Before I can get to what the Arvus H2-4D does and how well it does it, I have to explain why I think it’s an important product. I spent years as an advocate for multichannel audio for music, based on discrete, lossless sources such as DVD-A, SACD, and high-quality downloads. All of these were either PCM or DSD and were accessible via a wide range of disc players, DACs, and local file playback apps.
I am well aware that the majority of Stereophile readers are not (yet) into multichannel, but two-channel and multichannel audiophiles have long relied on similar media and components. Some of us have added more channels. In parallel with this, the home theater world was committed to multichannel (or surround sound), but instead of DSD and PCM, they spoke multiple dialects of Dolby and DTS. Those oft-compressed formats required proprietary decoders for each dialect, which their developers were happy to license for use in AVRs and preamp/processors.
The entertainment industry noticed that the newer sound formats that support many horizontally and vertically arrayed sound sources, such as Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio, DTS-X, and Auro-3D, were natural for cinema and home theater, since they could create a more convincing experience of being present or immersed in the action. By applying these immersive technologies to music, the music industry could entice music buyers to purchase new equipment and music, including a back-catalog of music they already own in other formats.
I came away from the 2019 AES Convention fascinated by these new options for encoding, mastering, and distributing music. “Instead of multiple masterings and formats for binaural, stereo, and multichannel,” I wrote in January 2019,1 “a single-format release can be played on any suitably equipped system.” It would be the equivalent of a “single inventory” for the streaming and distribution sites for all formats.
It has taken almost three years, but Dolby Atmos is now permeating the music-streaming sites; note that most of the recent Grammy winners are available in Atmos.
Up to now, access to Atmos has been largely restricted to HT hardware; its success for music will depend on wide availability and non-HT options for audiophile music lovers to stream and to play discs or files in Atmos, especially in lossless versions.2 Enter the Arvus H2-4D.
