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Genelecin parissa sai hieroa älynystyröitä hetken jos toisenkin, sillä mokomasta ei tahtonut tulla ääntä ulos sitten millään. Ensin arvelin syyksi Neutrikin RCA-XLR-adapteria ja sen pinnijärjestystä, sitten mahdollisesti vioittunutta RCA-johtoa, mutta syypää löytyi loppujen tietysti selkänojan ja näppäimistön välistä. Gennun herkkyyspotikkaa ja vahvistimen LFE-lähdön tasoa piti vaan uskaltaa ruuvata tarpeeksi rankalla kädellä. Tuon jälkeen puntit alkoivatkin lepattaa vallan mahdottomasti. Bassonsietokyvyn testaaminen lähti aamuyön pikkutunneilla niin pahasti lapasesta, että luulin jo rikkoneeni koko subbasen, mutta Gennun suojapiiri pelasti päivän. Massiivisen paukauksen, sitä seuranneen hiljaisuuden ja hetkeä myöhemmin ilmoille päässeen helpotuksen huokauksen jälkeen basson tasoa pudotettiin suosiolla kymmenkunta desibeliä.

SVS:n yhtälailla vaikuttavan kokoisiin bassoihin ehdittiin viikonloppuna kytkeä johdot, mutta varsinainen testailu jäi vielä tekemättä. Siitä lisää jahka ja kun.

A while back I accidentally bumped into a sale on the website of KEF’s Finnish distributor. They were selling the rest of their stock of KEF loudspeakers at a very nice discount. After a moment of careful meditation I decided to buy the lot. I made them an offer for their entire stock and they accepted. On hindsight my offer could easily have been a couple of hundred lower and they would still have accepted, but that’s neither here nor there right now… because the speakers were delivered some moments ago. Yes, it’s Christmas time again here in Tuusula!

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And that’s not nearly all of them, actually. I have a nice weekend ahead of me: since some of the speakers are demo units, I need to unpack the lot and test them. I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend.

In addition to the X-Fi, the board contains 64MB of X-Ram to boost game audio performance. Audiophiles should be interested to learn that the DAC section is populated by four 120dB AKM AK-4396VF chips. ADC is AKM’s AK-5394 which boasts a dynamic range of 123dB. Op-amps are National LM4562 and TI OPA2134, and the front L/R op-amp can be replaced by end-user.

To me the most interesting feature has to be the 25Mbps SPDIF output port. According to the packaging it supports 24bit/96kHz output and, get this, next generation audio formats. This has been interpreted by many as referring to new audio codecs found on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, namely Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD HR/MA. (Auzentech’s own website announces that “The SPDIF Output port has 25mbps bandwidth and supports DTS-HD/Dolby TrueHD”.)

Before everyone gets all excited and needs a change of underwear, let’s remind ourselves that 25Mbps is way, way higher than the limit set by SPDIF standard. Let’s also keep in mind that A/V receivers, even the latest HDMI 1.3a ones, are designed to accept the new audio formats via HDMI only for copy protection reasons. The chance of finding an A/V receiver which accepts DTHD or DTS-HD via SPDIF are virtually, not to mention actually, zero.

So, while the 25Mbps SPDIF in an intriguing feature, I’m quite mystified as to what it can be used for. I should receive Yamaha’s new RX-V3800 A/V receiver tomorrow for testing, and I’m going to connect this card to it – provided, of course, that the installation into my HTPC goes without a hitch.

And here’s the rear panel with its two (only!) HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. Three component inputs, however.

Right, first test: PlayStation 3 with firmware v1.80. Fed the PS3 a Blu-ray which has a DTS-HD MA soundtrack and set the PS3 to output Blu-ray audio as Bitstream over HDMI. Now, if the PS3 was able to deliver compressed DTS-HD MA over HDMI, a corresponding logo should have lit up in Onkyo’s display. Sorry, no cigar: Onkyo receives regular DTS audio from PS3. That means PS3 sends over only the DTS core, and not the entire DTS-HD MA stream. That should answer the long-standing question whether the PS3 is able to stream DTHD and DTS-HD over HDMI as bitstream. Confused? Here’s a hint: NO, IT CAN’T. Not without a new firmware, that is.

Next up, Toshiba HD-XE1 (i.e. HD-XA2, if you’re an American reading this.) Player’s firmware is the latest available in Europe, i.e. v1.5. Entered the Set-up menu’s Audio section and selected “AUTO” for HDMI audio. Two other settings were PCM and Downmixed PCM, so AUTO was the only logical choice. Here’s what Onkyo said of the following audio codecs:

Dolby Digital Plus: PCM (tested with Happy Feet)
Dolby TrueHD: PCM (tested with Happy Feet)
DTS-HD HR: PCM (tested with Chronos)
DTS-HD MA: PCM (tested with Der Geist Von Mae Nak)

In other words, XE1/XA2 converts everything to PCM and won’t even try sending compressed audio over to the amp. I have no idea whether this limitation can be lifted with a firmware upgrade or if the problem lies with the player’s HDMI transmitter. In the latter case XE1/XA2 will never be able to pass compressed next-gen audio streams.

I’ll give the PS3 one more try, this time with Dolby TrueHD. OK, plonked in Nine Inch Nails’ live BD. Selected Dolby TrueHD and unleashed the concert. Onkyo lights up a measly Dolby Digital logo, and that’s it. PS3 OSD says the track is “Dolby Digital Multichannel 48kHz 640 kbps”. Hmmm! That’s probably caused by me forcing HDMI audio to Bitstream. Let’s see… yeah, what I figured. Told PS3 to use PCM over HDMI and now PS3 OSD reads “Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Ch. 48 kHz 5.3 Mbps”. QED: instead of compressed Dolby TrueHD, PS3 sends over plain old 640 kbps Dolby Digital over HDMI. So, either there’s a DD-compatible core in the DTHD track, or PS3 decodes the DTHD track and encodes it to 640 kbps DD on-the-fly.

Regardless, these tests show that neither the PS3 nor the HD-XE1 are able to send compressed DTHD/DTS-HD audio over HDMI – at the moment. I guess we’ll have to wait for firmware upgrades, or possibly even new players for that.