For those who want the bottom line first: This does what I want it to do and I’m glad I bought it to play downloaded or ripped Atmos and Quad MKV files.
The longer version… After discovering Atmos downloads on IAA this year and finding that Macs connected to receivers wouldn’t easily play anything in the height speakers, I started looking for solutions.
I ended up with a small Dell computer in my office and a TrigKey Mini PC in my living room. Works fine, but then I have to turn them on, log in, have a keyboard/mouse handy (or remote in), perhaps do some Windows updates, etc.
When I wrote about my TrigKey experience, @sjcorne (who heard about it from @ryan de topanga) mentioned the Neumi Atom. I threw one in my Amazon wishlist to explore later.
With Christmas as justification, I bought one. I mistakenly bought an Atom 4K Lite first, then bought the Atom 4K. Now I have one for each surround setup.
There’s very little configuration to do. I simply changed the Audio Output from Default (stereo PCM) to RAW Passthrough.
The big thing is making sure the device likes the formatting of your SD card or USB drive. It supposedly handles FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. The 4K has a MicroSD slot while the 4K Lite use SD.
The storage formatting is something I won’t go deep into. I’m still exploring some things. My MKV files total about 3TB, so maybe a few MicroSD cards is a route I’ll go.
Something rather important... their website says the max for the SDs are 512GB and 4TB for a USB drive. But their chart on Amazon says 1TB for SDs and 8TB for USB drives. I e-mailed them and they said it’s their website that’s out of date, not Amazon. You’d think they’d fix that. Kudos for getting back to me quickly, though
Very early days, but so far, so good.
Pros (for me):
Cons (for me):
There is a firmware update for the device which I haven’t installed. Sometimes when something is working, I like to leave it. But maybe during the holidays I’ll get around to it.
Files tested: Remember the Audio (the song) Atmos from Monkey House via IAA, Jethro Tull’s WarChild quad rip, King Crimson’s ITCOTCK Atmos rip.
Here’s a photo for perspective with a disc since we all support physical media any chance we get.
The longer version… After discovering Atmos downloads on IAA this year and finding that Macs connected to receivers wouldn’t easily play anything in the height speakers, I started looking for solutions.
I ended up with a small Dell computer in my office and a TrigKey Mini PC in my living room. Works fine, but then I have to turn them on, log in, have a keyboard/mouse handy (or remote in), perhaps do some Windows updates, etc.
When I wrote about my TrigKey experience, @sjcorne (who heard about it from @ryan de topanga) mentioned the Neumi Atom. I threw one in my Amazon wishlist to explore later.
With Christmas as justification, I bought one. I mistakenly bought an Atom 4K Lite first, then bought the Atom 4K. Now I have one for each surround setup.
There’s very little configuration to do. I simply changed the Audio Output from Default (stereo PCM) to RAW Passthrough.
The big thing is making sure the device likes the formatting of your SD card or USB drive. It supposedly handles FAT32, exFAT and NTFS. The 4K has a MicroSD slot while the 4K Lite use SD.
The storage formatting is something I won’t go deep into. I’m still exploring some things. My MKV files total about 3TB, so maybe a few MicroSD cards is a route I’ll go.
Something rather important... their website says the max for the SDs are 512GB and 4TB for a USB drive. But their chart on Amazon says 1TB for SDs and 8TB for USB drives. I e-mailed them and they said it’s their website that’s out of date, not Amazon. You’d think they’d fix that. Kudos for getting back to me quickly, though
Very early days, but so far, so good.
Pros (for me):
- It works with MKV files for full 7.1.4 through my Denon.
- It’s inexpensive. About $50 for the ATOM 4K, $42 for the Lite.
- It saves me having to log into a PC and fiddle with updates or configurations.
- It takes up very little space. (See picture below.)
Cons (for me):
- The UI is OK, but it seems a bit sluggish when I’m trying to move around with the remote. Not a major problem, though.
- The remote seems to need a straight line to the device with no variance. I know that might sound obvious, but this is the most finicky remote I own.
- Initially, it doesn’t appear to like my USB-C to USB-A converters which means if I’m using a USB drive, it needs to be native USB-A.
There is a firmware update for the device which I haven’t installed. Sometimes when something is working, I like to leave it. But maybe during the holidays I’ll get around to it.
Files tested: Remember the Audio (the song) Atmos from Monkey House via IAA, Jethro Tull’s WarChild quad rip, King Crimson’s ITCOTCK Atmos rip.
Here’s a photo for perspective with a disc since we all support physical media any chance we get.
Last edited:
