wonder why no one mentions RU-vid Music Premium... its actually pretty good and has lots of music history that the other stream services don't have....
People would still buy CDs if retailers would stock them. So sick of seeing $40 records and then seeing the same album on CD for $10. The music industry is behind this bullshit.
We are living in a truly golden age of audio. Highly affordable products with great performance. Inexpensive access to vast streaming libraries. $329 for so much functionality, that’s insanely good. Twenty five ago I paid $1,100 (probably $2,000 in today’s money) for a tube linestage. All it could do was switch inputs and adjust volume. It had audibly worse performance.
This is highly unlikely, but I really hope it can mix multiple inputs to a single output. Like to chrome cast audio to it while still being able to hear notifications from a PC input.
You made some good points about lack of content on the various generations of format and I'm not convinced by Wilson's response that this time will be different. Oh, and never heard of Gentle Giant? I've got all of SW GG remixes though they are DTS-HD Master Audio until the latest The Missing Piece which has Dolby Atmos.
IF the music industry is trying to move to atmos, what physical formats will atmos music be available on? as far as I know, vinyl and CD (in CDs present version) can't do anything but 2 channel.
This video is very excellent, clear, punctual and addresses a lot of essential things I was wondering about. I bought a WH-1000XM3 some time ago and it changed my listening life experience. I wanted better and bought the XM4, but I like the XM3 more. Now I have so much fun in listening I even want more and searching for even better, when that is available. Thanks.
Get yer keyboards ready... Surround is in the stereo mix. I hear all the atmos effects in surround tests with only two speakers and a class D amp with tube preamp. My speakers are cross streamed and tilted up 7 degrees. The TV and speakers are at a 30 degree angle out from the back wall, and the seating area is parallel to the sound stage. This makes full 360 surround sound with just two Elac DBR62 speakers. AV receivers just separate the effects and send each to a separate amp, then to a single speaker for each part of the mix. Then you can adjust the volume of each speaker to get the surround mix you want. With two speakers, you only hear surround when facing the sound stage. With 5.1 and multiple speakers you hear surround always, if surround is in the mix. A sub is not needed if your speakers and amp can play low and loud enough. Mine go from 30 to 30khz, so full enough range. Great for movies and music. Sound even comes from other rooms sometimes... Once I heard a bird chirping from the ceiling behind me because It was recorded that way. My room is on the small side with smooth walls, art works, carpet and furniture. Nothing special. Larger rooms will benefit from more speakers. Thanks for the video. Surround is in the mix. I hear all the effects in the tests with only two speakers and a class D amp with tube preamp. My speakers are cross streamed and tilted up 7 degrees. The TV and speakers are at 30 degree angle out from back wall, and seating area is parallel to the sound stage. Makes full 360 surround sound. Elac DBR62 speakers. AV receivers just separate the effects and send each to a separate amp, then to a single speaker for each part of the mix. Then you can adjust the volume of each speaker to get the surround mix you want. With two speakers, you only hear surround when facing the sound stage. With 5.1 and multiple speakers you hear surround always, if surround is in the mix. A sub is not needed if your speakers and amp can play low and loud enough. Mine go 30 to 30khz, so full enough range. Great for movies and music. Sound even comes from other rooms sometimes... My room is on the small side. Larger rooms will benefit from more speakers. Thanks for the test. They really worked even on my two channel system!
Say the source resolution over the network is up to 384 kHz / 24 bits But the speakers transmit lower signal resolution between each other Wireless connection: 48kHz / 24 bit PCM Wired connection: 96kHz / 24-bit PCM It turns out 384 kHz / 24 to hear how???
I still buy cds. I still stream, but if I find that I've listened to an album lots of times I'll buy the cd to support the artist. Especially important as spitify certainly don't pay artists. Also, the audio quality is excellent so I'll just swap to the listening to the cd.
