Neptune EQ

[fitzcaraldo215]

Originally Posted by CaliFan

Seems like all these 3rd party black box EQ solutions introduce another A-to-D then D-to-A conversion step. This one only does 24/96.

Shouldn't someone build an EQ solution that takes an HDMI 1.3 bitstream in and then does the decoding and processing all in the digital domain? Save one D-to-A conversion at the end.

It is all but impossible today to buy a receiver or pre/pro that does not have exactly this built in, plus it is much cheaper that way. I am most familiar with Audyssey in an Integra DTC 9.8, which I have had for about 8 months. It plus an Oppo 980H displaced reference-grade 2-channel components costing about 8x as much. Most of my use of it (85%) is with hi-rez multichannel music rather than movies or TV. I love it, and Audyssey is as great a technical advance as I have ever heard. It worked exceedingly well for for me from day 1.

Of all the equalization schemes out there, I am impressed with the credentials of only 2 of them: Audyssey and Anthem. I do not think all of the other proprietary schemes out there are backed with nearly the amount of research and experience with listener preferences that these 2 are. Audyssey is available in Denon, Integra, Onkyo, NAD and some Marantz models plus some speaker systems from Wisdom, Phase Technology and SVS. With Anthem, it is an option in their D2 pre/pro.

[JerryDelColliano]

You make an interesting point about HDMI 1.3 and the A/D - D/A issue however there isn't ONE high end company with it enough to have HDMI 1.3 working right in an AV preamp (exclusing Denon and Integra) let alone to do room correction on it.

The question you have to ask yourself with Neptune is - is the audio difference from HDMI for your movies more impactful than tuning your speakers to your room. My money is - having had every room I have ever owned professionally tuned with EQ - that they EQ will make a bigger difference.

Further down the road - I would bet that an HDMI 1.3 version would be reasonable. For now - its now. CEDIA this Sept will tell us a lot.

[wes]

Originally Posted by CaliFan

Seems like all these 3rd party black box EQ solutions introduce another A-to-D then D-to-A conversion step. This one only does 24/96. Shouldn't someone build an EQ solution that takes an HDMI 1.3 bitstream in and then does the decoding and processing all in the digital domain? Save one D-to-A conversion at the end.

Excellent point this would be much better and have a lot less distortion.

[The Kipnis Studios]

Technically, it is not difficult these days to take any of the new lossless formats from their orignial coding to PCM, which is passable through HDMI 1.0.

I find everyone's desire to find only HDMI 1.3 devices will only be exceeded when there is soon an HDMI 1.4 or 2.0 that corrects the fallacies of the previous versions.

When CD came out in 1982, there were none of these problems - and when DVD came out in 1997 - there were none of these concerns. Now - What?

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by The Kipnis Studios

I find everyone's desire to find only HDMI 1.3 devices will only be exceeded when there is soon an HDMI 1.4 or 2.0 that corrects the fallacies of the previous versions.

You are probably right Jeremy,

I hope HDMI stops evolving quickly and gets standardized faster!

One thing that is missing from less than 1.3a however is the ability to do deep color, while not really an issue now, it can and likely will be in the future. Sure you could pass PCM to HDMI 1.1, but you can't do deep color when studios get their a$$e$ together and start to use it!

[deacongreg]

Just more stuff to chew on and ponder.