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I once made a blind test tool that gives you different encodings in real-time called Nuance which you can download from here. Spotify has 256 kbps Opus, it's marked on your end result as a progress bar. I have asked an audio forum to send me their results, and this percentage of the 90 people could pass the following formats:

 
Nobody was able to reach Spotify's compression, not even self-proclaimed audiophiles on a $300k system. We can easily call Spotify scientifically transparent.

I once made a blind test tool that gives you different encodings in real-time called Nuance which you can download from here. Spotify has 256 kbps Opus, it's marked on your end result as a progress bar. I have asked an audio forum to send me their results, and this percentage of the 90 people could pass the following formats:

 
Nobody was able to reach Spotify's compression, not even self-proclaimed audiophiles on a $300k system. We can easily call Spotify scientifically transparent.

I'm saying these things are super strong, even the smallest ones, so in my opinion, the best choice is the cheapest.

This corporate behavior usually goes hand in hand with forcing overworking. When the GN video dropped, I was stupid enough to support both of their views, but now it's clear that LMG has huge problems. I'm naive enough to think that this can change, but I've seen enough small to medium companies to know it's unlikely.

So I‘ve been able to give LTT the benefit of the doubt for nearly anything right now. 
What is worse is Maddison‘s statement.
 
Here‘s a bad summary: 
Maddison decided to leave LMG due to multiple reasons, all of them hitting her mental health at an „alltime low“
I‘m going to start with the simple stuff.
 
1. “I was expected to post 3 tweet, 2 Instagram posts, and 2 TikToks minimum per day“.
- Okay, kind of weird that she has to do so much work, anyone knows that‘s a lot (especially in terms of quality). This approach reminds me of younger LTT honestly.
 
2. „I was consistently belittled by certain members of upper management. My work was called „dogshit“ I was called „incompetent“. When I would rach out to managers and try to get help with these situations, I would be told to „put on my big girl pants“ and be more „assertive“.“
- Oh great, now even company bullies? What was that with unionising?
 
3. „After enough complaints ((of the bullying)) from me, I was pulled into a meeting. In that meeting the writers room was pointed to and I was asked „do you think any of these people would have a hard time getting a job? I said no (keep in mind this was about a month into working there) I was then pointed out and asked „What about you?“.“
- FFS… She even had to agree verbally to a „no drama contract“. A verbal one!
 
4. „In this ((when agreeing to the contract)) moment I realized I was no longer considered part of the team. I was now a threat because I was putting up a fuss when I believed I was being treated unfairly and inappropriately.“
- This is maybe the worst feeling for a lot of employees, especially younger ones. WTF?
 
5. „A warning that came very shortly after I had come forward stating I had been inappropriately grabbed multiple times in the office, amongst other issues. I was barred from being in videos. So when you ask what happened? Why wasn't she in more content?
This is why.“
- I added this point because I am not very sure what she means by grabbed, it probably regards to the verbal contract but in a worse case SA… If SA there should have been multiple firings and also re-structuring. Did the other women face similar problems???
 
6. „After it was publicly announced by Linus that he was hiring me (without my knowledge or consent to that situation) and also before I was even offered the job, or shown the salary.“
- Very average Linus move. Still not okay.
 
7. „It detailed that I was given incorrect information and would actually have to make changes to my plans if I wanted to continue being employed at LTT. This was AFTER I had moved entire countries and given up my visa status, I couldn't just go back.“
- Shitty move, all it would have taken would be some kind of communication…
 
8. „I was told I was bossy, when I was trying to be assertive. (like I was asked to do) I was told I was arguing, when I was trying to discuss my point of view. I was told to "calm my tits", "stop being such a bitch", and  other comments to similar effects.“
- I wonder how many people there have to face this issue, especially the women there. I always thought they, you know, would be different than this.
 
9. „There were numerous instances of misinformation being given to me purposefully to negatively impact my work.
I only know this because co-workers would tell me they overheard the actual information I should have been given.“
- How could this even be? How is this possible? 
 
10. „I remember getting told off for taking my sick days, as in the days you're entitled to. This no days off, "grindset" culminated in the real moment I realized I had to leave. I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together.
- The whole grindset thing is something that directly contradicts what Linus said on the WAN show. People should not work overtime/too hardcore if they are forced to, it should be because of pure enthusiasm. Did this miss Linus‘ radar because of ignorance or just because he‘s a part of the problem?
 
