Starting over. What do I need to get(or purchase) to make Audiolense work for 7.2.4

[richardnew12511]

Last March I tried for months to get Audiolense working for my 7.2.4 channel system(mitchco was gonna do the calibration), but I eventually had to give up. I wasn't ever able to get a successful measurement. I tried with 3 different Windows 10 machines, and two different AVRs(Denon and Yamaha), and got the same error("sound card is not supported"). Pretty certain windows playback device settings were all setup correctly, as well as ASIO4All settings. You can read more about my struggles here(if you want). The only 2 things that were common between all 3 windows machines and both AVRs was 1. HDMI, and 2. ASIO4All, so I'm thinking the problem is there. Note that ASIO4All sucks majorly for Roon listening too. It works perfectly for about 45 minutes, but then a scratching sound starts occasionally popping into the music. The scratching sound becomes more and more common until I restart the machine, at which point it works again for 45 minutes.

I'm ready to try going at this problem again. This time I want to start from scratch. I'll lay down my needs and wants, and maybe you guys can guide me towards some purchases that will meet those needs/wants.

Needs:
- Audiolense correction for at least FL/C/FR and subs.

- Ability to add delay to channels that Audiolense doesn't correct(they mostly play reverb, so I'm not super concerned with EQing them)

- Auro3D upmixing


Wants:
- Video and Audio output: The windows machine is running double duty for both video and audio. I'm typing up this post while listening to music on the machine via Roon. This is why I went for HDMI, as it's the only output I know that supports video and audio. I'm willing to give this up, though. If it will only work with USB out, I can control the roon server via an IPAD, and then switch back to HDMI when I need to use Windows. Unfortunately, my current AVR doesn't support USB in I don't think(Denon X440H), but I'd be willing to purchase a new one that does.

- EQ for all 11 channels. As far as I know, this requires ASIO4All or HDMI 2.1. I don't know any AVR with 2.1 support, and I'm super skeptical I'll ever be able to use ASIO, so I'm willing to let this go too. 95% of my listening is stereo upmixed with Auro3D, so the surround/height channels mostly just play echo noise. If I can get the front 3 channels and both subs EQed, I'm thinking I can use a miniDSP down stream to time align the other 6-8 channels. I think HDMI 2.0 supports this(without ASIO)?

 

[Omid]

Hi Richard,

On my PC, Audiolense is able to do sweeps in 5.1 through the HDMI cable. There are two tricks, the first is to use Directsound or Windows MME (for exampe in my case "marantz-AVR (Intel(R Display A (Windows MME))") as a driver rather than ASIO4All or WASAPI. The second thing is in control panel you need to click on the Marantz HDMI but rather than properties, push on configure, and make sure windows is configured to play in 7.2.4 the default is stereo (mine doesn't show anything bigger than 7.1, but that's probably because my receiver is limited to 7.1). Push on test and confirm that windows plays a sound on each individual speaker and identifies them correctly. If so, go to audiolense's check speaker and see if it plays knocking sounds through each speaker in turn.

Let me know if that works, if not I may have another workaround but it's more complicated...

Omid.

 

[richardnew12511]

So, I downloaded 6.17, both 32bit and 64bit, but unfortunately neither works. I can't even get them to start. I've already dealt with UAC and Windows Defender.

Behavior is the same as 6.16 64bit. That is, after you click the .exe, the program asks you to select a version to try(2.0, Surround, XO), but no matter what you choose, the program simply closes and nothing ever starts(confirmed via Task Manager). It's like an exception is being thrown that the program just can't handle, though there is no UI feedback(it simply doesn't launch). Machine specs attached. I don't have more than 32 cores. Any ideas?

Is there a log file that logs what exception is being thrown?

I would go back to 6.16, but unfortunately it seems the download link is broken. Perhaps someone could send me the 32bit setup.exe for 6.16?

Or, maybe I could purchase another machine that Audiolense can work better with? I'm not opposed to that.

 

[richardnew12511]

Hi Richard,

On my PC, Audiolense is able to do sweeps in 5.1 through the HDMI cable. There are two tricks, the first is to use Directsound or Windows MME (for exampe in my case "marantz-AVR (Intel(R Display A (Windows MME))") as a driver rather than ASIO4All or WASAPI. The second thing is in control panel you need to click on the Marantz HDMI but rather than properties, push on configure, and make sure windows is configured to play in 7.2.4 the default is stereo (mine doesn't show anything bigger than 7.1, but that's probably because my receiver is limited to 7.1). Push on test and confirm that windows plays a sound on each individual speaker and identifies them correctly. If so, go to audiolense's check speaker and see if it plays knocking sounds through each speaker in turn.

