[GeorgeA]

Unlikely, at least how the word "bitstream" is usually used in this context, because it would mean that FLAC was sent as such over HDMI, and I'd be very surprised if the Realiser was able to detect and decode that. It's more likely that it was decompressed and sent as PCM.

As my player, Cambridge Audio CXUHD is an audio transport device only (no DACs), I have to set “HDMI Audio format – Bitstream” within “Audio Output Setup” options (the attached picture #01). That’s the context.

In addition, I was wondering how the additional information for Auro-3D was added in a flac or wav file? The answer was at https://spiritofturtle.com/pages/latest-news
“Launch of AURO-3D Productions
The spirit of Turtle will release some 50 productions over the coming months that have been recorded in the 9.1 AURO-3D format. In close collaboration with the AURO team in Mol Belgium, all original 10ch DXD recordings will be encoded in the standard 96kHz/24bit FLAC for distribution. The format has the 4 height channels encoded in 5.1 files, which are backward compatible on all standard 5.1 Surround Sound systems, but with a dedicated AURO-3D encoder will deliver the genuine 9.1 result.”

When I played back the purchased The Four Seasons flac files, the display of my Realiser A16 unit showed as in the attached picture #02, for both setting values AURO-3D and native in the Auro listening mode. For comparison, when I played back another 2.0 flac file, for the setting value AURO-3D in the Auro listening mode, the AuroMatic upmixer kicked in (the attached picture #03), whereas for the setting value native in the Auro listening mode, the file was played back with the channels the same as it was recorded but in an Auro listening room (the attached picture #04).

 

[dsperber]

@dsperber, your custom-built Billy Baggs equipment rack looks like an audio-video nostalgia for one’s heyday.

Actually, I misspelled their name. It is actually "Billy Bags", not Baggs. Only one "g".

Anyway the rack shown earlier is the "high boy" rack, which I had intended specifically to hold "audio equipment". The vertical shelf spacing was per my spec (I knew what equipment I was going to put in each opening) and counting the very top of the unit there is room for at least 8+ components.

I also needed a "low boy" credenza rack to hold my 200lb. Sampo 34WHD5 CRT HDTV, along with associated video-related equipment (including the huge Sony EDV-9000 ED Beta VCR I had back then, which is as large as and even heavier than any of Yamaha's AVRs of today). Again, knowing the equipment that would go into which cubbyhole of the rack, I had Billy Bags custom build a second companion rack per my spec, specifically intended for the TV and video equipment. As you can see from the photo below, I actually use the large shelf in the lower-right corner to hold my Yamaha AVR today, but back then it was for the EDV-9000 VCR. And of course when the 200lb Sampo HDTV died it was replaced by a very similar giant 200lb Sony 34XBR960, which was sold some years back and replaced first by a wall-mounted Panny 65VT50 and subsequently by an LG 65" OLED C9. So the top of this Billy Bags credenza rack now serves simply as a table top for stuff.

 

[Richter Di]

I think that if you follow the suggestions at spiritofturtle.com (attached picture #01), you’ll be able to listen to the music in Auro-3D. Particularly, the Realiser A16 is the Auro-3D AVR.

All my non-disc audio and video data are stored in mobile HDDs, which I can easily connect to my player via USB cable. The player bitstreams those files to my Realiser A16 unit, which fulfils its already known functions.

The Four Seasons (Download) flac files were played back by my player (attached picture #02) and bitstreamed to the Realiser A16. The attached picture #03 shows Realiser’s display when Auro-3d was off (pretty similar with a non-capable Auro-3D device) and in the attached picture #04, Auro-3D was on. I’m wondering how the additional information for Auro-3D is added in a flac or wav file?

It should be possible to install Kodi or VLC on the Firestick, both should work just as well on a Windows PC. In any case, configuring those to play back DTS (and therefore as an extension also Auro 3D) may not be easy.

Thank you for your answers.
As I still have no Auro 3D update on my A16 I bought two Dolby Atmos productions from The Spirit of Turtle.
Vivaldi and Goldberg Variations.
Now, playing the files via CyberLink PowerDVD 21 or VLC Mediaplayer was easy and straight forward.

Playing them via USB stick on my Sony UBP-X800M2 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player is not. The A16 thinks he is seeing a HDMI PCM discrete 8-CH. The Blu-ray player is able to play Dolby Atmos otherwise. So it was a bit of a surprise. At the same time it clearly has sound on all channels.
The file on the USB stick has MLP 7.1 and LPCM 7.1 but the Blu-Ray Player says he can only handle the MLP.

Any suggestions?

 

[Eich1eeF]

As my player, Cambridge Audio CXUHD is an audio transport device only (no DACs), I have to set “HDMI Audio format – Bitstream” within “Audio Output Setup” options (the attached picture #01). That’s the context.

You've set HDMI to auto in screenshot #1. That should be no different from "bitstream".

[...]

