Recent Audio Technology Articles

Turntables are getting very popular again. People are rediscovering the romance and appeal of vinyl, plus there is the now-solidly-entrenched faction that simply believes that analog-produced music sounds better than digitally-produced music. Today, $3000 turntables are commonplace. But how did we get here? Let’s take a step back and look at the history and development of the modern turntable to see why things are as they are.

IMAX has been a staple in the movie theaters as the best in sound and video for over a decade. Now they want to bring that experience into the home theater realm but it's going to involve 3 things: IMAX Enhanced hardware, and content. OK that's 2 things. Ironically the new standard that they're attempting to set mentions nothing about the room acoustics or speaker dispersion or output requirements. Perhaps in the near future that will be revised but let's go with what we know so far to determine if IMAX Enhanced is a must have in your home theater.

Dirac Panorama Sound is a new mobile audio solution designed to improve the relatively unsatisfying experience of watching content and playing games on portable devices with small, closely-positioned speakers. Like the company’s state-of-the-art room correction software, Dirac’s mobile tech optimizes both impulse and frequency response to improve sound quality and create the impression of a wider soundstage. Does Dirac Panorama Sound have the edge over competing solutions from Dolby and DTS?

Variety is said to be the spice of life. Why only eat cherry Starbursts when you can sample orange, watermelon, lemon, etc? The same applies to multi-channel surround sound upmixers. But the folks at Dolby® apparently want you to eat ONLY one flavor. Their flavor. Dolby recently issued a mandate to ALL of their Atmos licensee partners to restrict usage of 3rd party upmixers with ANY Dolby signals including 5.1/7.1 DD, DD+, TrueHD and Atmos. What implications will this have in your system? Read on to find out and be sure to watch our related YouTube video discussion too.

One of the most important conclusions we took away from CES 2018, is that true wireless hi-fi has finally coming of age. Vendors have demonstrated new audio products using aptX HD and LDAC codecs, these are the high-resolution options we’ve been waiting for. Wireless audio over Bluetooth can be confusing, but it’s never sounded better than ever before. This article breaks down the different flavors of codecs and discusses how near CD quality audio is now possible over Bluetooth.

Surround sound, immersive audio, and 3D sound are growing in popularity and importance as gaming, VR, movies, and music embrace multi-channel audio. With multiple strategically-placed amplified speakers, headphones with motion tracking and binaural content, and beamforming sound bars all at your disposal, all three can deliver enhanced listening, but vary tremendously in cost and convenience. We take a look at these three methods to help you decide which one is right for you.

Surround formats have evolved over the years and with all of the different ones available, it's often confusing to the neophytes on what the differences are. Ever look at a new AV receiver and notice the plethora of logos on the front panel? This YouTube video and supplementary editorial discusses those logos and provides a brief comparison of the major consumer surround formats and how they've changed over the years. If you're still rocking an 80's Prologic receiver, it may be time for an upgrade. We've come a long way baby.

Is it worth revisiting some of your favorite stereo recordings in surround sound? Purists would disagree and would never listen to stereo music in surround, we get that. But true surround sound processed from a stereo source can be quite nice. This article introduces you to the ins and outs of stereo music and how it progressed into the surround we have today. I don’t listen in surround the majority of the time, but there are times when it really works well. Tell us your preference in the related forum thread.

We were fortunate to be invited out to PRO Audio's headquarters in southern California for a 23-channel Atmos demo featuring Trinnov processing and 14,800 watts of power. What we saw and heard here was an immersive surround sound Atmos/DTS:X spectacle based on science; no gimmicky bouncy house speakers were used. Instead, PRO Audio employed ALL high efficient, discretely placed speakers that sounded superb for two-channel and full on multi-channel surround sound. If you have the funds for a high-quality sound system and you do not want to ask “What if?,” then look no further than PRO Audio Technology.

At AXPONA 2015 Legacy Audio provided an excellent opportunity for audiophiles to carefully compare several common playback resolution levels on a high quality system. The session was without agenda and provided a reality check for listeners. Music was provided by Sonos Luminus imported into JRiver and handled in PCM format for continuous playback. Did the participants hear a difference between MP3 and high resolution audio? Can you hear a difference? Read on to find out.

DTS:X is a new object-based 3D audio format that claims to work with almost any speaker setup and configuration. We were on-site at the unveiling at DTS headquarters, and are here to share what we know. We discuss how DTS:X will work in the cinema, home theater and headphones. Is this the immersive, object-based audio format we've been waiting for? Will DTS:X revolutionize how we listen to headphones? Only time will tell.

Our very own Marshall Guthrie was invited out to the DTS press event to witness, firsthand, their new object-based audio system, DTS:X. Marshall’s initial impressions: there is real game-changing potential in DTS:X that includes the ability to put your speakers where you want them and still get good sound, open format tools for movie mixing professionals, and really amazing sound for headphone users too. Unlike Dolby Atmos, DTS:X is not tied to a prescribed speaker configuration or a specified number of channels. This opens a lot of flexibility and acceptance for our proposed Universal Speaker Layout for 3D Immersive Surround Formats.

Before there was Dolby Atmos, or even discrete 5.1 surround sound, there was matrixed surround processing based off a discrete two-channel feed. Ever wonder how Dolby Pro Logic II came about and how it leapfrogged the original Pro Logic decoding? Industry vet Paul Scarpelli recounts a historical perspective on 6-Axis surround originally developed by Jim Fosgate and how it battled Harman's very own Logic 7 format to be the next generation defacto surround decoder. Read about the silent format war and the battle to win Dolby over for Pro Logic II.

With Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D and DTS:X upon us, why has there been no universally accepted speaker layout proposed to accommodate all three competing Immersive Surround formats? The “classic 11.2” configuration originally introduced by Yamaha's flagship RX-Z11 AV Receiver back in 2007 mentioned in the article was NOT proposed, which surprises, because one can imagine this configuration to get closer to the “ideal” configuration for all three formats and certainly with MUCH better results than bouncing sound off the ceiling via Dolby-Enabled speakers. For those willing and able to go beyond 7.1. we propose a universal 11.2 speaker layout to ease compatibility and ensure constantly good performance for ALL formats and all seated locations in your home theater.