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I have now had the Trinnov Altitude16 (a 16 channel surround sound processor and optimizer) in my home theatre system for a couple of days now. The Altitude16 (AL16) replaced my Onkyo PR-RZ5100 and Trinnov Amethyst 2 channel sound processor. Those on this forum know that I have been evolving my system for some time and recently I upgraded my 2 channel amplification with the Anthem STR power amplifier. I have retained my Elektra HD2 7 channel amplifier. With the acquisition of the AL16 and there only being XLR analogue outputs, I needed also to do away with the RCA cables connecting my former Onkyo, Amethyst. The only unbalanced cables being used now are the hybrid female XLR out to male RCA cables to my dual subwoofers. It is a bit of a pity that my SVS subs only have RCA inputs The obvious question for some people is WHY would I dispense with a perfectly good Onkyo PR-RZ5100 pre-amplifier? Well it is rather simple. Having been through the steep learning curve of integrating the Trinnov Amethyst into my system and knowing the improvement in sound that yielded for my 2 channel music duties, I thought well why not do the same for my movies/Netflix UHD experience. During the time I had my Amethyst I have become a Roon convert and this now all blends seamlessly into the whole package, particularly so now that I get a solid 48 Mbps NBN connection. Granted that during the last 2 years I have saved my pennies for the AL16, at this early stage I can only say that the AL16 is meeting my high expectations and is a quantum step up from the former 7.2 channel sound achieved with the Onkyo. I think that IF one was to jump straight into the AL16 upgrade path without previously experiencing the setup with the Amethyst, you would be in for a very steep learning curve. So, for me this time, the curve has not been so steep. Having already been familiar with calibrating the Amethyst was a huge bonus. At this point I must congratulate Trinnov in the support that they give. Before and after I purchased the AL16, I have fired off many many questions and I am happy to say that Antoine Selle (from Trinnov support in Paris) has been superb. We have been corresponding by email and despite the time zone difference, replies often arrived within 30 minutes!! You very rarely get this type of service in Australia. Also, very helpful has been David Moseley from Cogworks (in QLD) in offering advice. As most should know Trinnov offer a 5 year warranty on their high-end products. I am feeling very secure that future software updates can/will be done remotely as they become available. I won’t go into the intricate details of the setting the AL16 up, other than to say that you need to be unhurried with a unit as sophisticated as this, as there are so many settings to bed down. The colour manual does a good job to explain the key elements of the AL16 package. To view results of the room optimisation and to operate the AL16 you need VNC software (so you can see all manner of graphs and settings and controls as I did with the Amethyst). I opted to use the Tight VNC software running on my PC and VNC Mocha on my iPad. The AL16 was instantly recognised on my network and all you had to do was to put in your serial number as the password and I was off and running. Suffice to say at present I have two pre-sets that I have called Roon Music (leveraging off my Tidal subscription and NAS drive) and another called Movies/TV. The Roon Music pre-set is a 2.2 channel setup with base management feeding my dual subwoofers. The Movies/TV pre-set is a 7.2 setup (I now have 2 spare channels of amplification … maybe I could go to 9.2 with some Atmos ceiling speakers in the future, but that might be for another day). It was quite remarkable that during the Roon Music calibration I made the deliberate effort to stay out of the room for fear of interrupting the process, well so I thought … in fact I was 2 metres out of the room but directly behind my rear seats (my theatre doors were open at the rear of my home theatre – their usual position). When I moved, the calibration process objected that there was too much movement, so I had to start again! Talk about precision and sensitivity!!! Now for the AL16 sound …. Last night I decided to be bold and watch a Netflix movie. This movie I chose was The Mule starring a very senior Clint Eastwood. Dialogue in some setups are a little unclear .. not so here, even when Clint Eastwood tended to mumble. Soundstage was very spacious and very coherent. Coherency is the single attribute that I used to describe the Amethyst sound (the direct result of Trinnov’s proprietary optimising software), and this is now replicated amongst 7 channels rather than just 2. I was very startled at one point in the movie when rifle shots rang out. The rifle shots (which emanated from the right rear channels) had a sharp cracking sound to them that preceded the bass sound … this sounded very life-like. The Onkyo rifle sounds are somewhat muddied by comparison to the AL16. Then I put on one of my favourite UHD disks, La La Land, to listen to Damien Chazelle’s wonderful score. Well, I was not disappointed. Magnificent and glorious are words to use here and I would suggest that this disk be a reference test for the musicality of a sound processor being fed HDMI input. The Roon Music pre-set in the AL16 is doing an equally good job as did the Amethyst for 2 channel music, although I am still editing the Target Curve for this pre-set and I am sure that I will take some time to get this exactly where I want this. Another aspect that I had to encounter was to edit my ‘devices’ and ‘activities’ in my Harmony Remote. So far this is working well, and I reported to Antoine and David that I am not having ANY HDMI issues at all. I have retained the setup using just ONE 2.0 HDMI out that feeds an HDMI splitter to serve my Panasonic 4K TV and JVC 7900 projector. Time to enjoy and tweak, reflect, enjoy and then tweak some more. Perhaps separate pre-sets for each of my Oppo 203 UHD player, Foxtel IQ4 box and Apple 4K TV.

