "prefer" the sound of the A8 to that of the Mobius using this scene as the test material.

Can't get enough of this scene.

 

[Citizen Zombie]

Quite possible I get to a similar conclusion if I get the chance to listen to this product with more familiar material. But even with this super small and unknown sample I think it should be better than 7.1 headphones I've tried (forgot the company, perhaps Creative). It was far from being convincing and I never thought about buying it, but it was not so obviously ridiculous as other efforts. And even without the 3D stuff it could be a good headphone for 399,-, but this needs further testing as well.

I can only compare it to my limited experience with watching movies while wearing headphones. I'm not a huge (home) cinema goer, I'm listening to music all the time and I'm recording on an acceptable amateur level. My Stax Omega was an SR-007 MKI and it did go haywire together with the amp while we had no distribution for Stax. While I loved it, I never had the feeling I would have something like a 3D audio projector on my head, even with crossover or technologies like Dolby headphones. I have my soundstage where Geordi La Forge has its visor. The HD 800 is the best in this regard, but only by comparison, not by being really good. The Mobius is an improvement in this single aspect, but is miles away from an astonishing system like the 22 (?) channel system I had the pleasure to listen to at Fraunhofer. And I know that the Realiser can capture even such a system near to perfection. The Mobius is not a contender for the Realiser and does not has to be, considering the price and the different idea behind.

 

[musicday]

Anyone know if this is better then Oppo 205? https://homecinemamagazine.net/premium-pioneer-udp-lx800-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-pops-up/
Lots of options for the A16 when will be released

 

[sander99]

Anyone know if this is better then Oppo 205? https://homecinemamagazine.net/premium-pioneer-udp-lx800-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-pops-up/
Lots of options for the A16 when will be released

At first glance I would say that for use with the A16 it [Edit: the udp-lx800] has no benefit over the udp-lx500 model. You won't be using the 7.1 channel dac and analog outputs. Video part is equal I think. Sound quality won't be different over hdmi. (I am not saying the other [Edit: the udp-lx500] model is or isn't a good choice, just that I don't see any extra benefits with the more expensive one [Edit: the udp-lx800].)

 

[dsperber]

Anyone know if this is better then Oppo 205? https://homecinemamagazine.net/premium-pioneer-udp-lx800-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-pops-up/

Only thing I can say is that the Oppo players since the 103 have provided external HDMI inputs (two on the 103/105, one on the 203/205). This allows all of the audio/video processing and routing capabilities of the player which would normally be applied to playing discs, to also be applied to any of the other HDMI external sources fed to the Oppo.

This allows the very fine upconverting and deinterlacing abilities of the Oppo units, as well as the decoding and/or downmixing of multi-channel audio (and output digitally via S/PDIF optical/coax as bitstream or LPCM, as well as 7.1 preamp analog output), to also be applied to all quality levels of external HDMI source inputs. This really means the Oppo units can act as a "receiver" with appropriate auxiliary preamp/amp sound components, accepting multiple external digital sources via HDMI and delivering video directly to the display as well as delivering audio to assorted external sound reproducers.

All of this really depends on the ability to feed external sources to the Oppo unit via HDMI. Looking at the front and back pictures of the Pioneer UDP-LX800 player I do NOT see any external HDMI input. I only see two HDMI outputs (one for video and one for audio), thus limiting the player's capabilities to disc playback or USB input. To me this would be a total deal-breaker if I had an option to buy an Oppo player or this Pioneer unit.

I have been using an Oppo 103 (in fact I own two of them now) since 2012, and have become completely dependent on its ability to upconvert/deinterlace external 720p/1080i HDTV source and handle DD5.1 audio (from my cable company) via HDMI input. I feed either my simple 2 speaker system (downmixed to 2-channel stereo by the Oppo and fed from L/R of its 7.1 preamp analog outputs), or my A8/Stax multi-channel headphone system (via audio-only HDMI2 output on the Oppo, decoded to LPCM by the Oppo).

More recently, I installed an Oppo 203 for my LG OLED C7 UHD 4K setup, and feeding an external 2-channel stereo speaker-based audio system via S/PDIF output of the Oppo, external Oppo Sonica DAC, and Threshold preamp/amp. No AVR involved. But I did include a StarTech 4-to-1 UHD 4K HDMI switch to overcome the fact that the 203 only has one HDMI input, thus facilitating use of the Oppo as a 4-input AVR. I've now also bought a second 203 for future use (although it's still in the carton) to replace one of my current 103's, for when I do someday upgrade my 1080p Panny 65VT50 to a 4K UHD set.

This AVR-like functionality of the Oppo units is only possible because of the existence of its one or two external HDMi inputs, missing from the LX800. Note also that while the 103/105 had a collection of "smart apps" available, these apps have all been removed from the 203/205. So I bought a Roku Ultra (which is a superior choice anyway) and it is connected through one of the four available inputs on my StarTech HDMI switch going into my 203. Again, this allows the 203 to be my "AVR/receiver" handling other than disc playback.

I can't make any comments on the audio characteristics of LX800 vs. 205, i.e. talking about built-in DAC, balanced outputs, etc., as I really have no firsthand experience with that. As I mentioned above, I [presumably] improved the analog audio output feeding my Threshold preamp/amp by going digitally from Oppo 203 to an external Oppo Sonica DAC and then analog XLR from the DAC to the Threshold T2 preamp. Surely this has accomplished XLR audio output quality out of my 203/DAC to be the same as (or better?) than the 205 would have provided from its own XLR outputs.

 

[sander99]

Only thing I can say is that the Oppo players since the 103 have provided external HDMI inputs (two on the 103/105, one on the 203/205). This allows all of the audio/video processing and routing capabilities of the player which would normally be applied to playing discs, to also be applied to any of the other HDMI external sources fed to the Oppo.

That is a big plus indeed. Especially in the context of the Dolby plans to limit the choice of upmixers for Dolby tracks. If for example the external hdtv source outputs Dolby 5.1 to the oppo, the oppo can decode it and output it as 5.1 LPCM to the A16, and the A16 is free to apply any upmixer you want (because for LPCM input that is allowed).

 

[462429]

Only thing I can say is that the Oppo players since the 103 have provided external HDMI inputs (two on the 103/105, one on the 203/205). This allows all of the audio/video processing and routing capabilities of the player which would normally be applied to playing discs, to also be applied to any of the other HDMI external sources fed to the Oppo.
...

These HDMI inputs can have pretty unusual use. My Oppo 103 has Samsung UHD blu ray player on it's HDMI input! So, if the ordinary blu ray edition doesn't have a soundtrack format that I need, and 4K blu ray edition does have it, Samsung sends to Oppo downconverted 1080p picture and that better audio format (for example, in the future, with the Realiser A16, a 3D audio bitstream).