11. „It was genuinely the only way in my mind ((the cutting)) to take a day off without being harassed for a reason why.
I had spoken to managers about how I was struggling, and how the workload was too much for one person.
But I was belittled and told "you just have bad time management skills".“
- Nah, their expectations were just bad. What also upsets me is that no-one ever apologised to her. It‘s clear that Linus never really cared about the whole social media thing, and once the team realized that they actually do need a social media team, they did not apologise or anything to her for just overworking her. Sure, the team made mistakes but saying sorry is the very least. Have some integrity!
 
Again, there is more, and I really recommend reading the Tweet to see yourself how fucked-up this whole thing is. 
I was seriously able to live by the GN controversy, but this is just so much worse.

any comments on this, linus? what the fuck???

We'll, technically, you can say so. The codec used for all digital phone calls before VoLTE is AMR, which has such a low bitrate that it filters out anything but the fundamental speech component as a side effect. Back then, most codecs worked by simply allocating a different bit depth to each frequency, with this specific codec allocating basically zero to all but the most important bands. These microphones still have huge distortions caused by noise, but you can only hear it as basically AM. 

If you look hard enough you can find ASIO drivers for Realtek onboard.  it's just usually not added on basic install.  You have to dig in the driver package and find it and then install it manually

Both channels strive for accuracy and risk their relationships for a correct review, this is one of the rarest and most important traits in the landscape. I can stand behind both of them.
 
If you run a small company with only a few of you, then GN's way is perfectly viable: quality over everything else, and you only buy new toys when there's money for it. It's stable, but there's no way to do everything you want to do. Not even remotely close.
 
LMG is one of the largest YT operations by a long shot, and he has to provide to all these people. Allocating more time for videos is a double loss in this case: you have to pay more for it, so you will have less views, less revenue from said views, sponsors, reach... This loss of income can and do hurt jobs. Just look at what happens at similarly sized companies when a minor project is canceled. Entire groups are fired. This company is not large enough that the CEO can take a smaller loss from his salary to keep said employees on the long term. That feature comes at 1000 people which is not yet possible in this landscape.
 
You have to understand both sides. These creators act from the kindness of their hearts and not from greed. This is just an expected side effect of running a factory. Manufactories have way lower scrap rates than factories. Yes, it's true that the QMS is just better at GN, but Linus has a way wider portfolio. You just can't have the best of both worlds, that doesn't work. I won't believe that major changes will happen. Yes, the lab will do more comparable results, and the employees will be trained for more appropriate communications, but that's all they can do. And because we need both a quality and a quantity channel, it's good this way. Keep up with the good work, both of you!

Those are usually sellouts or heavily biased voodoo believers with a complete disregard for science/measurements. It's very rare that someone actually measures and reaches out to engineers (like Audioholics), and it's even more rare that they have the money or equipment for quality reviews (Amir, Erin). Things like the Meridian tour are only possible with the reach of Linus.

Those are usually sellouts or heavily biased voodoo believers with a complete disregard for science/measurements. It's very rare that someone actually measures and reaches out to engineers (like Audioholics), and it's even more rare that they have the money or equipment for quality reviews (Amir, Erin). Things like the Meridian tour are only possible with the reach of Linus.

Sorry, but this is a driver bug that likely won't be fixed. Restarting a PC also causes it for me. I made myself a custom USB cable with a button that breaks the power and thus resets the device. Otherwise, you always have to unplug-replug when this happens.

You absolutely can. Use the Driver, and move one rear to the center and another one to the ceiling. Select Cavern Driver as the render target in the converter or just play something. Actually I might just add the 4.1.1 layout, here we go.
 
The track is the official encoder's HRTF, it's actually Dolby Atmos for Headphones.
 
Correct. Without visual aid, my test subjects had issues even on the Z axis.
 
I can do 7.1.6 with an 8 channel soundcard for $20. There are analog matrixing hacks, which are possible with Cavern. Sounds great, actually, but I can only do 5.1.4 at home, since the room is that small, but that's also with matrixing on the rear wall.
 
The Dolby decoding IC locks up at 16 channels, the super multichannel decoders like StormAudio just duplicate the surrounds. They never go beyond 16, only Dolby's own processors (and Cavern) can, but those are to be used in actual theaters.
 
