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Description: 16-channel Dolby Atmos and DTS-X renderer, Dolby, DTS, and PCM decoder, and digital-to-analog converter. Input: 1 HDMI/ARC/eARC input with word clock on BNC. Supports PCM (44.1–192kHz/16–24 bit), Dolby Digital (DD+, TrueHD, Dolby Surround, Atmos), DTS (AES, HD Master Audio, HD High Resolution Audio, Express-HD LBR, Neural-X). Outputs: Word Clock on BNC, 2 HDMI (full A/V passthrough and audio-only), Dante/AES67 on RJ45, AES3 16 channels via 1 DB25 connector, balanced analog (16 channels via 2 DB25 connectors). Network interface with PoE via RJ45. THD+…

I measured the Arvus H2-4D with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. I connected the H2-4D's Ethernet port to my network and used the unit's GUI to set the processor's output configuration to "5.1.2," to make sure there was no DSP being used, and to set its volume control to the maximum. Initially, the data source was the HDMI output of my Roon Nucleus+, and playback was with the Roon 2.0 app, which recognized the Arvus as an ALSA device. However, concerned that I was getting anomalous results with data sampled at rates higher than 48kHz and bit depths greater than…

Few people make albums about isolation and loneliness sound as appealing as John Doe does. That's what Doe has achieved with his latest solo release, Fables in a Foreign Land (LP, Fat Possum FP 18001). Set as a song cycle in the 1890s, the album's 13 songs reflect Doe's penchant for dust-and-diesel storytelling, within an acoustic-trio format. It's "telling stories and playing music around the modern campfire," Doe said in an interview.

Doe's mining of what some call the "dark folk" vein during the latter portion of his solo career hearkens back to his…

Mettler: The sequencing on Fables is key to telling the story. By the time we get to "Sweetheart," you feel like it's in the right place—it couldn't have been, say, track 2; it had to be track 12.

Doe: I let Steve Berlin do the Fables sequence. He said, "Can I have a shot at it?" And I said, "Sure, go for it." We all agreed it was a good sequence. I think we made only one or two changes. We left "Sweetheart" off the vinyl, so don't be too disappointed. We did that because the sides were a little uneven, and we didn't want that.

Mettler: Well, you can put "Sweetheart" out…

Though it's often forgotten in the wake of Motown's success, there was also a blues scene in Detroit in which no one loomed larger than John Lee Hooker. Cut at a single session in 1962 in Chicago, Burnin' has been reissued by Craft on 180gm vinyl.

Hooker, who began his career playing solo, rockin' joints with his upbeat crowd pleasers put over by his growling vocal delivery, decided here to play with a group of musicians imported from Detroit,…

On the face of it, Alexander Melnikov's Fantasie: 7 Composers, 7 Keyboards is an audiophile's dream. A follow-up to keyboard genius Melnikov's marvelous 2018 Harmonia Mundi recital, Four Pieces, Four Pianos, it presents the keyboard fantasies of seven great composers, from Johann Sebastian Bach to Alfred Schnittke, on seven very different-sounding historic instruments. Each…

Bobo Stenson may be the most under-recognized great pianist in jazz. He was essential to the aura of mystical lyricism that prevailed on Charles Lloyd's first five ECM albums. That partnership ended more than 20 years ago.

Stenson has been leading his own trios on ECM for 50-plus years. His current trio, with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Fält, released Cantando in 2008,…

After I'd reviewed, in the January 2000 issue, AJ's Basis Debut Mk.…

Because the Phono 3's circuitry appears to be similar to the Reference 6's, I expected its sound to be as well. It was. Forget for a moment the typical sonic descriptors: like the Ref…

Like most American households in the early…