Yep. I've literally argued with producers over this. They're wasting all this money kitting out their studios -- from big facilities to bedroom rigs -- as if Atmos is going to be THE standard audio format for music consumption for the foreseeable future, and... no, it's not. This is quad all over again. Consumers are not going to reject the affordability, practicality, and portability of 2-channel stereo to gain the vertical dimension or even rear-placement audio. Just isn't going to happen. Home theater? Sure, absolutely. Audio for video is the only reason for Atmos to exist, be that in homes, movie theaters, or anywhere else. But nobody is going to install Atmos in place of a bookshelf stereo. Nobody is going to install Atmos in place of a hi-fi system. You can approximate three-dimensional audio SOMEWHAT with a soundbar, but not well. You can't replicate it at all in headphones or earbuds, no matter how hard you try, and that 60% figure you cite proves that. Because in terms of headphones and earbuds, psychoacoustics becomes the necessary mechanism, which is only ever a best guess based on what the consumer's playback device manufacturer thinks your channel separation is supposed to be. We tried that with SEVERAL different standards in the late 90's and early 2000's, and even when you used a CD that was engineered to match your device's standard, it was hit-and-miss at best and outright shit at worst. Which, again, echoes your experience. So long story short, music will ALWAYS be stereo first and foremost. There will be experimental concerts and albums to take advantage of the Atmos format -- much like The Who's "Quadrophenia." But that will be the extent to which anyone is really going to care about Atmos in the music realm.
Touchscreen or not I like the screen for the ability to see song details with album art without having to touch my phone. I’m excited to see the future review!
A question... When I'm listening to a song on RU-vid, how can I identify whether that song is a lossless audio file or a lossy audio file? Where can I see the specifications of the audio being played to know if it is, for example: a “WAVE” or “FLAC” format (lossless quality) or an “MP3” file (where there was compression and loss of quality)? Is there an extension for the Chrome browser that shows in real time the specifications of the audio being played? I visited RU-vid's audio file guidelines and it says the following... “[...] Supported file formats: (1) MP3 audio in MP3/WAV container, (2) PCM audio in WAV container, (3) AAC audio in MOV container, and (4) FLAC audio. Minimum audio bit rate for lossy formats: 64 kbps. Minimum audible duration: 33 seconds, excluding silence and background noise. Maximum duration: none “[...]”. Therefore, RU-vid accepts both lossless audio files and lossy audio files.
I have a 35 square meter room with high ceilings and from every review they say this sub is too small. If your room is almost the size of mine and gives this much response I’m getting it. I rarely go over 85db as I have neighbours. I think this will be fine.
For 500 bucks you can prolly get a custom, modular case with a programmable screen to emulate a cassette player. Make it out of an old Walkman chassis for bonus nostalgia
Since the latest version of AirPod Pros (USB-C charging) is capable of lossless audio when paired with the Apple Vision Pro I'm expecting that capability will spread to the next iPhone and next AirPod Max. It will be interesting to see if it is really lossless and not just hype like this Aptex codec.
I am setting up my first stereo system and got these speakers yesterday for 60 euros. Now waiting to pick up my turntable, cannot wait to try them out. Great video :)
wiim needs to ditch the phono input and swap it out to an additional analog input. with 2 analog inputs an external dac and phono preamp could be used easily.
Darko, you say that adding a sub gives you a x.2.y system. My thoughts are that the middle digit denounces the LFE channel, and so no matter how many subwoofers you have, there will only ever be 1 LFE channel (even if played over two speakers). Thoughts on this?
Interesting video. However, When CDs came out originally one of the technical sonic benefits that was touted was that they have greater dynamic range than records which had to be compressed in order to cut records. DBX made and sold systems in 1970s to uncompress the music from the record?? So now I am hearing the reverse and a liitle confused. I have hundreds of records and CDs and have recently made digital versions of a few albums from my turntable and preamp. Comparing the CDs I made with the records I made them from they sound very similar on the same system, but different from the CDs of the same albums I bought years ago as the mix is reengineered each time. That is not always bad as they often make improvements to the mix, but not always, sometimes a beautifully creative analog mix for an album is lost. I noticed a big difference between the software I used for digitizing the records. It seems some by default do remix parts. The acoustic bass was almost always enhanced and too much for some records. I had to drop the VinylStudio software I purchased for free Audacity to get it sounding right.
I know at this price point it can't be all things to all people, but I was bummed to find out that an early review was wrong and it does NOT offer USB digital output, only an input. Oh well, still for the crazy price, I might buy one and use for a while. But to use the better clock in my external DAC, I need a low-cost streamer with USB Output. The information at Crutchfield does not match the information at WiiM's website. So, I guess we can still hold out hope for USB Output. Fingers crossed.
This might just tick all the boxes for me to replace my old preamp. Even if I hate the way the DAC and phono stage sound, I can run my existing gear. For the price I feel like I have to just try it.
The issue I have is that Auro 3d upmixes of 2 channel stereo sound better the atmos or works for just about anything. It kind of takes away the wow factor. Proper auro 3d is.amazing! You get the great.mix qualitu of a.24.192khz song mixed to multi channel Pretty hard to beat Only the best Atmos would be better.