This might just be a wild goose chase but there are many 2 channel DAC options but hardly any 8 channel DAC options. I personally would love to see an 8 channel external DAC that can drive a power amp directly so that I can finally get rid of the horrible quality Pre Amps that are AV Pre Processors. By now we are used to using computers for music playback via external DAC, but for movie playback we still need to use an AVR or Pre-Pro or we have to use a Pro Audio DA Converter which comes with a lot of options not needed for the average consumer. Anyone else with me?????

Item: Elektra Theatre 6CH amplifier Location: VIC, Box Hill South Price: $900 now $750, I want my hifi room floor space back! Item Condition: Excellent - not a mark or scratch or ding on it anywhere! Front fascia is perfect too. Reason for selling: Downsizing Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal to friends, DD Extra Info: Selling for a mate who is moving out of his apartment and back in with his elderly mum to keep an eye on her. 150w into 8 ohms x 6 channels. A monster - built like a tank, here in Melbourne. Full of quality parts like a humungus potted mains trannie and 4 x Elna Super Gold Silmic 80v 10,000uF mains caps, Sanken transistors etc. Just beautiful quality casework too! One owner from new, purchased directly from Arthur. Serviced by Arthur around 2 years ago to make sure everything was spot on, it has not been used since. I fired it up and in my system - it's absolutely dead silent!!! Lot's of power and a good sound. Not a mark, ding or scratch on it anywhere. (I lie! The black plastic speaker binding post knobs for the front channels are marked. see pic) Comes with the original box and packaging. Of course much prefer local pickup. However, I will post at cost (it's really, really heavy!) and extra boxing will be required. Whom ever buys this unit, will be very happy. Happy to demo at my place for a serious buyer. Pictures:

Hi there! i am from Austria (yep) and i bought this nice surround receiver "LG-AR702 NS". I bought it used last year. I'm very pleased with the sound and i really like it. Here comes my problem. LG Austria, Germany .. do not support this product anymore. You can't even anything about it at LG-Online in my country. Its' like it didn't ever exist. So when i found out that there was no support here in my continent, i started researching and found out, that there are some information about it down under. So my problem is, that when i connect my PC or PS3 directly via HDMI to the LG, there is this problem, that it recognizes the "multi-channel" input, but messes it up, and center comes from surround right. I got this problem on PC when using windows-sound-configuration. when i click on the center, the test-sound comes from the back. When i watch a downloaded 5.1 video (movie-trailer), the sound goes right. But games, programs and windows do not work well. Same at PS3. Netflix works fine. Amazon Prime Video not. Netflix even works fine, when i got 1. PS3 to TV via HDMI. 2. TV to LG via Toslink) I think it depends on the signal that comes into the AVR. I found out, that there was a similar problem with "Denon" receivers. This could be fixed with a firmeware update. But i couldn't find anything for the LG. Do you have any idea in fixing this? BTW. as i bought this used, i didn't get a microphone for audissey set-up. and it is IMPOSSIBLE to geht one used-part here in Europe. is there any help for me too? thank you a lot. nice greetings from the other side of the world

I was searching the web and came across this item. It creates a direct i2S link between your DAC and computer. Not sure if it is good or bad, but the multichannel version has my interest for use in a Home Theatre PC. Pink Faun i2S Bridge (English at bottom of page) http://www.pinkfaun.nl/portal/productaanbod/dac-streaming-audio/1440-i2s-bridge DAC List (bottom of page) http://triplemaudioshop.nl/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=1584&Itemid=116 I am not to sure myself what this i2S signal exactly is, but as I understand this is the pure digital information signal (PCM?) Edit: Some possible implementations of this card down this thread http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/80572-music-streamers-that-are-diy/ Oooh, already mentioned before in this forum. (Thanks @myrantz) http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/80594-pinkfaun-i2s-card-and-directstream-dac/ Link to the forum mentioned in the link above http://www.psaudio.com/forum/directstream-all-about-it/compatible-i2s-source-devices/