Focusrite 18i20 per every 10 channels for $600 with a PC. That's *very* hard to get working though.
 
I recommend 5.1.2 front. It's the best entry (full movement on the front wall) and the rears are merged if you select that option. Your hearing is best on the front anyway.
 

Hey everyone, I'm looking for feedback about my pet project of 6 years now, which is an audio calibration tool (and some other audio experiments, but those don't matter now). I'm interested in anything you care about, not just features and quality, but the simple things like the layout and friendliness of the UI, or ease of use. Anywhere you see a path of improvement, I'll take it. Even if you don't try it, just want to give some tips of what would be a nice addition, it's also warmly welcome.
 
My goal with this is to make the PC a viable alternative to AVRs, where every time I measured the results (with REW), it was far from the standards, even if their own graphs showed something close to flat. That problem is solved here by using thousands of correction points. The DCI standard (used in all actual commercial cinemas) is closely followed, which fixes non-dynamic boomy bass caused by bad crossovers. There are a few target curves to choose from, or the ability to import one (an editor is coming). I'm interested in your results if you try the feature that fixes the case where only the center speaker has unnatural sound or the one which makes your ported subwoofer sound like a sealed one. The first few testers really liked the results, and I'm stoked to hear how it turns out outside my country.
 
You might be looking for a catch. Actually, there's a few:
You will need a calibrated measurement microphone (UMIK-1, XTZ Pro, etc.) for optimal performance. Voice chat, phone, even studio mics won't work well or at all. If you ask for a feature, it will be public domain, as the project is open source. There are some people who see this as a setback. Only layouts up to 7.1 are supported currently. 5.1.2 is hard to do, but doable nonetheless. This will improve in the future. You have to use a PC for playback, this many filters are not possible on any AVR or processor.  
If you're on board, here's what you'll need:
The calibrator The calibration applicator Calibrator documentation if needed, but if needed, please tell me what was non-trivial and how should I improve the process to make it trivial Step-by-step calibration application, please read this before asking why it doesn't work if that happens  
For devs, here's the source code, as I promised.
 
Thank you for your time and comments!

The different reference levels only apply to the screen main channels, but the -3 dB surrounds and +10 dB LFE channels are given relatively to that. This is the Dolby 5.1 and 7.1 standard (including their home calibration tones), but there are cases when these are different. IMAX levels are the same for all speakers, while Dolby Atmos actually has -6 dB for legacy content surrounds. Games are a different case, some are mixed in DCI (Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Overwatch), some aren't (basically anything made with Unity). I can't think of a good solution, only which one breaks more when the content is using a different standard.
 
Both can be used if done right, and both are used in practice (Audyssey Pro is using noise and sweeps, Dirac and Dolby are using only sweeps). Windowed and repeated sweeps might produce bad results, but Cavern turns off windowing by default and clearly marks it as an advanced feature that should not be used without reason. This will not discard the room's effect, and the correct levels are displayed. There is also at least half a second to 21 seconds available in the recording process for low frequency falloff.
 
Dolby only band limits the LFE channel (LPF @ 200 Hz if I remember correctly), but this measurement is not used in practice for a long time, the error margin of +/-3 dB is too high. The sweep is perfectly repeatable in low-noise conditions, the pink noise is not.
 
Yes. After everything is calculated, even crossovers or special features, the highest boost is calculated, and subtracted from all gains, making 0 dB the highest peak. This usually lowers the system's volume a lot if channel level differences are high, so a default feature of automatically raising 0 to 3 dB (depending on the filters) is available. This can be turned off, and the actual digital peak can be set, from 0 dB FS to 12 dB FS in 3 dB steps (this was also a feature that was asked for). The auto setting calculates a gain that is highly unlikely to cause digital clipping, but the 0 dB setting makes sure it won't happen.
 
Thank you, I forgot AVS. I asked the moderators on Reddit, they called this self promotion, so I can't ask for feedback there.

Thank you for your detailed feedback, I have acted as promised, and uploaded a new version. The entire changelog can be found on this page.
 
For single file import/export, something close to the default Windows dialog was added. It's the Mono clone, as direct windows calls are unsupported from Unity. For multifile exports (like room simulation), the old UI is staying, as the Mono dialog can't be tamed to select the last used folder by default.
 
