Anthem D2/D2v/AVM50/AVM50v/ARC1 tweaking guide - Page 738

Does your Samsung offer internal decoding of the lossless tracks? If not, then selecting HDMI LPCM from it gets you a reduced quality audio track. There may be other setup options in the Samsung which will do the same, such as enabling secondary audio. I don't know enough about the Samsung players to help you on this.
--Bob

But the point is, HD LPCM should sound identical to the bitstream. If it doesn't, there's something else configured differently in their setup.

Agreed -- or the Samsung player doesn't do internal decoding of the lossless tracks in the first place.
--Bob

Input of 2.0 HDMI LPCM 48KHz played into a Mode Preset of PLIIx-Movie is correctly producing 5.1 speaker output again in my system with the "test" V2.07 firmware.

Nick at Anthem insists that nothing has changed here, so it is apparently the random luck of the draw after doing a new firmware install. I.e., something isn't getting properly initialized.

44.1KHz input into PLIIx-Movie is still broken -- producing only 2.1 speaker output. The workaround of switching audio modes to anything else and back to PLIIx-Movie still works. With any luck this will be enough for the Anthem engineers to track this down.
--Bob

I bought a D2 in early May and thanks to ARC discovered problems with my speakers and (possibly) amp.
Now, about 1 month later, I finally got everything back and was able to redo ARC and try out the system.
Without a doubt, there is a big improvement as compared to what it was before. I had never watched a Blu-Ray movie before and last night I rented Ratatouille which was definitely a showcase for this technology.
The good is that I am very pleased with the results. The bad is that the upgrade bug bit me and now I wonder what I should change next.

I am including the charts for all to see.

Your comments are very welcome. You will notice that the center channel still shows a "dip" in the higher frequencies, but certainly not as bad as before (the original charts are shown in Post #21598).

Thanks!!!!

In the Oppo, set Setup > Audio Processing > Dynamic Range Control = OFF.

The factory default setting of Auto causes the player to use control data present in Blu-Ray tracks. Some discs are known to have particularly wimpy settings which will result in significant loss of dynamics when the player is doing the decoding -- the original release of "Iron Man" Blu-Ray being the best known example.

There's a similar setting change needed in the PS3, and quite likely in other decoding players as well.

The Dynamics = Normal (i.e., the default) setting in the D2v and AVM 50v is the correct choice to prevent any such problem when the Anthem is doing the decoding.
--Bob

Yes, the Samsung does decode the tracks, I'm going to test my movies between LPCM & Bitstreaming. If the two are the same, wouldn't I rather have the D2v decoding

Your higher frequencies should respond well to simply telling ARC it is OK to do to corrections up there. Open your results file in Advanced mode, bring up the Targets window and raise the Max EQ Frequency target above the default value of 5KHz. Try setting it all the way up to 20KHz to start. Accept that change of Targets (which also dismisses the Targets window) and do a new Calculation. If you like what you see, Upload the new results.

If raising it all the way up to 20KHz causes more residual errors to appear in the green Calculated curves at lower frequencies, try stepping it back a bit looking for a nice compromise setting. There's no need to re-Measure so you can do a bunch of trial Calculations like this in no time at all.

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While you are at it, you might want to raise the Room Gain a bit. ARC found only modest amounts of Room Gain in your room and for movies in particular you might like the sound of adding a little more. I suggest you try 2 or 2.5dB of Room Gain for Movies at least (leave the Force box checked). I'd probably do it both for Movies and Music. You'll see this as a shallow hump in the Targets curves near the crossover frequencies.
--Bob

Generally the LPCM setting is more convenient for when you want to use secondary audio features from Blu-Ray discs.
--Bob

I'm proud to join the Anthem family.

My D2v arrived yesterday and tonight I'll actually get to take a look at it. The ARC package is HEAVY!

Just a quick external glance but everything seems to be extremely nice and built/designed really well.

I can't wait to test it with my Catalysts (in a very temporary home!).

Got it, Thanks

It's like unzipping a .zip file - it makes no difference who does the decoding, as long as you can have the pre-pro do the same matrixing and other processing of both.

Bob can you explain a bit more in detail about how adjusting the room gain will help with measurements.... what will happen if you add more or leave it more towards flat with no room gain added... I don't have alot of room gain because my room is so incredibly large - 8200^3 + other areas in the house.

Thanks

Patrick

First of all, welcome to the Cool Kids thread!

The weight of the ARC package is all in the base for the included mic stand.
--Bob

Room Gain is just another room response characteristic. Unlike room resonance spikes and room cancellation nulls, Room Gain is considered a "desirable" room response -- part of what makes a room sound as you expect it to sound.

ARC detects the natural Room Gain of your listening room and works to preserve it even as it is trying to eliminate the undesirable room response characteristics. Room Gain shows up in the ARC charts as the shallow hump in the Target curves in the vicinity of the crossover frequencies.

Room Gain measuring 2-4dB is pretty typical.

One advantage of maintaining the room's inherent, natural, Room Gain is that sounds that might occur naturally in the room -- such as people talking -- will sound the same when coming from the audio system.

Audio mixes for home theater generally assume some Room Gain. But some rooms, particularly acoustically treated rooms, may have little or no Room Gain. It is also possible for ARC to get confused by a room dip near the crossover frequencies and decide your room actually has no Room Gain (or negative Room Gain which makes no sense). ARC will assign 0dB or near 0dB Room Gain in such cases.

