Listening to music with Auro-Matic

[Sonnie Parker]

@JStewart mentioned in another thread that he was listening to music with Auro3D and enjoying it.

I decided to give it a try with my StormAudio's Auro-Matic. It's definitely different and I like it... better than anything I've heard in Atmos.

It's certainly making use of all the channels, althought I'm not sure where it's getting all the inputs from, considering this is Roon two-channel.

 

[JStewart]

Glad you’re enjoying it!

I really like what it does with the front stage as well as the balance with the surrounds and heights (in my setup.). It’s the best sounding upmixer I’ve heard. Are you able to adjust the height effect on the Storm?

This is from the HTP-1 UI

Before Auro I thought Dolby ProLogic II did the best. The current Dolby upmixer isn’t as good as Prologic II was for me. Even with center spread on. I understand there’s a newer version that handles upmix for wides, but it’s not on my HTP-1 and probably never will be.

One I’ve never heard is Logic 7. Lots of folks rave about it though. There’s a current version that I haven’t read much feedback on. I think it’s on JBL processors but going from a wore out memory so could be wrong.

Be good to hear from other folks on their favorites and why.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I believe I had Logic 7 on my Lexicon unit years ago. It was one of the early surround modes.

These are the adjustments, but I was not aware of what they actually adjusted. The height speakers sound right to me... not overpowering. I have Small, Medium, Large and Speech, then Strength is 1-15. I adjusted them to where I thought it sounded best.

It does mesh the imaging a little... larger images, not as pinpoint. However, for most songs, I still like it. It's definitely fun listening.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I guess the Auro Preset is the room size, although speech wouldn't make sense for a size.

Auro Strength seems to be like a volume control for the surround speakers, as I turn it down, the monitor shows them with less output. When I turn it all the way up to 15, I can begin to hear them, and it doesn't sound nearly as good. It seems to sound about right from 7-10... hard to say which I like the best.

Either way... this is crazy good to me. Forget Atmos... bring on the Auro-Matic!

 

[JStewart]

I guess the Auro Preset is the room size, although speech wouldn't make sense for a size.

Auro Strength seems to be like a volume control for the surround speakers.

I thought a heights adjustment on the HTP-1. If I get some time tomorrow I’ll double check. I can mute all but the surrounds and then all but the heights and be able to hear what the slider affects with only one set playing at a time.

Did you try the ”small” setting? Imaging was more pinpoint for me so that’s where I prefer it. I’m not sure what large and small are actually referring to. The room size, the degree of the effect, something else?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Yeah... I liked the large better, but I wasn't paying attention to imaging when switching back and forth. I'll check Small and see. I am 100% digging it though... going thru all my music and re-living it all over again. It's like a got a new toy.

It does something to the bass too... pretty cool all around. Crazy that I've never tried it before. THANK YOU!

 

[IslaHudson]

I listen to this music and helpful for me.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I think Auromatic is hands-down the best upmixer out there. Both Music and Movies. For music, it's the only one that keeps the soundstage intact while expanding the surround experience.

Sonnie, not sure if you noticed, but you can increase or decrease the Auro effect using the Storm app.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I think Auromatic is hands-down the best upmixer out there. Both Music and Movies. For music, it's the only one that keeps the soundstage intact while expanding the surround experience.

Sonnie, not sure if you noticed, but you can increase or decrease the Auro effect using the Storm app.

Oh yeah... I've been tinkering with the settings. I'm still stuck on large, but I have adjusted the effect from 10 to 7.

The soundstage is fine, maybe even a little larger, but the imaging is not quite as pinpoint. Vocals get larger in the center. It's not really a bad thing to me... sounds okay, just not quite as refined as when I am critical listening. I prefer listening with it engaged.

 

[Todd Anderson]

You should try it for upmixing movies. In my room, it really locks in dialog. Hard to describe, but it seems dialog is given a bit more weight. Beyond that, the overall spaciousness of the presentation is notable.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I have, and I like it. It also helps a LOT with older TV shows that are stereo only.