Let me know if that works, if not I may have another workaround but it's more complicated...

Omid.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I will give this a go once I'm actually able to get Audiolense to start.

 

[richardnew12511]

*Update: I've got the 6.16 download link to work by copying the link address and pasting it into a new tab(middle click/open in new tab fails). To help debug, I've attached the exception that occurs when clicking the older links, but you can right click "copy link address" and paste to a new tab as a workaround. It appears Chrome is blocking it for security reasons, so it may work in other browsers(I didn't test that).

 

[Omid]

It sounds like your computer security is getting in the way. If you disable the web security monitoring and/or firewall, you might manage to download the file.

In the meantime, you can still try configuring your windows audio output to 7.2.4 (or the closest you can get to that), and playing test chimes to each speaker individually. If windows can't output a multichannel signal through HDMI, my solution will not work.

 

[richardnew12511]

It sounds like your computer security is getting in the way. If you disable the web security monitoring and/or firewall, you might manage to download the file.

In the meantime, you can still try configuring your windows audio output to 7.2.4 (or the closest you can get to that), and playing test chimes to each speaker individually. If windows can't output a multichannel signal through HDMI, my solution will not work.

It's definitely Chrome's security getting in the way for those old .no links. After getting around that I was able to download 6.16 32 bit, and that version actually starts. So I'm gonna roll with that. I'm also down to help debug 6.17(both versions) if that would be helpful for devs(just let me know what I need to do).

I've already configured the windows output, and everything chimes correctly. As far as I know, HDMI 2.0 only supports up to 7.1, but if I can just find a way to EQ the mains + subs, I think that will work and get me 95% of the full performance. Then maybe just wait for HDMI 2.1

 

[Omid]

Isn't HDMI 2.1 already available ?

https://www.primecables.ca/p-373528-cab-pc-07938-3ft-hdmi-21-cable-8k-120hz-ultra-high-speed-48gbps-4320p-uhd-hdr-24awg-braided-hdmi-cord-primecables

 

[richardnew12511]

Isn't HDMI 2.1 already available ?

https://www.primecables.ca/p-373528-cab-pc-07938-3ft-hdmi-21-cable-8k-120hz-ultra-high-speed-48gbps-4320p-uhd-hdr-24awg-braided-hdmi-cord-primecables

It is, but I'm not aware of any Pre-Amps/AVRs/Dacs that support HDMI 2.1 and Auro-3D upmixing. If you know of any device, I'd love to hear it. At one point, I was close to buying a $10,000 used Trinnov processor. The thinking was, it will work for sure to EQ all my channels,, but I passed because I believe that Audiolense is much better, and way cheaper.

 

[Omid]

Does this AVR model meet your needs?

AVR-X4700H 9.2 Ch. 8K AV Receiver with HEOS® | Denon™

The Denon AVR-X4700H 9.2 channel 8K AV receiver offers 125W per channel, 7 HDMI inputs & 3D audio capabilities with built-in HEOS® and voice control.

www.denon.com

It seems to be a 9.2 ch, HDMI 2.1, Auro-3d upmixing AVR and available on Denon's website $2,000.

 

[Mitchco]

Behavior is the same as 6.16 64bit. That is, after you click the .exe, the program asks you to select a version to try(2.0, Surround, XO), but no matter what you choose, the program simply closes and nothing ever starts(confirmed via Task Manager). It's like an exception is being thrown that the program just can't handle, though there is no UI feedback(it simply doesn't launch). Machine specs attached. I don't have more than 32 cores. Any ideas?

Hi Richard, don't know if you have solved this yet... If not, try right clicking and run as administrator.
Kind regards,
Mitch

 

[richardnew12511]

Does this AVR model meet your needs?

AVR-X4700H 9.2 Ch. 8K AV Receiver with HEOS® | Denon™

The Denon AVR-X4700H 9.2 channel 8K AV receiver offers 125W per channel, 7 HDMI inputs & 3D audio capabilities with built-in HEOS® and voice control.

www.denon.com

It seems to be a 9.2 ch, HDMI 2.1, Auro-3d upmixing AVR and available on Denon's website $2,000.

That might meet my needs! I'll keep that as a fallback option if I can't get it working here.