[GeorgeA]

Congratulations. If I would live in the US I am sure I would also try to get my measurements done by the “A16 whisperer John Teixeira”.
Living here in Germany I will now start with the MSM studios with the help of the German distributor For-Tune, in person Stefan Mayer. Which is really nice as he has gained some experience how to place the inear microphones. In his experience this step is most crucial. And I can say that with my limited experience I gained when doing the measurement with @sander99 this was the most uncomfortable step. The picture in the manual is not that clear for me.

BTW For-Tune/msm will use the asynchronous measurement option. I asked if this isn’t inferior in quality.
In his experience this delivers the same results as the synchronous measurement. Unfortunately I have not option to ask for the synchronous measurement.

Date is scheduled. Will let you know how it went.

Auro 3D has to wait a bit before I can invest in the upgrade plus measurements at the Galaxy studios. As Wilfried Van Baelen has to my knowledge no experience in the setup of the A16 this would need to be done all by myself/or the people who are willing to go with me.
Plus as Stefan Mayer from For-Tune pointed out, it is not so easy to connect one of the standard A16 to the professional equipment. Hence the asynchronous measurement he will use.

As the Realiser A16 unit doesn’t need to be connected to the loudspeaker amplifiers, I think the asynchronous method is somewhat easier and quicker. The user manual didn’t highlight which of the two methods would prevail. There’s only a brief comparison in the paragraph Choosing the Sync (ALL) or Async method.

At the msm studio web page, they specified that “The Dolby Atmos Home certified Immersive Suite with a 9.1.4 playback system and full HD projection facilitates mixing and mastering of music productions in all popular immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos Home, Sony 360, Auro 3D, DTS:X, MPEG-H and Fraunhofer SpatialSound Wave.” So, I think that you’re also covered for Auro 3D. Good luck!

 

[esimms86]

Congratulations. If I would live in the US I am sure I would also try to get my measurements done by the “A16 whisperer John Teixeira”.
Living here in Germany I will now start with the MSM studios with the help of the German distributor For-Tune, in person Stefan Mayer. Which is really nice as he has gained some experience how to place the inear microphones. In his experience this step is most crucial. And I can say that with my limited experience I gained when doing the measurement with @sander99 this was the most uncomfortable step. The picture in the manual is not that clear for me.


BTW For-Tune/msm will use the asynchronous measurement option. I asked if this isn’t inferior in quality.
In his experience this delivers the same results as the synchronous measurement. Unfortunately I have not option to ask for the synchronous measurement.

Date is scheduled. Will let you know how it went.

Auro 3D has to wait a bit before I can invest in the upgrade plus measurements at the Galaxy studios. As Wilfried Van Baelen has to my knowledge no experience in the setup of the A16 this would need to be done all by myself/or the people who are willing to go with me.
Plus as Stefan Mayer from For-Tune pointed out, it is not so easy to connect one of the standard A16 to the professional equipment. Hence the asynchronous measurement he will use.

I wish you the best with your measurements at MSM. I very much look forward to reading your recounting of your experience there.

I would also highly recommend that you purchase the Dekoni Audio foam ear tips. This is what John Teixeira recommends(and was used during my measurements). They will set you back a whopping 13 USD!

 

[Litlgi74]

I wish you the best with your measurements at MSM. I very much look forward to reading your recounting of your experience there.

I would also highly recommend that you purchase the Dekoni Audio foam ear tips. This is what John Teixeira recommends(and was used during my measurements). They will set you back a whopping 13 USD!

Dekoni Audio Gemini Series Bulletz - Moldable Memory Foam Isolation Earphone Tips, Black, 3mm (Sample Pack) https://a.co/d/a2VvliV

Make sure you get the Gemini and the sample pack... They are snug going on. But once they are in your ears... They don't move.

 

[Richter Di]

I wish you the best with your measurements at MSM. I very much look forward to reading your recounting of your experience there.

I would also highly recommend that you purchase the Dekoni Audio foam ear tips. This is what John Teixeira recommends(and was used during my measurements). They will set you back a whopping 13 USD!

Dekoni Audio Gemini Series Bulletz - Moldable Memory Foam Isolation Earphone Tips, Black, 3mm (Sample Pack) https://a.co/d/a2VvliV

Make sure you get the Gemini and the sample pack... They are snug going on. But once they are in your ears... They don't move.

Got them a while ago in preparation for upcoming measurements. Will take them with me.

 

[esimms86]

If you Google “2L Recordings Auro 3D,” you will be directed to 3 pages of classical and experimental music available for purchase in blu ray format. If you take a deeper dive, going disc by disc, you will see that many of the recordings have hi res mixes in Auro 3D AND Dolby Atmos. I acknowledge that such music might not be everybody’s cup of tea. Nonetheless, if anybody has access to any such recordings, it would be most interesting for forum members to post their impressions of Auro 3D vs Dolby Atmos going head to head.

 

[Dixter]

just in case some are fans of the SACD surround sound CD formats... they play back either in 5.1 surround ( Auro OFF ) or play back in 13.1 Auro 3D ( Auro ON )... both sound very good...

 

[Sonicmasala]

I’ve installed AURO on my A16. No hiccups during installation. Restarted the equipment and configured the rooms. There are no proper speaker layouts from the BBC and Surry rooms. Did a mix and match together with John’s Genelec speaker PRIR. It was the closers I could get to AURO specs. Normalise the audio and started to test on some streaming movies.

I’m using a Hifiman Arya as my goto headphones for movie watching. It is well known for a wide and enveloping soundstage. For music I use a Audeze LCD-X. I just love the musicality of Audeze sound. I activated AURO as my default mode rather then set it in auto.

