powerav Posted October 21, 2024 Posted October 21, 2024 Starting a new topic on this because I stuffed the heading of the last one. So I just took delivery of a HDMI iSilencer, mmmm very interesting, I’ve made a pretty embarrassing low quality video if anyone interested. Bottom line is that I did notice a difference in some cases. I was mainly focused on audio improvement with multi channel music so I tried in 3 different sources. 1. PC running roon rock playing multichannel music. 2. Apple TV with Dolby Atmos music. 3. Zappiti media player with video music concerts and bluray audio rips. Need to watch video for differences but the biggest improvement was with Atmos music on Apple TV, was a slight difference on PC, another slight difference with video music concerts audio but no noticeable difference on bluray audio. I didn’t pick up a video improvement at all but I wasn’t looking real hard for one as I was focused on audio. 1
powerav Posted October 21, 2024 Author Posted October 21, 2024 Well after listening for 4 hours straight with assorted Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple TV I’m convinced this thing is magic, much better than the Apple TV x upgrade and much easier to apply. Well worth it. 4
powerav Posted October 23, 2024 Author Posted October 23, 2024 I’m still convinced, Riders on the Storm has never sounded any better.
powerav Posted November 15, 2024 Author Posted November 15, 2024 I’m still convinced that the iFi isilencer has improved Atmos on Apple Music.
Snoopy8 Posted November 15, 2024 Posted November 15, 2024 But only with Atmos on Apple Music?, which I do not have...
powerav Posted November 15, 2024 Author Posted November 15, 2024 2 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said: But only with Atmos on Apple Music?, which I do not have... WHY don’t you have Apple Atmos bro! Cmon Snoop. 1
powerav Posted November 15, 2024 Author Posted November 15, 2024 (edited) This playing right now, mesmerisingly awesome. Edited November 15, 2024 by powerav
powerav Posted January 10 Author Posted January 10 I’m sorry but I just can’t stop praising this thing, love it. I have it currently plugged into PC for Roon multichannel music and just so pure and refined. 2
JulesC4 Posted January 23 Posted January 23 I purchased the HDMI iSilencer for my appleTV, a major step up in sound quality. Music was actually listenable on Tidal, the proverbial veil, blanket-lifting. Not sure about the picture quality being improved, I need to do some comparison tests. I'm thinking about getting one for my Blu-ray player. 3
powerav Posted January 23 Author Posted January 23 8 hours ago, JulesC4 said: I purchased the HDMI iSilencer for my appleTV, a major step up in sound quality. Music was actually listenable on Tidal, the proverbial veil, blanket-lifting. Not sure about the picture quality being improved, I need to do some comparison tests. I'm thinking about getting one for my Blu-ray player. Awesome, great to hear, I agree 100%
Snoopy8 Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Late to the game (I forgot about it! ), but I am now a convert. I tried it on a Panasonic UB9000, Dune RealVision 4K and Samsung eArc for movie streaming. Movie was the start of Fellowship of the Rings and various multi channel music, Atmos, 5.1 Blu-ray and ripped SACD music. PQ wise, the HDMI iSilencer does improve the details and makes the picture pop a little more. The biggest PQ improvement came from streaming but note that it does not come close to the PQ of 4K movies played locally. The PQ of the Pana and Dune are close and the iFi improves PQ slightly. It is in the audio that the iSilencer made a difference. The SQ of the Dune was behind the Pana, but Dune + iFi beat the Pana! The iFi added body to the music. Adding the iFi to the Pana took SQ up a notch. Also improved SQ from streaming movies but don't have access to streaming multi channel music. I bought one iSilencer from the Richmond shop and just ordered 2 from the online store. One on Pana, Dune and eARC port on TV. 3
powerav Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 10 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: It is in the audio that the iSilencer made a difference. The SQ of the Dune was behind the Pana, but Dune + iFi beat the Pana! The iFi added body to the music. Adding the iFi to the Pana took SQ up a notch. Also improved SQ from streaming movies but don't have access to streaming multi channel music. That’s the best news ever, I was hesitant when I bought mine as audio improvements weren’t really emphasised too much in their marketing but considering price wasn’t too much of a risk. I’ve posted my findings on other sites as I was excited about what I heard but only get hammered with snake oil claims by those who haven’t tried it, haven’t heard of one person yet that has tried it and said no improvements in anything at all. 1
Snoopy8 Posted January 24 Posted January 24 On 21/10/2024 at 1:31 PM, powerav said: but no noticeable difference on bluray audio. Hence my forgetting about this device! 12 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: The SQ of the Dune was behind the Pana, but Dune + iFi beat the Pana! This was the key comparison, easy to do by switching HDMI on AVR and playing the same material. My Pana UB9000 has always been my SQ reference and beating it says something... 1 hour ago, powerav said: but considering price wasn’t too much of a risk. It is on sale at A2A which made it an even easier decision 1 hour ago, powerav said: I’ve posted my findings on other sites as I was excited about what I heard but only get hammered with snake oil claims by those who haven’t tried it, haven’t heard of one person yet that has tried it and said no improvements in anything at all. I used to evangelize a lot more about products that I was excited about, and copped plenty. My "infamous" one was the Uptone EtherRegen which started the 3 year audiophile switch wars here on SNA. 2 hours ago, powerav said: audio improvements weren’t really emphasised too much in their marketing 99% of HDMI products and people's interest are focused on PQ. Hence no info on SQ. Thank you @powerav. This is one of those rare, cheap silver bullets that anyone can get. 1 1
powerav Posted January 25 Author Posted January 25 I just tried 2 channel music from PC that runs Roon Rock through HDMI Isilencer to AVR thinking well if it sounds great in multichannel should be similar in 2 channel, hoping PC could be a 1 box solution BUT nope no good, can easily switch outputs in Roon back to e30 dac with liner power supply and the latter is far,far superior. 1
Snoopy8 Posted January 26 Posted January 26 @powerav I recall you were using Kodi previously. Looking at whether it is worthwhile for me (a Kodi noob) to investigate Kodi on a Pi5 with iSilencer?
