Article: Objective and Subjective Review Of My 7.1.4 Immersive Audiophile System

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[jrobbins50]

What fun, Chris!  Thanks to Mitch and you for such a nice detailed article.  I’ve only listened to Rocket Man in the lossless 5.1 MCH format — will check out the Atmos version for comparison now!  JCR 

[Account Closed]

Congratulations on assembling a truly unique in the world system! It brings a smile to my face to see how much you enjoy it!

 

Maybe a system like this could be built in areas where there are enough people who would be willing to pay by the hour to listen to music in this way. I know it would not be cheap but it would be affordable for those who could never own a system like this.

 

Rock on!

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, bobflood said:

Congratulations on assembling a truly unique in the world system! It brings a smile to my face to see how much you enjoy it!

 

Maybe a system like this could be built in areas where there are enough people who would be willing to pay by the hour to listen to music in this way. I know it would not be cheap but it would be affordable for those who could never own a system like this.

 

Rock on!

I’m so happy my enthusiasm and enjoyment of music through this system shines through. It’s truly an amazing experience. 
 

Hmmm, ticket sales to recoup the cost. 😆

[botrytis]

16 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m so happy my enthusiasm and enjoyment of music through this system shines through. It’s truly an amazing experience. 
 

Hmmm, ticket sales to recoup the cost. 😆

 

And to visit the Twin Cities is also a plus. Maybe with a great tour guide *hint hint*

 

So Cool for Chicago....

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, botrytis said:

 

And to visit the Twin Cities is also a plus. Maybe with a great tour guide *hint hint*

 

So Cool for Chicago....

Absolutely!

[PeterG]

Wow--super!

 

On George Harrison--absolutely!  And I share your odd love of I'd Have You Anytime (can't figure out why...)  I recommend Concert for Bangladesh, Get Back (the documentary), and Let It Be (the new 5 or 6 disc version).  The documentary in particular will make you shake your head--a genius repeatedly dissed by greater geniuses...

[bbosler]

another good episode . As much as I enjoy the hardware discussion, since I'm pretty much set on that side of it, I am actually more interested in the software side. It would be nice to have a list of the music you mentioned in the article along with sources. Since some is on Apple, some only on disc, some elsewhere, it would be convenient (read "I am lazy") if we had a list rather than going through the article and trying to figure out where to get it

 

 I picked up a copy of  Le Sacre Du Printemps on Discogs for $13.50 incl. shipping. Not so lucky on the 2L stuff so that will cost me

 

I have the George Harrison vinyl box set, guess I should have gone for the one that has the discs

[keeper]

It’s been a great read from start to end, but i’d be interested in a normal working man system.

What would someone build in a standard lounge for everyday use?

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, keeper said:

It’s been a great read from start to end, but i’d be interested in a normal working man system.

What would someone build in a standard lounge for everyday use?

I'm with you 100%

 

Systems exists at all price levels, and less expensive gear has never been better. I set out to do the absolute best I could, but I also realize it's a bit over the top for most people. More to come on additional ways to do this for sure. 

[DuckToller]

@The Computer Audiophile
Chris,
feilcitations for having such an otherworldly system, and even more that hyper-exceptional sensual experience with this 1in@kind system.
There is a part in my brain that envies you a bit, while my ratio tells me - loud and clear - that this isn't my journey.
Would you think that people with less audio optimized spending plans may profit from the same  software architecture / processing you utilized, with a less ultra HE quality system, i.e. POLK or KLIPSCH combined with Topping/SMSL multichannel DAC & Class D amplification?
Just trying to map this exceptional story into a budget aware household scenario, where the whole system may cost less than one of your monoblocks ...
Kudos to @mitchco for his unbelievable wizardry in DSP/DRC.
Best , Tom

 

[retro]

Great article Chris. Thank you!

 

Looking forward to the next articles. Especially curious as to how Trinnov stands up against Audiolense.  @mitchcoalready knows, of course..🙂..? You now have a system that seems done and ready (?), should be perfect for comparing the various DRC's out there..?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

13 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

@The Computer Audiophile
Chris,
feilcitations for having such an otherworldly system, and even more that hyper-exceptional sensual experience with this 1in@kind system.
There is a part in my brain that envies you a bit, while my ratio tells me - loud and clear - that this isn't my journey.
Would you think that people with less audio optimized spending plans may profit from the same  software architecture / processing you utilized, with a less ultra HE quality system, i.e. POLK or KLIPSCH combined with Topping/SMSL multichannel DAC & Class D amplification?
Just trying to map this exceptional story into a budget aware household scenario, where the whole system may cost less than one of your monoblocks ...
Kudos to @mitchco for his unbelievable wizardry in DSP/DRC.
Best , Tom

 

 

Hi Tom, I absolutely encourage people to do this at any level they wish. As you know, great things are possible with less expensive components now days. Add in DSP form Mitch, and people should be thrilled with the results. I love Klipsch, and think the performance for what one pays is really good. 

[Kal Rubinson]

2 hours ago, bbosler said:

 I picked up a copy of  Le Sacre Du Printemps on Discogs for $13.50 incl. shipping.

Which one?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Here's the one I have - https://www.amazon.com/Stravinsky-Printemps-Miraculous-Mandarin-Mussorgsky/dp/B08NVGHHS5/

[The Computer Audiophile]

@DuckToller, another really neat way to do this would be with wireless speakers. Although a power cord is far from wireless. Perhaps PoE surround speakers because the twisted pair cable is easier to snake through places and length isn’t an issue. 
 