The experience was amazing. With 5.1 audio tracks The A16 switched to Auromatic and boy, it rivalled some Atmos tracks and more. For Atmos tracks it remained in Atmos mode. You get to hear a sphere of sound around you. The overhead speaks were active most of the time and the flyovers really flew over the top of my head! It was atmospheric! In It that regard it’s better then Atmos. It took the Arya to another level!

I still could hear the layout was not coherent due to the mix match of speakers and speaker angeles. Only issue I had was the front stage was closer to you. Need to play with my settings I guess. The other possibility was, I was using AURO 13.1 which used the Center height speaker. It might have contributed to the front sounding close in.
I do have a collection of AURO movies discs that I have yet to try out.

In my opinion,Overall I would say it’s worth the money.

I’m now awaiting for a native AURO speaker layout PRIR from John! and I will be in line to purchase it.

 

[GeorgeA]

If you Google “2L Recordings Auro 3D,” you will be directed to 3 pages of classical and experimental music available for purchase in blu ray format. If you take a deeper dive, going disc by disc, you will see that many of the recordings have hi res mixes in Auro 3D AND Dolby Atmos. I acknowledge that such music might not be everybody’s cup of tea. Nonetheless, if anybody has access to any such recordings, it would be most interesting for forum members to post their impressions of Auro 3D vs Dolby Atmos going head to head.

Some time ago I bought some of the pure audio blu-ray discs from 2L, but at that time the immersive formats were not yet available. I’m contemplating ordering Home - Jan Gunnar Hoff pure audio blu-ray disc, which consists of 2.0 LPCM 192/24, 5.1 DTS HD-MA 192/24, 7.1.4 Auro-3D 96kHz, 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz, mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3.

I think that purchasing pure audio blu-ray discs is more advantageous than streaming services because for certain productions one can access mShuttle enabled content.

mShuttle opens the possibility to enjoy music content from a Blu-ray Disc in any format. Perfect listening experience of Pure Audio Blu-ray in studio quality at home, with additional mp3, flac or mqa files for your mobile devices.
Source: https://www.pureaudio-bluray.com/mshuttle/

 

[GeorgeA]

You may have noticed that these new pure audio blu-ray discs consist of several flavours: LPCM, lossless DTS or Dolby and the new immersive formats: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D. I was wondering how did sound engineers record and mix all these formats? One answer might come from the attached pictures that I downloaded from 2L site. The attached picture #1 shows the backside cover of Home - Jan Gunnar Hoff pure audio blu-ray disc. The quite sophisticated microphone setup used for recording is shown in the attached picture #2 and I think that picture #3 explains how those various formats are derived.

The following excerpt reveals Morten Lindberg’s philosophy on the art of sound: “There is no method available today to reproduce the exact perception of attending a live performance. That leaves us with the art of illusion when it comes to recording music. As recording engineers and producers we need to do exactly the same as any good musician: interpret the music and the composer’s intentions and adapt to the media where we perform. Immersive Audio is a completely new conception of the musical experience. Recorded music is no longer a matter of a fixed one- or two-dimensional setting, but rather a three-dimensional enveloping situation. Immersive Audio is a sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially; surrounded by music you can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions. Rather than reproducing a concert situation we consider the Recording Art a discipline on its own. It gives us the possibility to place the listener in an ideal position and become an actual party to the event. Thru a dedicated production of the music we can maximize energy, reveal all the small nuances and avoid disturbing distractions. The emotional impact can be made massive. The conductor’s position is the seat no audience can afford — until now with these dedicated recordings.”
Source: http://www.2l.no/

 

[Litlgi74]

I own both of these discs.. neither of which the Auro 3D track works correctly.




They play through Auromatic... But as DTS upmix.

I have other Auro discs that work as they should.

 

[Eich1eeF]

BTW For-Tune/msm will use the asynchronous measurement option. I asked if this isn’t inferior in quality.
In his experience this delivers the same results as the synchronous measurement. Unfortunately I have not option to ask for the synchronous measurement.

Actually, there should be no difference at all between an synchronous measurement and an async measurement performed with lossless signals. For the lossy encoded Atmos async files, there should be no meaningful difference, i.e. there might be a minor difference, but it should be inaudible (the signals are essentially pure sine waves encoded at the maximum bit rate).

 

[Litlgi74]

Just as a reminder... Before sending The Smyths (James) your log file to purchase the Auro-3D decoder...

You must have DTS-X and the latest firmware installed to create the necessary log file.

 

[esimms86]

So much for my powers of prediction. This is a post I made on October 25, 2021:

"If they ever achieve Auro 3D certification, I don't know if I will spring for it given how little there is out there in Auro 3D(and I don't anticipate ever having a true Auro 3D PRIR). As I think about it, Auro 3D might be a tough hurdle for the Smyths given the fact that very few people would be willing to pay a high premium for such a niche format."

Ha! Here I am, less than 9 months later, with the Auro 3D upgrade installed on my A16 and with an in person 3D Soundshop Auro 3D PRIR!

And here's a post from @Lamerhouse on the same day. You tell me who had the better insight into the future:

"Aura(sic) 3D is in the certification phase, as is DTS. It will take a while but I think it will see the light of day in mid-2022."

 

[esimms86]

I finally got to do some listening with a variety of music recordings using the Auro-matic upmixer. All I can say is, very impressive! I did initially have difficulty getting it to work (no sound) but that was remedied by first loading the stock BBC Preset #1 and then loading my preset containing my Auro 3D PRIR. And folks, be sure to set your A16 to 16 channels (not 24) before selecting Auro 3D.

 

[Got the Shakes]

I paid for the Auro 3D upgrade and received the permissions file from James this morning to perform the upgrade. Do I follow the same instructions that I used for the DTS upgrade? James didn't send any instructions and has not responded to my question about how to actually perform the upgrade.