When I played back the purchased The Four Seasons flac files, the display of my Realiser A16 unit showed as in the attached picture #02.

It's clearly PCM from the point of view of the A16, so no bitstreaming FLAC over HDMI (it's not standadized and would be essentially pointless anyway). Does the A16 switch to Auro automatically, or do you have to switch that on explicitly?

 

[GeorgeA]

You've set HDMI to auto in screenshot #1. That should be no different from "bitstream".

It's clearly PCM from the point of view of the A16, so no bitstreaming FLAC over HDMI (it's not standadized and would be essentially pointless anyway). Does the A16 switch to Auro automatically, or do you have to switch that on explicitly?

My attached picture #01 is a screenshot from the manual. The actual setting was “HDMI Audio format – Bitstream”. The Realiser A16 doesn’t switch to Auro-3D automatically, there’s an Auro button under Settings > System > Misc settings > Auro 3D. In addition, there’s the Auro listening mode: stereo, surround, native and Auro-3D.

By attaching pictures #2-4 at my previous message, I wanted to highlight that under bitstream setting in my player the Four Seasons flac files (Auro-3D encoded) were played back as in picture #2 for both settings native and Auro-3D in the Auro listening mode. Under the same bitstream setting in my player, for another flac file, not labelled with Auro-3D encoding, the AuroMatic upmixer kicked in (the attached picture #03) when AURO-3D was set in the Auro listening mode, whereas for the setting value native, the file was played back with the channels the same as it was recorded but in an Auro listening room (the attached picture #04). In other words, the Four Seasons flac files purchased as Auro-3D downloads from spiritofturtle.com were played back as Auro-3D productions.

 

[GeorgeA]

...........................

Playing them via USB stick on my Sony UBP-X800M2 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player is not. The A16 thinks he is seeing a HDMI PCM discrete 8-CH. The Blu-ray player is able to play Dolby Atmos otherwise. So it was a bit of a surprise. At the same time it clearly has sound on all channels.
The file on the USB stick has MLP 7.1 and LPCM 7.1 but the Blu-Ray Player says he can only handle the MLP.

Any suggestions?

Have a look at the page no. 22 of the user manual, Sony UBP-X800M2: To enjoy Bitstream (Dolby/DTS) signals, set [BD Secondary Audio] to [Off] and [Digital Audio Output] to [Auto].

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Just updated to 2.11, did the full factory reboot, re-established my data, and sent the log file to James. Hopefully, I'll be getting the DTS-X and Auro files in a few days.

 

[esimms86]

Just updated to 2.11, did the full factory reboot, re-established my data, and sent the log file to James. Hopefully, I'll be getting the DTS-X and Auro files in a few days.

Welcome to the club @phoenixdogfan. Trust me, you’ll never look back.

 

[dsperber]

Just updated to 2.11, did the full factory reboot, re-established my data, and sent the log file to James. Hopefully, I'll be getting the DTS-X and Auro files in a few days.

I made contact with James back on August 3, letting him know that I wanted to purchase the Auro update. He got back to me the next day (August 4) requesting that I confirm that I was on 2.11 and already had the DTS-X update (which he surely already knew, since he himself had installed it in my A16 when he had the unit in his hands when I'd sent it to him for the 24ch HDMI hardware upgrade earlier this year and we decided to go ahead with the DTS-X upgrade all at the same time). And he told me that if that was true, to generate the log file and send it to him and he would then send me a PayPal invoice which I would then pay, and we could go forward and complete everything.

Within an hour of hearing from him I created the log file and emailed him. No response. So four days later (August 8) I sent a followup, asking if he'd received the log file I'd sent and if it was satisfactory, and that I was still awaiting his PayPal invoice so I could pay them and receive the Auro file in return. Here it is now August 15 and there's still been no invoice from James.

I don't want to be a pest, so I'll wait a few more days to see what happens this week, before emailing him again.

Just FYI.

 

[dsperber]

"Record output of Sonic Hologram process, for playback in my car" project brief status update:

(1) Phase 1 complete (not without some issues to overcome, see below). WAV file recorded on PC, and then burned to CD for playback in my car.

Although my car does not have a USB/SD digital input to its media system, it does have a CD player which obviously is just as good. So while I certainly could create a FLAC file from the WAV and then write it to my Cowon J3 player for "analog" playback in my car from the J3's headphone jack into the car's AUX 3.5mm stereo input, I decided I might as well just use a physical CD as yet one more alternative "digital" format (of the WAV master) instead of the unavailable USB drive or SD flash card. Really shouldn't make any difference in seeing what "recorded sonic hologram" sounds like played in my car, since the FLAC file is digitally identical to the WAV->CD anyway. So it's just a matter of which "player" and DAC is utilized to go from digital to analog for listening. I don't think this should have any effect on the "3D illusion" I'm interested in experiencing.

Tomorrow I will actually play it in my car, along with the original "master" CD. Subjective evaluation and comments to follow.