The "used standard" block was changed to "gain standard", and next to DCI and Cavern, a new option called Custom was added. When you select this, sliders will appear on the left, where you can offset individual channels between -6 and 6 dB. As many other users have also expressed that DCI shouldn't be the default, it is now Cavern (same level mains).
 
This is an ongoing task, but it's really hard to do as the codebase is many tens of thousands of lines, and I started working on it since I started programming, thus a complete rewrite and component separation is underway.
 
What do you have in mind?
 
Thank you again, and happy holidays!

Hey everyone, I'm looking for feedback about my pet project of 6 years now, which is an audio calibration tool (and some other audio experiments, but those don't matter now). I'm interested in anything you care about, not just features and quality, but the simple things like the layout and friendliness of the UI, or ease of use. Anywhere you see a path of improvement, I'll take it. Even if you don't try it, just want to give some tips of what would be a nice addition, it's also warmly welcome.
 
My goal with this is to make the PC a viable alternative to AVRs, where every time I measured the results (with REW), it was far from the standards, even if their own graphs showed something close to flat. That problem is solved here by using thousands of correction points. The DCI standard (used in all actual commercial cinemas) is closely followed, which fixes non-dynamic boomy bass caused by bad crossovers. There are a few target curves to choose from, or the ability to import one (an editor is coming). I'm interested in your results if you try the feature that fixes the case where only the center speaker has unnatural sound or the one which makes your ported subwoofer sound like a sealed one. The first few testers really liked the results, and I'm stoked to hear how it turns out outside my country.
 
You might be looking for a catch. Actually, there's a few:
You will need a calibrated measurement microphone (UMIK-1, XTZ Pro, etc.) for optimal performance. Voice chat, phone, even studio mics won't work well or at all. If you ask for a feature, it will be public domain, as the project is open source. There are some people who see this as a setback. Only layouts up to 7.1 are supported currently. 5.1.2 is hard to do, but doable nonetheless. This will improve in the future. You have to use a PC for playback, this many filters are not possible on any AVR or processor.  
If you're on board, here's what you'll need:
The calibrator The calibration applicator Calibrator documentation if needed, but if needed, please tell me what was non-trivial and how should I improve the process to make it trivial Step-by-step calibration application, please read this before asking why it doesn't work if that happens  
For devs, here's the source code, as I promised.
 
Thank you for your time and comments!

Don't spend thousands on audiophile crap, it won't change a thing, doesn't matter how many videos you'll make. We all know the results, and they'll just run away with your money, while the cognitive dissonance of the audiophiles won't allow them to get this. The propaganda machine works brutally well, even after they fail blind tests, they say things like "the test setup is not advanced enough to show cable differences", "the cable is not long enough", or "my ears got tired, but I heard it in the beginning". 

Yes, it's always a good idea, it will have less banding and sometimes better contrast in subtle areas, but it's most likely unnoticeable in motion. It's a really subtle difference unlike playing UHD in 1080p where chroma upsampling is not required anymore (as 1080p Blu-rays have only 540p of color information). 

That's a great price, as low as their discount passive bookshelf prices. Klipsch does this regularly, sometimes even for 1/3 of the original price (for subwoofers). Hope you like yours

Ty bro. I went to a video only and they had it for $225. Made my day

I've come a long way since I made an audio lab out of my room and created my own version of Atmos. It started out really, I mean really ghetto, but it was worth it at the end:
 
2013 - Genius SW-G 2.1 1250 ($30)
2014 - Same amp with used Sony SS-A307 speakers (total cost raised to $50)
2015 - 2 additional SW-G amps with a used Dimarson setup for surrounds and overheads - this is where the development for my upmixer started (t.c. at $100)
2016 - Fronts were replaced with Klipsch R-15Ms, still no center, just a 4.0.2 ($250)
2017 - Another SW-G amp, a Klipsch R-25C, another pair of R-15Ms as front height, and an R-10SWi subwoofer, all on sale ($700)
2018 - Got a gift of a JBL 8340A pair, so a 5.1.2 was possible throwing out the Dimarsons. 2 of them stayed bolted to the ceiling for later use. I sold the R-10SWi, and got an RW-12d for the same price. (no change in cost)
2019 - I accidentally found a directory listing on Yorkville's service website on Google, which contained schematics for actual IMAX speakers. So I built a new subwoofer based on that, which is basically unrivaled at any price point. I asked them if this was intentional or not, and they took it down, so don't ask for a link. (cost bumped to $1700, value raised to the sky)
2020 - The annoyingly bad R-25C was replaced to another used 8340A, and I got a Crown XLS-202 for the fronts ($2000)
 