powerav Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 14 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: @powerav I recall you were using Kodi previously. Looking at whether it is worthwhile for me (a Kodi noob) to investigate Kodi on a Pi5 with iSilencer? Yes I was for mostly multichannel music but I know have subscribed to roon and now use that but I could easily install it on my Rpi 4 and try it. I do miss the Kodi visual displays.
Snoopy8 Posted January 26 Posted January 26 2 hours ago, powerav said: Yes I was for mostly multichannel music but I know have subscribed to roon and now use that but I could easily install it on my Rpi 4 and try it. I do miss the Kodi visual displays. Do try please. Interested to find out whether Kodi on a Pi + iSilencer will give better or even equal SQ than Roon on PC + iSilencer.
powerav Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 Ok, plus with the Shanti power supply should be interesting, I’ll just need to get a hdmi adapter for the mini hdmi port. 1
powerav Posted January 27 Author Posted January 27 I’ve given up on the Kodi experiment, I had an old nuc lying around and and I forgot just how troublesome and painful the initial set up is. Plus the static noise that comes through the hdmi is disturbing, not even the Isilencer can fix that. Sounds so good on Roon Rock PC I don’t want to change anything 2
Snoopy8 Posted January 27 Posted January 27 6 hours ago, powerav said: I’ve given up on the Kodi experiment, I had an old nuc lying around and and I forgot just how troublesome and painful the initial set up is. Plus the static noise that comes through the hdmi is disturbing, not even the Isilencer can fix that. Sounds so good on Roon Rock PC I don’t want to change anything It is likely that your NUC is faulty. My Pi5 has no noise whatsoever. Will post once I have done some comparisons...
powerav Posted January 28 Author Posted January 28 3 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: It is likely that your NUC is faulty. My Pi5 has no noise whatsoever. Will post once I have done some comparisons... This is the second nuc I've had that has done this, here is a video I made years ago with same issue. 1
Snoopy8 Posted January 28 Posted January 28 4 minutes ago, powerav said: This is the second nuc I've had that has done this, here is a video I made years ago with same issue. I have not used HDMI audio output on my previous NUCs, so I will defer to you. I do have NUC Element (which is different), may try it after the Pi5?
Snoopy8 Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Loaded LibreELEC Raspberry (Kodi) onto my Pi5. Scanned my NAS, took me a while to get it output 7.1 instead of stereo. Pi5 + LPS + Kodi + iSilencer was slightly behind SQ of Pana UB9000 (without iSilencer), and I will not pursue it further. p/s not impressed with Kodi scanning of my BD material. Kodi was designed for users with single file movies. It missed much of the music and picked up many false entries of my rips which are full disc backups. Zidoo and Dune media players are far better... 1
powerav Posted January 31 Author Posted January 31 19 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: Loaded LibreELEC Raspberry (Kodi) onto my Pi5. Scanned my NAS, took me a while to get it output 7.1 instead of stereo. Pi5 + LPS + Kodi + iSilencer was slightly behind SQ of Pana UB9000 (without iSilencer), and I will not pursue it further. p/s not impressed with Kodi scanning of my BD material. Kodi was designed for users with single file movies. It missed much of the music and picked up many false entries of my rips which are full disc backups. Zidoo and Dune media players are far better... Ah yes Kodi scanning can be painful, it looks unbelievably awesome when you use the right skin and get all the meta data right but it takes a lot of time, you need to re organise and re name all your files, thank you for doing this as I too will not go down that path again. 1
powerav Posted January 31 Author Posted January 31 Does yourself @Snoopy8or anyone else know of a simple music OS for raspberry PI that will play multichannel audio?
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