(2) I ran into an immediate MAJOR problem after getting all of the cabling done, to connect the RCA preamp output (of my T2) into the line-in of my PC's sound card. When I activated "listen to this RECORD device on default PLAYBACK device" when setting line-in as the source, there resulted a very severe 120hz ground loop hum. There is no hum when I "listen" to the microphone (plugged into mic-in of the sound card). But this line-in (RCA cable) coming from outside the PC, i.e. from my audio system, well the RCA cable connection of the two systems obviously has introduced this very bad hum.

Fortunately, I had actually faced (and solved) this very same issue back a year or two ago when I hired Lorr Kramer to render a PRIR measurement in my car, using my A8. We staged the activity in a building garage that had an available power outlet, but once again there was an RCA cable connection from the A8 to the AUX input of the car. And that produced the very same type of hum I experienced tonight connecting my audio system to my PC via RCA cable.

The solution back then (and once again tonight) was to "break" the electrical connection facilitated by the RCA cable which was responsible for the ground loop, while still facilitating the passage of the audio signal. And the trick was to use an analog-to-digital converter fed via RCA-input from the source device, which was then connected via optical cable to a digital-to-analog converter, which then fed RCA-output to the target device. The net result is to have the audio signal "fly through the air via optical, not via copper", thus passing "data" but not involving electricity... and thus eliminating the possibility of a ground loop.

Did the same thing tonight to connnect the RCA output of my T2 preamp to the RCA input of my PC, going through the ADC (on the left in the photo below) and then to the DAC (in the center of the photo below). Each of these gizmos is 5v-powered through a USB cable, like a phone charger or in my case I have a power strip with multiple USB ports for charging (on the right of the photo below):

(3) I had really wanted to create six individual "tracks" on the CD, as there truly are Parts 1-6 on the original CD. Unfortunately there really is no discrete break (or silence) between each "part". They just run consecutively, with one part suddenly becoming the next part without a clear separation.

So I just could not create six discrete "tracks" as I intended. I don't really care, though, for the purpose of this project. So I just created the CD with one large 39 minute "track". Not any type of real problem, and certainly has zero effect on playback in the car and what I will subjectively conclude.

(4) I always put a sticky CD label on any CD I burn, and so I scanned the original CD and duplicated its artwork onto my own printed label. And then I went to print it on my Canon Pixma 9000 II photo printer (which hadn't been used for several months). And naturally, 3 of the 8 ink tanks (R, G, and PM) needed to be replaced!! That's how they make money (at about $20 per tank). R and G last a relatively long time. PM gets used up very quickly in quality photo printing. So it cost me $60 just to be able print this one stupid CD label.

==> Nevertheless, Phase 1 is now complete. The proof is in the pudding, so we shall see how it tastes.

 

[Richter Di]

Have a look at the page no. 22 of the user manual, Sony UBP-X800M2: To enjoy Bitstream (Dolby/DTS) signals, set [BD Secondary Audio] to [Off] and [Digital Audio Output] to [Auto].

This exactly the way I have configured my Sony UBP but it still says HDMI PCM Discrete 8 channels.

 

[Camano]

I made contact with James back on August 3,...
I don't want to be a pest, so I'll wait a few more days to see what happens this week, before emailing him again.

FWIW, I received my Auro license from James on 8/3. He may just be on holiday.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I made contact with James back on August 3, letting him know that I wanted to purchase the Auro update. He got back to me the next day (August 4) requesting that I confirm that I was on 2.11 and already had the DTS-X update (which he surely already knew, since he himself had installed it in my A16 when he had the unit in his hands when I'd sent it to him for the 24ch HDMI hardware upgrade earlier this year and we decided to go ahead with the DTS-X upgrade all at the same time). And he told me that if that was true, to generate the log file and send it to him and he would then send me a PayPal invoice which I would then pay, and we could go forward and complete everything.

Within an hour of hearing from him I created the log file and emailed him. No response. So four days later (August 8) I sent a followup, asking if he'd received the log file I'd sent and if it was satisfactory, and that I was still awaiting his PayPal invoice so I could pay them and receive the Auro file in return. Here it is now August 15 and there's still been no invoice from James.

I don't want to be a pest, so I'll wait a few more days to see what happens this week, before emailing him again.

Just FYI.

Oh, I hope not. I want to bring this to completion ASAP.

 

[GeorgeA]

This exactly the way I have configured my Sony UBP but it still says HDMI PCM Discrete 8 channels.

It seems that the issue is not with the settings in the Sony Blu-ray player, but rather with spiritofturtle.com. I’ll write you a private message.

 

[LJG]

Just finished the second round of in-house calibration services from John of 3D soundshop. John is very passionate about his tuning and calibration services. The results are really astonishing, even the bass is reproduced nicely. I can't recommend John and his in house calibration and tuning services enough. There is no way I could get more than 10 percent of what he attained if I tried to do this myself.