For casual listening it can be fine, although as you say I would not wan to leave the TV on with a pretty static image.I have three squeezeboxes. No way would I use avr music streaming and leave TV on or on with screen off (and routing audio.through TV)
Also hdmi may be inferior to coaxial/optical for pcm been shown that's the case on several avrs
For casual listening it can be fine, although as you say I would not wan to leave the TV on with a pretty static image.
I think in the context of better music adding an external streamer is nice but doesn't add that much bar a better interface especially if you use coaxial/optical as an AVR is generally a poor music playing device. As an upgrade if anyone is that way inclined, especially in the context of an 9 channel AVR that can process 11 channels and reassign unused amps, an ideal next step is to add an external 2 channel Integrated HiFI amp of some kind as that way you can improve HiFi playback and add 2 extra channel to drive the fronts, which can free up the internal amps to drive extra rears / ATMOS speakers to give you a nice 7.1.4 setup that can also play music very well.
Hi,
I've upgraded to X4500H just few weeks ago and still trying to adjust the speakers levels to get the best results. I've setup 5.2.4, with .4 surround speakers as Front Heights and Rear Heights. According to the info I gathered, this should support all Atmos, DTS:X and Auro 3D. I've managed to get all the speakers fire test tone individually and correctly under manual setup. So I believe my amp assign and speaker assign are all correct.
However, when I play the demo video such as "DTS Sound Check DTS-HD MA 7.1" or "Atmos 514" (which play sound to individual speaker), somehow the Rear Height / Rear Surround sound does not come out from the rear height speaker but from the Side Surround Speakers instead. If I press "Info" button on the remote, both the Signal and Sound show 7 channels (for DTS:X, I need to set the Sound Mode to DTS: Neural X to get the sound channels right). Unfortunately, when the video plays sounds emitting from Rear Surround, I can only hear it coming from side Surround. I've checked the media info of the video file and confirm it carries 8 audio channels.
When I play an Atmos or DTS:X movie, the sound effect is great but I simply can't tell if it is a 5.2.4 effect or I merely get a 5.1 effect.
Have I done anything wrong with the setting?
By the way, I setup the Front and Rear Height speakers based on the recommendation of this video:
I'm using Himedia Q10 Pro to play movie files. This player supports both 7 channels Atmos and DTS HD.
Hope to get some advice from the Masters here. TIA.
Welcome to the Forum.
Double check your speaker connections. If you have a 5.1.4 set up then the rear surround channel should not be used at all. Your five base speakers should all be at a seated head height.
Set “Height” - “Height Sp” to “4ch” in the menu when connecting in this configuration. link
You can change the combination of the HEIGHT1 and HEIGHT2 channels in the settings. link
The AVRs remote control Info button will tell you the Input Signal and how it is being output to the speakers.
Check your source audio (on the left) coming in to the AVR first, is it ATMOS or DTS:X?
If it isn't some apps on certain device like YouTube, may have content that is ATMOS, but because the software player or hardware you are playing it on may not support it, the clip may just be being sent to the AVR at a lower audio type.
If it is coming in as ATMOS or DTS:X, then check what the audio is being processed as on the Info screen, if it's wrong then cycle through the Movie Sound Modes using the Green button till you get the one you want and the Info screen looks as it should with all your speakers high lighted.
Even if the signal coming in is not full ATMOS / DTS:X you can still apply up-mixing to utilise the ATMOS speakers by pressing the green button and checking the Info screen.
If you speakers are set right and being processed correctly but you still cant hear them then some people turn the levels up a little bit on the ATMOS speakers to run them a little hot so they are a bit more obvious.