Does anyone know of any commercial and/or DIY, ambisonic, atmos or other spatial audio decoders.
I expanded my system to 9.1.4 but do not have the financial where-with-all (or rack space) for a new receiver.
TNX
I expanded my system to 9.1.4 but do not have the financial where-with-all (or rack space) for a new receiver.
What does that mean? You added speakers with no way to drive them???
Usually a receiver is more economical than any alternatives.
When we moved I set up my studio in the new living room. I added the ceiling speakers. I have a full Pro Tools TDM but it's too old for the new spatial sound plug-ins. I have the amazing Eventide H-Series digital processors (16 channels) that was going to build my own ambisonics decoder but I haven't found any practical information on the settings, only math, that I don't understand. Then I got sick. So I am looking into alternatives. If you know of a preamp under $600 with 14 outputs that could work.
I am just surprised there is not a DIY solution.
I know this is a very late response to your question re ambisonic decoders, but, just in case it's still of interest, I can suggest some of the older, pre owned digital, Meridian DSPs: models 565, 568.2 & the G61 and G68, which all can be found on a ubiquitous online auction site and a few others. These models all support ambisonic UHJ and SuperStereo. The G61 series also includes horizontal (ie. 3 channel) B-Format input on its MA1 line level inputs, on which when 3 channels are present it auto detects as B-Format rather than UHJ. Ideally, the Meridian Configuration program (in Windoze) can be used for setup but this can be done, with patience, on the front panel using the inbuilt setup wizard.
The Wiki is a good source of info', including domestic decoders -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ambisonic_hardware
There are some key requirements for ambisonic setup.
1 - Four (or six) identical loudspeakers.
2 - loudspeakers set in a rectangular layout. In ambi, the 'speakers are considered as though they all sit on the arc of the same circle with the listener at its centre. A six speaker layout should be as close as possible to being a regular hexagon with the listener exactly on the line between the side speakers, although for typical listening room dimensions the six is slightly over-kill.
3 - Four (or six) equal gain amp channels (though using sensitivity calibration makes this less of an issue).
4 - A real or virtual central listening position (all the Meridians have compensation for level and delay for non central listening).
Steve