Schiit Audio has a surround synthesizer gadget.

QuadraphonicQuad

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That’s an excellent question. Unfortunately I can’t say I ever used the Oppo‘s NEO:6 mode much so I can’t compare knowledgeably. Since it was there “for free” and certainly gave me surround effect, I would’ve used it more, but I didn’t like that you have to have a screen active and go into the setup program to toggle it on and off. (Unless, of course, there actually is a way to do it from the remote that I was too dumb to ever find.)

Also, like some other Oppo owners, I’m just slightly paranoid about keeping mine going (I know that’s dumb since I’m 67 and the 105D is likely to outlive me, plus I have a 103 in reserve). It does tend to run warm and it’s relatively power-consumptive so it’s nice to only have to power it up when I really need to, for SACDs, multichannel FLACs, etc.
 
Topic drift here, but yes, I’m aware of the app. Problem is, it crashes most of the time on up-to-date versions of iOS, which are my preference. I wonder if Magnetar or any of the vendors of Oppo/Mediatek clones have any updates that would work.


I still prefer the Syn for the power- and device- saving reasons mentioned above. And my Parasound preamp can adjust levels conveniently from its remote!
 
I've owned a Syn for a couple of weeks now - it hasn't seen much use yet, but I can say that I'm really enjoying the sound-field it sets up. Are there any user/owners who can comment on these question?:

- has it been determined just what matrix scheme is employed?
- does the Width control affect only the front channels or does its also control matrixing?*
- does the Surround control adjust for level only, or does it control L-R matrixing?*

Contrary to a comment above, my experience is that the rears are stereo.

* Thanks to Sonik Wiz for these questions (see post # 89)
 
One thing Schiit and Involve have in common, they both hate the HDMI mafia. Schiit also won't put HDMI on their products. Now we have another 6 channel analog device to try and get connected to our AV receivers!
It's not that Involve has anything against HDMI; it's more the royalty fee, per unit, they'd have to pay to include that technology, and the fact that it would raise the price of a SM v. 4, if that model included HDMI. That, along with the A to D converter needed, would drive up the price of the unit.
 
Well, technically it only does except it can correctly decode the quad matrix as the engineers intended. Feeding the Syn a matrix quad album is apparently about the same as feeding it any other non-matrix encoded stereo signal.
The impression I got, after reading their literature on the SYN, that it was nothing more than an enhanced, non-passive version of a Dynaquad-type processor. If anyone from "S" wants to refute me on this, please, let's hear your side of this.
 
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