Can You Replace an AVR with THIS? - Monoprice Blackbird 4K 7.1 Audio Extractor

Buy this on Amazon: amzn.to/3nDPT8D
Buy from Monoprice: bit.ly/monopriceblackbird4k71
Fosi Audio BS-A1 4-Channel Amp: bit.ly/FosiAudioBSA1
Spatial Audio Calibration Toolkit: SpatialCD.com
My Speaker Leaderboard: speakerleaderboard.com
My Subwoofer Leaderboard: bit.ly/subwooferleaderboard
My Headphone Leaderboard: bit.ly/headphoneleaderboard
3 Ways to Support This Channel:
1) 🎁 Buy something from my Amazon Wishlist (make sure to add a note with your email so I can thank you personally)
bit.ly/MyPublicWishlist
2) 🔑 Access My Free/Paid Exclusive Tutorials: www.avmasterclass.com/joentell
3) 🪙 Become a Patron: / joentell
Channel Sponsors:
Monoprice/Monolith: bit.ly/MonopriceJNT
My Recommended Products: kit.co/joentell
Gear I Use: www.amazon.com/shop/joentell
Follow me on:
📸Instagram: / joentell
🐦Twitter: / realjoentell
👥Facebook: / realjoentell
⌨️​ My Mechanical Keyboard Channel: bit.ly/KeyboardAcoustics
Disclosure: The Affiliate links above earn me a commission if you purchase using those links. This is at no additional cost to you. Monoprice is a channel sponsor, but I bought this with my own money. AFFILIATE LINKS:
Crutchfield: howl.me/ckjnBvmnd5M
Best Buy: howl.me/ckjoam20vaE
Target: howl.me/ckjoaHc0z1l
Disclosure: The Affiliate links above earn me a commission if you purchase using those links. This is at no additional cost to you. This product was sent free for the purpose of this review.

[@timwilson3435]

The new MiniDSP with HDMI in looks interesting for this type of setup. With the DSP routing you can set it up the way you want and even use Dirac live. Unfortunately it's also LPCM in only and will probably be more expensive than an entry level AVR.

[@joentell]

Yeah, the secret is really the decoding of Dolby Digital content if you want to use most streaming services.

[@christopheralvernia8863]

Hello Joe. Love the content. In theory if the audio extractor lacks Dolby atmos support or if you can keep it set @ 5.1 only (if selector is available), it should keep it at LPCM for all content. I’m still running an Apple TV 4K with an older 5.1 AVR with no support for Dolby Atmos. So I only get LPCM multi ch in, on every app(unless I change it to Dolby bit stream in settings). … An AVR would make it simpler, but I also like tinkering too. Great experiment.

[@BeefyMon]

LPCM = Linear Pulse Code Modulation… which is inherently lossless, but I must be pedantic 😅

[@joentell]

I barely know what any of that stuff means Matt. 😉😁

[@BeefyMon]

@@joentell me too, but when the opportunity to act as if I know what I’m talking about arrives… I plop some knowledge upon ya.

[@scaudioav]

Ahh yes the ol decoding dolby/dts battle. Very frustrating when you just want the bare processing with analog out. I think I found an extractor that will do dts and dolby digital(no atmos) 7.1 channel. Its on the slow boat to get here but I will keep you posted.

[@joentell]

Yeah, let me know

[@leo11877]

What we need is a 13 channel DAC with Atmos and a couple of HDMI, Optical and Coax ports and a nice remote. The DAC should have the ability to replace OPAmp chip.

[@leo11877]

* A high quality DAC like a Geshelli Labs J2 or Denafrips etc

[@President_Vladimir_Putin]

Can you Plug HDMI input from HDMI ARC TV ? Will this detect signals from TV 's HDMI ARC port ?

[@BriBCG]

Could also be interesting in a HTPC setup which at least for me I prefer to setup to output PCM 7.1 all the time. You can do bit streaming but if you're using the HPTC for multitasking that can get messy since audio mixing is no longer possible. Don't know if I'd be happy to lose the features of the AVR like being able to add height channels, and auto calibration. Also I use passive speakers so obviously having amps inside the AVR is useful. But as a cheap way to output surround sound to a bunch of powered speakers from the PC could be really interesting! Especially since 7.1 sound cards are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. To see affordable PC surround sound die off, really sad.