After only spending $2000, I've got a total system value of about $10000, and with a custom built calibrator, it managed to drastically surpass $500k home theaters.
The system as of now:
JBL 8340A screens and Klipsch R-15M surrounds as a 5.1.2 base and 2 Dimarsons used as sound guides for a virtual 5.1.4
DIY subwoofers, one main and 3 small room correction boxes, all of them custom calibrated for the room
Crown XLS-202, BASH, and Genius amplifiers
ASUS Xonar DX sound card
Equalizer APO with Cavern QuickEQ measurements
 
Some numbers of how well this turned out:
- Perfectly flat 20-20000 Hz response at reference cinema levels (105 dB main peak, 115 dB LFE peak) with only +/-0.05 dB error in the RLP
- No phase changes in software, all channels could be perfectly aligned with 1 sample precision
- Nearly perfect 20-120 Hz response for the LFE at any seat, with only +/-1 dB error and chest slams at any position, even while standing
- Just 57 ms of total LFE decay time
- RT60 is always below 250 ms without any acoustic treatment
- The entire system is only capable of 740 Watts, but only two scenes were able to clip it at reference levels, both of them hit the room correction subs
- Over 200 hours spent calibrating every single small issue

It's mostly down to what ecosystem you want to build. An AVR is typically a plug-and-play home theater, it just works, contains all features in low or mediocre quality, has integrated amplifiers, lots and lots of inputs, and is very easy to use. If you don't want to include a PC in your living room or theater, this is your only way (or a preprocessor + amplifiers, which is just an AVR in parts).
 
The pros and cons of HTPCs with sound cards and dedicated home theater equipment are basically the same as for PCs and consoles:
 
HTPC with sound card:
Audio quality range: very bad to exceptional Only supports up to 8 channels, which is 7.1 for regular setups or 5.1.2 with hacks I make Supports every existing codec if you just update your player Ultra high resolution phase-perfect calibration Perfect delay and gain control for accurate spatial imaging Free (everyone has a PC), but your sound card might be very low quality, and amplifiers have to be bought for actual home theater speakers Not trivial to set up perfectly Dedicated preprocessors (including AVRs):
Audio quality range: mediocre to very good Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Barco Auro support up to 16 valid and 35 virtual channels Limited codec support, for example, Vorbis is rarely, Opus (the most advanced known compression) is never supported in the home theater ecosystem Very poor calibrators with phase distortions and little to no methods of manually fixing it Delay and gain control is only for fixing serious issues Very poor price/value ratio, which gets worse the more advanced equipment you buy Plug'n'play The video differences are kind of the same story.

It's mostly down to what ecosystem you want to build. An AVR is typically a plug-and-play home theater, it just works, contains all features in low or mediocre quality, has integrated amplifiers, lots and lots of inputs, and is very easy to use. If you don't want to include a PC in your living room or theater, this is your only way (or a preprocessor + amplifiers, which is just an AVR in parts).
 
The pros and cons of HTPCs with sound cards and dedicated home theater equipment are basically the same as for PCs and consoles:
 
HTPC with sound card:
Audio quality range: very bad to exceptional Only supports up to 8 channels, which is 7.1 for regular setups or 5.1.2 with hacks I make Supports every existing codec if you just update your player Ultra high resolution phase-perfect calibration Perfect delay and gain control for accurate spatial imaging Free (everyone has a PC), but your sound card might be very low quality, and amplifiers have to be bought for actual home theater speakers Not trivial to set up perfectly Dedicated preprocessors (including AVRs):
Audio quality range: mediocre to very good Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Barco Auro support up to 16 valid and 35 virtual channels Limited codec support, for example, Vorbis is rarely, Opus (the most advanced known compression) is never supported in the home theater ecosystem Very poor calibrators with phase distortions and little to no methods of manually fixing it Delay and gain control is only for fixing serious issues Very poor price/value ratio, which gets worse the more advanced equipment you buy Plug'n'play The video differences are kind of the same story.