 

[JStewart]

Auro Strength seems to be like a volume control for the surround speakers, as I turn it down, the monitor shows them with less output. When I turn it all the way up to 15, I can begin to hear them, and it doesn't sound nearly as good.

I thought a heights adjustment on the HTP-1. If I get some time tomorrow I’ll double check. I can mute all but the surrounds and then all but the heights and be able to hear what the slider affects with only one set playing at a time.

Just circling back on this. I found the Auro strength control does not affect the output of the surround speakers with the HTP-1 implementation. I’m using a 5.4 setup so I didn’t check surround backs. I also found the Auro strength control does act as a volume control for the height speakers.

Something else I found interesting is that there was no dialog from the center mixed to the heights. (And I presume nothing else from the center but I d have the means to test.). This was with a 5.1 Dolby audio track being upmixed. I checked this with the movie and small settings.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

It's odd that on my StormAudio, the strength setting adjusts the volume of speakers other than the LRC speakers. Not only can I see it on the monitoring, but also I can hear it.

I still haven't quite figured out what the size is doing, other than it sounds different and I keep going back to the Large setting. The Small setting does not seem to help with the imaging. With normal stereo listening, the center image has more depth and is pinpointed and narrower. It's like the center image is against the back wall. Of course that depends on the song... some images do float out between the wall and my listening position. With Auro-Matic, it makes the image larger and brings it a little closer... it's more immersive. Stereo is pretty immersive as it is with my system, but Auto-Matic just makes it more immersive, and I really like it, although it may not be as accurate.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I believe the strength setting moves more and more information to the surrounds and back surrounds of your room. So, lower strength mainly keeps content on your front three, but as you increase strength, that sound is stretched more aggressively down the sides and to the back of your room.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That sounds correct... I'm going to do more testing to confirm my curiosity.

 

[JStewart]

It's odd that on my StormAudio, the strength setting adjusts the volume of speakers other than the LRC speakers. Not only can I see it on the monitoring, but also I can hear it.

No, what’s odd is I tested with a 5.1 signal,
With a 2 channel signal the surrounds also change with the slider on the HTP-1 implementation. Same as what you’re seeing.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Well... I've only looked at the monitoring with a stereo signal, but it was weird that it was showing more than just a left and right input. This has me scratching my head. Roon doesn't have an option for multi-channel output as far as I know. The only music I can hear is from the two main speakers and the subs... nothing coming from the surrounds as this would indicate below in the INPUTS section.

Maybe Auro-Matic reroutes the stereo inputs, and then processes the output channels.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Here is the Eagles: Live from the Forum on Kaleidescape. It shows DTS-HD with the following output, which is 7.1. Actually, the input is 7.1, but the output is 9.1 because the wide surrounds are kicking in.

Switching over the Auro-Matic with Large and Strength 7... same volume.

Now at 0 Strength...notice no output in the back surrounds or any of the six overhead speakers.

Setting the Strength to 15 pulls in the back surrounds and all six overhead speakers.

With this particular video, changing from Large to Small does seem to have an ever so slight effect on the center image. It's almost as if Large is maybe giving it a bit more delay with the surrounds... maybe a hall size effect? It's difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what's it doing. Changing the Auro Preset does not change the monitoring output.

Moving over to Roon... native Stereo. The monitoring output may look odd with only the LF on the left side of the monintoring. I have my right XLR cable connected on output 17 because it's the closest output on the back of the processor closest to the right channel amp. Trying to keep my cables to a minimum and same length.

Now Auro-Matic on the same song at Strength 7. Strength adjustments are the same as above... 0 turns off back surrounds and height speakers... and controls the output volume of those eight speakers in my system. This could be different based on the speakers in a system.

I notice the front wide surrounds have the lowest ouput with Auro-Matic. Turning on Storm XT creates more output in the wide speakers, as shown below. Compare it to the wide outputs on all the other settings below. Playing Alanis Morissette's Uninvited, I can hear her vocals faintly in all the speakers, but there is more in the front three main speakers. Storm XT does cause her voice to be spread too much across the front stage and diminishes the center image. I prefer it remain off.