Meridian has been talking about the new DSP 320 in-ceiling/in-wall speakers at the Munich show. Surely a press release for a new processor with object-based audio is in the works...save the money you would have spent on amplification and buy some new in-ceiling DSP speakers instead oh and a new 861 upgrade!
The film they will release is "My Dinner with Andre".
Seriously, can't mention titles or studios without violating multiple NDAs. That said, I still stand by my prediction that UHD Blu-Ray will drive Home Atmos and certainly differentiate the physical media from 4k streaming and pay TV.
The two films that didn't get the go ahead may eventually get home Atmos mixes. It depends on this summer's box office and how many UHD players and Home Atmos systems will be available this fall.
Differences from commercial installations Because of limited bandwidth and lack of processing power, Atmos in home theaters is not a real-time mix rendered the same way as in cinemas. The substream is added to Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus. This substream only represents a losslessly encoded fully object-based mix. This substream does not include all 128 objects separated. This is not a matrix-encoded channel, but a spatially-encoded digital channel. Atmos in home theaters can support 24.1.10 channel, but it is not an object-based real-time rendering. Filmmakers need to remix and render the TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks with Dolby Media Producer. TrueHD is base with the help of MLP, so it would be not far fetched if Atmos also depends on same codecs with Meridian techteams help.
Well I am definitely missing something here then. Why all the hype for home Atmos? Sounds like a big let down. Isn't spatial encoding kind of like Ambisonics? If so it's hardly revolutionary. Sounds like a damp squib to me. Not sure I would invest too much in it based on that. Certainly not enough to jump to 861v9 territory just to get it.
If the speculative 861v9 is to support Atmos, etc., it would have to support more than eight channels. And it would have to start being very friendly towards mixed analogue and digital speaker set-ups as high-wall ceiling mounted DSPs would be a very specific niche. The current back panel layout looks like a limiting factor here.
Height speakers seem like the sort of thing a SOTA processor should support so there may be drivers outside Atmos, etc.
In the spirit of Spinaltap, I would like to confirm that I am not involved in the corrupt theft of a global sport.
I agree, active, ceiling mounted speakers will be the preserve of the dedicated HT setup. One further reason why I'm sticking to analogue speakers.
Main system - Sources (Kodi-HTPC, Vero 4k, FireTV, Sat) into Trinnov Altitude 32 (8-16) (+Roon), Trinnov Amplitude 8 amp & Vivid Audio (Giya G3, V1.5) and REL Stentor III speakers. Others: F80 + Raspberry Pi and other Pi systems.
I think you will be waiting more than an instant for something to connect them to
Edit: 12" cut-out holes for the DSP320 - a lot bigger than your average ceiling speaker and the bass driver doesn't appear that substantial either.
Main system - Sources (Kodi-HTPC, Vero 4k, FireTV, Sat) into Trinnov Altitude 32 (8-16) (+Roon), Trinnov Amplitude 8 amp & Vivid Audio (Giya G3, V1.5) and REL Stentor III speakers. Others: F80 + Raspberry Pi and other Pi systems.
I'm slightly speculating here ... but I think part of this is a big change in how things are developed and implemented. In the 90s when HT itself was the cutting edge, people like Meridian took off the shelf DSPs and created their own code for processing. The large CE companies had to do likewise.
Now everything is just done with standard code for the likes of Denon and Marantz and Onkyo. And as the major customers they get the code for DSP chips as exclusives before everyone. Considering now there are only 3 major CE brands - Denon and Marantz; Onkyo, Integra and Pioneer and then Yamaha - each one probably has an exclusive from one IC giant. This leaves smaller more HiFi orientated companies such as Meridian, Classe / Rotel, Arcam, etc. having to either wait till the exclusivity period has ended, or developing their own code. Certainly I've heard comments from B&W representatives that they've not had access to the chipsets from their DSP suppliers to enable them to develop Atmos, etc. processors.
Due to the large increase in processing power required for the new Atmos/DTS:X formats, Meridian may decide it is more practical to move to an Intel i7 processor and software based solution for the DSP processing?
This is what Trinnov decided to do with their Altitude32, 32 channel Home theatre pre-amp/processor. Basically a server/PC based engine (running under Linux I suspect?)
Current generation off the shelf DSP chips are not as flexible to program/update, or as powerful.
861v4 LPSU, HD621, Sony HW40, PMC AML2, PMC IB2SA Centre - Triamped via Wyred4Sound MMC, PMC Wafer2 surr, PMC SB100 Sub & Wyred4Sound SX-1000, Dune HD MAX. Oppo BDP-105D Signature. Mede8ER 600X3D Marantz CD94/CDA94. Rotel RB-1562, LG 65" OLED. IPL Acoustics STL5. Virgin Tivo. HifiMan HE-1000/Audio-GD M9. Stax SR-007/KGSSHV Carbon.
If the speculative 861v9 is to support Atmos, etc., it would have to support more than eight channels. And it would have to start being very friendly towards mixed analogue and digital speaker set-ups as high-wall ceiling mounted DSPs would be a very specific niche. The current back panel layout looks like a limiting factor here.
Height speakers seem like the sort of thing a SOTA processor should support so there may be drivers outside Atmos, etc.
The 861v9 would require at least one extra 4 channel analogue output card for users such as myself with analogue active speakers, in order to support 1 or 2 pairs of height channels.
Plus the HD621 would of course have to support passing this through to the 861. (I Wish they would add a 2nd HDMI output to the HD621, as I use a TV and a projector. Also a headphone output on the 861v9 please )
There are also directional speakers available now which sit on top of the front L/R speakers to fire the height audio up to the ceiling. I had the opportunity to demo this implementation, using Dolby Atmos Demo material, and it was virtually as good as using 2 front ceiling speakers, for Dolby Atmos. If the 861v9 does support Atmos/DTS:X then I want to avoid having to fit ceiling speakers in my living room ceiling if possible
861v4 LPSU, HD621, Sony HW40, PMC AML2, PMC IB2SA Centre - Triamped via Wyred4Sound MMC, PMC Wafer2 surr, PMC SB100 Sub & Wyred4Sound SX-1000, Dune HD MAX. Oppo BDP-105D Signature. Mede8ER 600X3D Marantz CD94/CDA94. Rotel RB-1562, LG 65" OLED. IPL Acoustics STL5. Virgin Tivo. HifiMan HE-1000/Audio-GD M9. Stax SR-007/KGSSHV Carbon.
Maybe, but I have a feeling that more fundamental changes to the 861 processing architecture will be required. I may be wrong but I don't think M will be joining the Atmos\DTS:X party for a while.
I'm going to stick with M for music but in the next few weeks I should have a hybrid Marantz8802\Meridian861 processing solution up and running for Atmos etc.
Main system - Sources (Kodi-HTPC, Vero 4k, FireTV, Sat) into Trinnov Altitude 32 (8-16) (+Roon), Trinnov Amplitude 8 amp & Vivid Audio (Giya G3, V1.5) and REL Stentor III speakers. Others: F80 + Raspberry Pi and other Pi systems.
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