himey
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I wouldn't waste any effort until there is at least one source to play the format from anything other than a smartphone and headphones.
360RA decoding via hardware - McIntosh and other MPEG-H ready receivers
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I wouldn't waste any effort until there is at least one source to play the format from anything other than a smartphone and headphones.
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Good catch and a good sign I think. Previously for whatever reason only the European Denon and Marantz models were spec'd for MPEG-H so hopefully US models will get this too if/when it comes.
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Maybe I'm wrong but I was thinking that part of the introduction might/would include a client/app native to the receiver capable of connecting to one or more of the music services offering Sony 360 content.
I tried asking in an owners thread for the high end McIntosh supporting Sony 360 exactly how it worked and got zero response, presumably because no owners cared about that kind of surround format.......
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himey
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You would think. Hopefully it isn't another dead end format.
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Hmm a mention of Sony 360 conspicuously missing from the US page which was what I was afraid of.
https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/av-receivers/avr-x3800h
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Oh I think there's a real good chance it's another dead end format, but maybe we'll see support for it eventually right before it goes away
Still in the specs section there IINM,
| 360 Reality Audio / MPEG H | Yes, Yes |
But yeah another Sony Betamax perhaps.
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Maybe mentioned before but I was reminded of another existing system that can play Sony 360 content (from Amazon at least) somewhat discretely, the Sony HT-A9 speaker system.
Atmos 'enabled' / aimed speakers at the ceiling though so no discrete height speakers and no discrete center channel which is a bummer.
You can use a Sony TV for a center channel (proprietary Sony 's-channel' jack) but of course most of those TV speakers won't sound that great.
Maybe they'll include a compatible center speaker in the next version.
Appealing for it's convenience for a non-serious playback room. Gotta get the big sub though so around $2k street.
Atmos 'enabled' / aimed speakers at the ceiling though so no discrete height speakers and no discrete center channel which is a bummer.
You can use a Sony TV for a center channel (proprietary Sony 's-channel' jack) but of course most of those TV speakers won't sound that great.
Maybe they'll include a compatible center speaker in the next version.
Appealing for it's convenience for a non-serious playback room. Gotta get the big sub though so around $2k street.
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It should have been a priority to release first HEOS TIDAL for Dolby Atmos, in the AVR.
I'm afraid that if even Atmos isn't native on AVR, there's little hope for 360 RA. Unless, who knows, Sony push for that, trying to compete with Dolby.
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Yep all good observations/points. It seems to me that both Denon and Sony are behind the curve. I don't know much if anything about Heos but it seems like maybe a solution in search of a problem that has already been solved by other standards. And I'd say that's definitely the case for Sony 360.
I found the (fairly) recent 'interview' with Greg Penny promoting the Sony 360 platform for surround mixing amusing. It sort makes him look like a suck up to Sony but I guess I can't blame him for taking advantage of offers that come his way. It was funny to hear him describe how many speakers he has to have in his studio to allow for both 360 and Atmos mixing to the point where he has to draw the line on at least one aspect of the Sony 360 config because there's just no room for any more. The Sony config sounded kind of ridiculous and not something I could imagine wanting to have and certainly not in addition to an Atmos setup.
And of course there was zero discussion of how anybody else, let alone home theater enthusiasts could even begin to listen discretely to any 360 mixes.
Betamax
Digital Audio Tape (DAT)
Minidisc
ATRAC Audio Compression
Memory Stick
UMD (Universal Media Disc)
.msv / .dvf audio compression
BBeB eBook
360RA
They only won Blu-Ray VS HD-DVD because of the PS3 Trojan horse, and their willingness to lose hundreds of millions to win.
Digital Audio Tape (DAT)
Minidisc
ATRAC Audio Compression
Memory Stick
UMD (Universal Media Disc)
.msv / .dvf audio compression
BBeB eBook
360RA
They only won Blu-Ray VS HD-DVD because of the PS3 Trojan horse, and their willingness to lose hundreds of millions to win.
himey
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HD-DVD had better specs (slightly), and menu if I remember correctly.
Blu-Ray is actually better in every measurable category except price. HD-DVDs were manufactured along the same production lines as DVDs. Players were 1/2 the price and discs were 30% less. But Blu-Ray had something like 60% more capacity than HD-DVD at launch, and had supposed better copyright protections, which turned out to be nonsense. Whether or not the added capacity would be something the average end consumer would even benefit from, probably not. People seem to be happy with compressed crap Netflix 4K. You can fit about 4 Netflix 4K movies on an 2005 era HD-DVD. I digress.
HEOS can’t play surround sound formats, anyway. With the HEOS app I tried to play both Atmos and 360RA content fron Tidal or Amazon with no luck. In Tidal I get an error and skips to to next song in cue, in Amazon I only get the stereo/HD of it.
When HEOS would be capable of playing surround sound formats in the future is unknown
With the Atmos system already much more entrenched into the market than 360RA, that’s one of the most meaningful aspects why 360RA (Sony HT-A9 speaker system) hasn’t got a chance.
But, how can the 360RA be utilized in a consumer’s AVR setup & speakers of say 7.1.4 (I need to review their speaker requirements, because I don’t recall
)
imho Sony desperately need to get 360RA decoding into end-users hands in the form of either hardware or software solutions ASAP or it'll be Game, Set & Match to Dolby!With the Atmos system already much more entrenched into the market than 360RA, that’s one of the most meaningful aspects why 360RA (Sony HT-A9 speaker system) hasn’t got a chance.
But, how can the 360RA be utilized in a consumer’s AVR setup & speakers of say 7.1.4 (I need to review their speaker requirements, because I don’t recall
The whole thing just seems to be so slow as molasses in coming and poorly executed. I’m also wondering if they could be having any market penetration of this in other countries like Japan etc.?
Here’s their speaker layout (refresher) for 360RA-
*this is way more than what’s in the (Sony HT-A9 speaker system)
*this is way more than what’s in the (Sony HT-A9 speaker system)
afaik the HT-A9 is essentially downmixing all that 360RA object information into just 4 Mains and 4 Heights?
until/unless you add a Subwoofer.. oh and that rather daft thing of using a Sony TV as the Centre speaker which is just total balls!
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