There are many creative ways to do this. All valid and fun. 

[cjf]

I can appreciate the effort involved in getting all the pieces to work together in harmony. Very nice work by all parties who participated in making it happen. 👍

[Jud]

About George and All Things Must Pass, perhaps you know this already: Quite a few of the songs were written by George during the Beatle days, and in particular, if you remember from the Get Back documentary when George quit the band during the Let It Be sessions, during the few days before he came back he wrote Wah Wah.  "I don't need no wah wah," i.e., "I don't need all the crying and noise I'm getting from you guys."  I'd Have You Anytime was from a period before Let It Be when he was hanging out with Dylan and The Band and they were influencing his songwriting.  (George became friendly with Dylan, Eric Clapton with J. Robbie Robertson.)

[The Computer Audiophile]

4 minutes ago, Jud said:

About George and All Things Must Pass, perhaps you know this already: Quite a few of the songs were written by George during the Beatle days, and in particular, if you remember from the Get Back documentary when George quit the band during the Let It Be sessions, during the few days before he came back he wrote Wah Wah.  "I don't need no wah wah," i.e., "I don't need all the crying and noise I'm getting from you guys."  I'd Have You Anytime was from a period before Let It Be when he was hanging out with Dylan and The Band and they were influencing his songwriting.  (George became friendly with Dylan, Eric Clapton with J. Robbie Robertson.)

Love the info Jud. I know next to nothing about him, but now I really want to know more. 

[Jud]

I'd never seen Saturday Night Live before (it was just starting), and one night I turned on the TV and saw THIS:

 

 

 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled discussion of immersive audio 🙂 (though I can tell you I felt pretty darn immersed in what was coming from our little TV set).

[Mantheunknown]

Great article Chris,

 

Could you please elaborate on how you integrate/use Hapi Mk2 and Anubis.  What feeds it/them and I suppose they feed the amps.  Have you listened to DSD 256 through them.  Your opinion?

Thank you

Cheers

 

[bbosler]

8 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

10 hours ago, bbosler said:

 I picked up a copy of  Le Sacre Du Printemps on Discogs for $13.50 incl. shipping.

Which one?

the one Chris mentioned above

 

 

[ShawnC]

Where's the sign up sheet for the ultimate listening experience😉.  You should start a food shelf donation for admission, J/K.  Simply amazing Chris.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 hours ago, bbosler said:

the one Chris mentioned above

 

 

Make sure you got the Blu-ray, not the SACD as pictured. 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

Thanks Chris for this very thorough latest instalment from yourself and Mitch on your Immersive system. Peter McGrath certainly has the experience to tune by ear. I had a long chat with him at the Munich show where he shared some valuable words of wisdom with me.

 

From Mitch's comments it's clear that although DSP is necessary, he was careful to keep it to a minimum.

 

The next point you made is particularly interesting too me…

Quote

Side note two, Atmos music uses the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel as just that, for low frequency effects. This means that all bass is NOT routed to the subwoofer. Many recordings use very little of the LFE channel.

 

With the Wilson Alexias you, of course, have a full range speaker and as Mitch noted he ensured all the other non-bass producing speakers have been set to go as low as they're capable of. Firstly I will just note that there is a school of thought that advises to hand over as much bass as possible to a subwoofer(s) so the other speakers don't need to work as hard. Perhaps though this isn't a concern for the Wilsons as they're designed so well.

 

Secondly in addition to your full range Alexias, of course, you also have your Wilson Audio Lōkē subwoofer, and this is being used as the LFE (low frequency effects channel) only.

 

In my case my Avantgarde Trios need the short Basshorns to become full range speakers. The Trios despite their size or rather because of their size reach to 100hz and so are regarded as satellite speakers. In terms of frequency reach alone they could be regarded similar to bookshelf speakers, which need a sub.

 

The pair of Short Basshorns can accept either the speaker input, extended from the Trios or an XLR input. For my MCH system I use the XLR input fed from my Exasound DAC. I found it was a pain to keep switching between Speaker input and XLR input when I go between MCH and Stereo sources though, because it means toggling a switch at the rear of the Basshorns and because of their position close to the corners, this is tricky to reach on one of the Basshorns. My solution has been to blend the front left and right channels 1 & 2 into the LFE channel 4, attenuated by 24db using HQPlayer's Matrix Pilepline tool. For two channel sources I actually prefer this to the speaker feed.

 

Then my other dilemma was that I didn't want this blend to occur when I actually play MCH sources, thinking the bass is present on the LFE channel; but as you've pointed out that is not, or at least usually not the case. LFE is for additional effects only, at least with Atmos.

 

That explains why some of the Apple Spatial music I've been listening to sounded a little lightweight (including George Harrison). So thanks again. Now I can be lazy and use the blend at all times.

 

My only concern is that if I encounter recordings where most of the bass is sent to the LFE channel, I could encounter excessive bass. So far that's not been a problem though and this change to include the blend is sounding better.

 

A lot of traditional MCH recordings are 5 channel anyway and are missing the .1 channel, so they would definitely require this blend.

 

That goes to show how inconsistent MCH/Immersive recordings are. We've always had inconsistency with recordings from their production through mixing and mastering. Now with Immersive/MCH those inconsistencies are multiplied.

 

On the positive side though, as you've detailed in your subjective listening report, Immersive can better allow us to appreciate music we may not have appreciated or under appreciated up to now.

 

For me it's almost becoming a requirement for my full enjoyment of classical music. I'm not so sure about other genres though.