Recommended Components

A:

Arvus H2-4D multichannel Dolby ATMOS® digital processor: $4990
The H2-4D combines HDMI and word clock inputs with 16-channel digital (AES3), balanced analog, and LAN outputs. It decodes and renders all extant varieties of Dolby (including Atmos), DTS (including DTS-X), and stereo and multichannel PCM (up to 24/192). Set-up and control is via a local webpage, accessible via the user's network. After wrestling with setting up the channels, KR found with the Arvus's digital outputs that while Apple Music's Atmos is lossy and limited to a 48kHz sample rate, he found it a credible alternative to high-rez stereo, "swapping the latter's clarity and immediacy for a huge enhancement in the acoustic space." In the test lab, JA found that while the Arvus's digital outputs preserved the resolution and sample rate of hi-rez files, the analog outputs downsampled the data to 48kHz, with not much better than 16 bits of resolution. He felt that this rules out the H2-4D for use in a system where the owner wants to play back hi-rez music files as well as movies, with just one processor. Nevertheless, KR concluded that the Arvus H2-4D "is the single piece of audio hardware that can deliver Atmos into a component audio system," (Vol.46 No.5 WWW)

exaSound s88 Mark II: $7599
See "Digital Processors."

Merging+Hapi MkII: $8411 with 2 DA8P D/A cards
See Digital Processors. (Vol.47 No.1 WWW)

NAD M28: $5499
A seven-channel power amplifier that shares the same NAD Purifi-Eigentakt class-D output modules as the two-channel C 298—see "Two-Channel Power Amplifiers"—and offers 200Wpc. KR was impressed by the M28, commenting that, compared with his previous reference multichannel amplifier, a Bryston 9B-ST THX, "the treble seemed more delicately detailed while the upper low frequencies were a bit better defined. In multichannel, the M28 created a somewhat greater sense of envelopment with both 5.1 and Atmos content." (Vol.44 No.6 WWW)

Okto dac8 PRO: €1289 $$$
An 8-channel DAC with USB input and output, 8 channels of AES/EBU input, 8 channels of balanced (XLR) analog output, a headphone output, and a choice of seven reconstruction filters, the made-in-Prague dac8 Pro so impressed KR that he bought the review sample. JA's measurements indicated that, with just over 20 bits of effective resolution and vanishingly low linearity error and distortion, no compromises had been made to pack eight D/A channels into the Pro's slim chassis. (Vol.43 No.12, Vol.44 No.2 WWW)

StormAudio ISP Evo immersive sound preamp/processor: $17,999–$21,999 depending on channel count and digital format
See Digital Processors. (Vol.47 No.3 WWW)

B:

Primare A35.8 8-channel power amplifier: $5500
See Power Amplifiers. (Vol.45 No.11 WWW)

Topping DM7 8-channel D/A processor: $599 $$$
See Digital Processors. (Vol.46 No.1 WWW)

Deletions
Essence Evolve II-4K HDMI v2.0 Multi-Channel DAC, Exasound Sigma Streamer, Merging Technologies MERGING+ANUBIS Monitor Controller Premium, Minidsp U-DIO8, Parasound A 52+ Halo, Trinnov Altitude32-816, not reviewed in a long time.