Sony 360 - Sony demo kiosk (Best Buy/Magnolia)

[kfbkfb]

I stopped in to the Best Buy near the Sprint Campus today and briefly listened to parts of 3 songs thru the provided headphones in the Sony 360 audio demo kiosk.

The stereo versions were (for lack of a better word) lame, the 360 encoded versions, IMHO, sounded no better in terms directionality than some of the 1970s stereo Elton John albums do thru headphones.

Anyone else with listening experiences with the Sony 360 audio system and headphones?


Kirk Bayne

 

[fredblue]

Anyone else with listening experiences with the Sony 360 audio system and headphones?


Kirk Bayne

yes, i have tried some of the 360RA offerings on both Tidal and Amazon Music Unlimited and got some surprisingly good results, including an unexpectedly Surround-y Herbie Hancock's "Secrets" - i know!! its said to be fake Quad but you wouldn't know it from the 360RA through the Apple AirPods, its great!!

 

[kfbkfb]

Yes, it was a surprisingly poor demo, it was all Sony equip & music, I don't know what went wrong.

My Pearl Harbor movie DVD has a Dolby Headphone encoded soundtrack option, I've never carefully listened to it, I'll have to try it and see how it compares to this Sony 360 demo.


Kirk Bayne

 

[jamesc]

LOL, it cracks me up that this thread has gone nowhere while the Dolby Atmos thread is going gangbusters every day. It would be nice if those Bowie (and loads of others) 360RA mixes could be played on more devices... ones where the mixers' hard work could be appreciated perhaps? Nice job, Sony.

 

[kfbkfb]

Since my original post, I've purchased 2 360RA songs from Amazon (from a demo list from Sony), they sound better, both in stereo, DPL2 music and DynaQuad than the Best Buy demo material did.

I don't have a 360RA setup.


Kirk Bayne

 

[jamesc]

Oh cool, glad to hear they sounded better than your original demo.

I'd love to see a review from anyone who has a non-headphone system capable of decoding 360RA.

 

[surroundophile]

Has anyone seen that Marantz is coming out with a new high-end prepro with SonyRA? Unfortunately it's in the stratosphere like the other unit available, $7K!!

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Has anyone seen that Marantz is coming out with a new high-end prepro with SonyRA? Unfortunately it's in the stratosphere like the other unit available, $7K!!

As I recall, no one has yet reported being able to make it work on earlier models that made that claim.
Caveat emptor.

 

[jamesc]

So weird, it's like Sony wants it to die. Why not add decoding to their blu-ray players and Playstation?

 

[surroundophile]

As I recall, no one has yet reported being able to make it work on earlier models that made that claim.
Caveat emptor.

https://www.marantz.com/en-us/produ...=&bc_lcid=t4924401454727168lw5685389397377024
Scroll down to "Key Features"
Click on "Full specifications"
Under "All the details"
Click on "Technical Specifications"

 

[~dave~~wave~]

https://www.marantz.com/en-us/produ...=&bc_lcid=t4924401454727168lw5685389397377024
Scroll down to "Key Features"
Click on "Full specifications"
Under "All the details"
Click on "Technical Specifications"

I'm not disputing Marantz marketing materials claim they have it.

I recall a fellow from down under who drove himself nuts trying to make it work, gave up in disgust, walked away, and hasn't been heard from since.

How does one acquire and stream the MPEGH files seems to be the question?
Send them from a phone?

Not that I'm in the market for one of these, just as a matter of interest.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

How does one acquire and stream the MPEGH files seems to be the question?
Send them from a phone?

The 360RA files are available on Tidal. So why cant you connect a PC or other streaming device and connect with the AVR using HDMI?

 

[~dave~~wave~]

The 360RA files are available on Tidal. So why cant you connect a PC or other streaming device and connect with the AVR using HDMI?

Dunno.
I simply never have seen anybody post on the forum that they've been able to do it.
Only that they have failed in every attempt and got no help from Marantz.
Would be quite interested to learn otherwise.