But ARC can be set to "force" a higher Room Gain result to adjust for such cases. However, you don't want to go too far from what the room already measures (so audio system sound stays well matched with natural sound in the room), so I suggest folks seeing that in their ARC Target window try forcing only about 2.0 or 2.5dB of Room Gain to see if they like the sound better.

Some folks prefer little or no Room Gain for Music listening, and ARC lets you adjust that separately if you like. Also if you have a different number of speakers in your Music setup, ARC may detect a somewhat different Room Gain for the room for Music vs. Movie as ARC picks a value that works best with all the speakers in the mix.

Just as with adjusting Max EQ Frequency, you can play around with this without having to re-Measure. Just make the change, re-Calculate, and re-Upload if the Calculated curves look good to you.

Trust your ears. If it sounds better to you, then it IS better.

And you can always do an Auto Detect in the ARC Targets window, which will cause ARC to restore its original Targets values -- including Room Gain -- according to the actual, original Measurements, which are always preserved in your ARC data file. Re-Calculate and re-Upload after that and you are back to what ARC originally set up for you.

In my case, ARC detected 2.9dB Room Gain for Movie and 2.5 Room Gain for Music (which I've set up to exclude the Center speaker) and I've not altered those values.
--Bob

If it's so tiresome for you - don't read it... I believe it was addressed to Bob.

I will double check my settings once again and see if there something else going on.

In talking to Nick, he mentioned the existence of DTS-MA decoders in some players that do not decode the lossless track properly, but do send out the DTS-MA flag which will cause our Anthems to display DTS-MA, yet only send out the core track. It didn't include the PS3 or new OPPO. I simply asked how they decoded and he said no problem. Other makes were not mentioned. So it may not be as simple as it seems especially if there is a lack of quality control.
John

I just wanted to give a nod to Anthem on this... It really makes most recordings sound really great. Listening to Chris Potter now and this mode just fattens everything up. The Jazz trio pops and sounds like its in the room! Props to Anthem... Very pleased!

It's easy to get lost in all the tweaking and stuff - but the real enjoyment comes from getting lost in the music... Being a musician and a film editor I couldn't be more pleased. Beautiful stuff!

Sorry if it's off topic - wanted to share my excitement.

When did you order your D2v? Mine has been on order for about 4 1/2 weeks now and I'm hoping to have it before the Fourth.


That is going to be one rocking system when you get it finished. Two Terraform XLs (!) + Catalysts + Sparks + Buttkickers, hold on tight!

you're right. I switched my settings back to LPCM and also turned off a setting that was left on. eventhough D2v screen doesn't read DTS MA it actually is. I tried four different movies between the two settings and they all sounded the same. I over reacted due to not seeing DTS on the D2v face screen...my bad

I also was playing with the frame lock setting, see how that does

Once the player decodes the audio to LPCM there's no way for the Anthem to find out what the track used to be. Whatever it was, it's now all LPCM. So of course that's what the Anthem displays.
--Bob

Sure. The point is, if you hear a difference, there is EITHER a bug OR a set up problem.
--Bob

yeap... thanks Mr.Pariseau
-Manny

If you can believe it, I ordered it on March 20!

I agree whole heartedly, Anthem Logic does sound awesome and I use it with all of my 2 channel music! I don't think it's ever off topic to revel in what a good job Anthem has done with this, and the D2.

Wow, that is 11 weeks. I might have to lower my expectations about getting it by July 4 if that is the case.

Thanks

Hello Bob. I fixed my H.F. a little by playing with my furniture. mic was located very close to furniture or wall and the H.F. was bouncing back. It is still not perfect but sounds much better. I also adjusted the H.F. in the d2v by +2.0 and that made it perfect. Please once again give your comments on this new ARC.
I also have the same comment about pcm and bitstream. when I make the player send bitstream the d2v shows DTS Master 5.1. and when set player to pcm d2v shows pcm 7.1+THX. the pcm sounds a little briter than the bitstream. Is this 7.1+THX supposed too be the same as the DTS Master 5.1 because on d2v I have turned off the rear speaker because I have only 5.1. Thanks again Bob.

 

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I believe you'll discover is that you have THX post processing turned ON for LPCM audio input in the D2v. Press THX on the D2v remote and use Up/Down arrow to toggle OFF THX post processing. With an ARC setup I don't think the additional THX processing ads anything useful. This probably explains most of the difference you are hearing.

Next, if your player is decoding a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track into 7.1 LPCM then it is creating the 2 additional rear speaker channels by some sort of processing -- usually PLIIx. Turn that off in the player's audio processing settings.

If the track is a 7.1 track, then it is OK for the player to decode that to 7.1 LPCM output to the D2v -- there's no extra processing going on. The D2v will then down-mix that to 5.1 speakers for your 5.1 speaker setup -- the same thing that happens if you set the D2v to do the decoding of a 7.1 track.

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On your latest charts you are getting pretty close. Your Measured bass has improved, particularly for LF, so ARC has bass pretty well in hand. The residual dip you still have in Sub is small enough that you can probably safely ignore it.

RS still needs improvement at 15KHz, and Center is marginal there as well, but the residual errors up there for LF/RF and LS should be fine as is.

What you have now should be sounding pretty good.
--Bob

Thanks Bob.

I did want to stop in and post that, at the recommendation of Anthem service, I did the firmware upgrade from 2.04 to 2.06. It seems to have completely solved the 192/24 dropout issues I was having with the Divertimenti Blu-Ray. With both LPCM and Bitstream. So if you haven't done it yet, I strongly recommend the upgrade. I decided not to go with the newer test firmware until it becomes official, as 2.06 has solved my main issue.