 

[AYanguas]

The 360RA files are available on Tidal. So why cant you connect a PC or other streaming device and connect with the AVR using HDMI?

The problem is that the usual players (Oppo, Dune, PC with software player) do not recognize the format (MPEG-H). As it is a 'new' format, none of the players have been updated yet?

The player that recognize MPEG-H, the Tidal App, assumes that it will be reproduced by stereo headphones, so it decodes it and delivers just two channels.

So it would be expected that when a player can deliver MCH 360RA from TIDAL through HDMI, then the AVRs that support it could play that format in our multi speaker installation.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

So it would be expected that when a player can deliver MCH 360RA from TIDAL through HDMI, then the AVRs that support it could play that format in our multi speaker installation.

And isn't that what the new Marantz AVP is purported to do? Or did I misunderstand something?

 

[AYanguas]

And isn't that what the new Marantz AVP is purported to do? Or did I misunderstand something?

The AVR interprets the HDMI incoming format 360RA, decodes it, and generate the needed discrete channels. The same as it does with DTS, AC3, etc.

But we need something to 'send' that HDMI content.

That is the 'Player'. Now it is in the form of a Tidal App, that runs in Mobiles, FireTV, AppleTV, or PC, and sends only stereo after its decoding. But it does not run on any AVR (AFAIK).

Other musical Apps that run on AVRs, and get content directy from network streaming services (not HDMI), usually does it only in stereo.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

The AVR interprets the HDMI incoming format 360RA, decodes it, and generate the needed discrete channels. The same as it does with DTS, AC3, etc.

But we need something to 'send' that HDMI content.

That is the 'Player'. Now it is in the form of a Tidal App, that runs in FireTV, AppleTV, or PC, and sends only stereo after its decoding. But it does not run on any AVR (AFAIK).

Other musical Apps that run on AVRs, and get content directy from network streaming services (not HDMI), usually does it only in stereo.

Isn't there a passthrough option in the Tidal App? I've never used Tidal, but there is a passthrough option in every other software player I have used.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

This is the post I was recalling, in regard to why Amazon music won't stream 360RA discretely, only binaural stereo.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...zon-360-through-apple-tv-4k.32291/post-628246
Another thread here.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ntosh-and-other-mpeg-h-ready-receivers.32566/
Waiting for the first person to post they are hearing RA360 in multi-channel, and how.
Also the price tag for the hardware.

 

[AYanguas]

Isn't there a passthrough option in the Tidal App? I've never used Tidal, but there is a passthrough option in every other software player I have used.

I get the hdmi passthrough in Tidal App, running in FireTV, only for Dolby Atmos.

But the Tidal App has to 'see' that the connected HDMI device is Atmos capable. If not, it switches to the stereo version. For instance, in my summer house with a 5.1 AVR, I cannot play Atmos tracks (in 5.1 DD+), unless I tell FireTV it is connected to an Atmos capable device. I do it with an HDFury Vertex2 device that shows the proper EDID.

I have tried to do the same with TIDAL 360 tracks, but I always get the stereo version. Or, perhaps, I don't know, my DENON 8500 cannot recognize MPEG-H. I read somewhere Denon was going to support it, but I do not know if it is true.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I get the hdmi passthrough in Tidal App, running in FireTV, only for Dolby Atmos.

But the Tidal App has to 'see' that the connected HDMI device is Atmos capable. If not, it switches to the stereo version. For instance, in my summer house with a 5.1 AVR, I cannot play Atmos tracks (in 5.1 DD+), unless I tell FireTV it is connected to an Atmos capable device. I do it with an HDFury Vertex2 device that shows the proper EDID.

I have tried to do the same with TIDAL 360 tracks, but I always get the stereo version. Or, perhaps, I don't know, my DENON 8500 cannot recognize MPEG-H. I read somewhere Denon was going to support it, but I do not know if it is true.

Ok, so what I'm getting from this is if you did have an AVR/AVP that was 360 capable, Tidal would recognize it and pass the info as intended. Correct?