[@joentell]

I just posted the link to the 4-channel amp I used if you're interested bit.ly/FosiAudioBSA1

[@nonothing9685]

This might be an interesting idea if you were trying to hide everything. Put stuff behind walls, things like that.

[@ramaswamysankarasubbu7661]

i own one of this. it works perfectly for amazon firstick 4k and 1080 p stick and it extracts 5.1 perfectly. However, for bluray player it does n't support 5.1 always stereo

[@nunocampos1805]

That looks perfect if you have old 7.1 pc speakers lying around.

[@joentell]

Good point.

[@danemoreno88]

Try restarting the Apple TV mine didn’t like the svs hdmi cable wouldn’t allow 4:4:4 chroma until I restarted it

[@joentell]

I tried restarting a few times.

[@lbudt29]

Joe, you should have got the OREI audio extractor. 199.00 $

[@joentell]

What would it have done different? Does it have analog outputs? I think the secret is it needs to be able to decode lossy formats.

[@andrewmcewan9145]

The last time I actually saw a licensed decoder that wasn't $$$$$ was with dolby prologic II. For the Apple tv it is probably a hdcp issue. Hdcp is just a another annoyance using hdmi. I have been looking in to a hd fury to do dolby vi profile 5 tone mapping to hdr 10. May unintentionally solve the hdcp issue. But yes it will allways feel like a bit of a hacky solution. (It could also be a hdmi 2.0/2.1 issue whe the apple tv is trying to do 4k 60hz 10bit 4:4:4 chroma. Hdmi 2.0 does bot have enough bandwidth for that. If you had a audio extractor that would do dolby prologic II that would cover 5.1. Although it really feels like wasting all that available bandwidth to have 5.1 matrexed in to 2 ch. And what to say the streaming device would output that format. You could force it on a pc, But these formats are all just a mess with licensing, multiple standards over the same cable and nothing being standardized. Let alone streaming 4k hdr only Netflix lets you do it on a pc but in very specific circumstances as well as no do vi. While dolby has essentially licensed 0 pc devices for Do Vi so you can't do it anyway.

[@michaelwright1602]

Check out the Schiit Audio SYN unit...

[@joentell]

I don't see anything called SYN

[@michaelwright1602]

@@joentell Between Surround and Gaming on their products page, it is kind of easy to miss.

[@joentell]

@@michaelwright1602 I did a Google search for it and didn't see anything

[@scaudioav]

They syn doesnt process anything that I can tell. Directly from the product page it says "So what surround standards does this support? ATOMS? DSDTS? MQANON? None of them. How can you call this a surround processor? Because it creates surround from any stereo source. Wait a sec. This works with anything? Yep!"

[@michaelwright1602]

@@scaudioav Correct, it is just passing the single as far as I can tell, but looks like a cool device.

[@datdudeinred]

Dms has done it in a better way. A full diy dolby atmos. &it can be done for any amount of channels not just 7.1. &even better way than dms would be to use 2x8ch dacs. Instead of using 8x normal dacs.

[@joentell]

I use 2 x 8-channel interfaces with 3 x 4-channel amps for my 7.1.4 studio setup. That's totally different from what I was trying to do here.

[@datdudeinred]

​@@joentellwould definitely love a video on that. How do you do the dolby atmos channel split? That would be a fascinating to know how you do it. Btw can we use those studio dacs? Which have 32ch max😮? Because there are no 32ch or multi channel preams (only mic preams which are not same right? Ofc) to use with multi channel amps.

[@eddietours3728]

Sir I can listen to the echo in the room 🤔

[@joentell]

How does that relate to this video?

[@eddietours3728]

@@joentell I mean like the sound reverberation

[@joentell]

@@eddietours3728 I understand. I'm just not sure why it would be relevant to the video topic.

[@eddietours3728]

@@joentell oh it was just me because I had the KZbin app on the ps5 surround on I was shock how clear and your voice in the room how it sound 😅

[@joentell]

@@eddietours3728 I see. Also, I was using the on-camera mic which picks up more of the echo than if I were to wear my lav mic.

[@marklauren15]

1st😊 Nice review bro😎

[@aussieexpat]

Stop streaming...

[@joentell]

That's an option, but I like the convenience. Also, KZbin (the streaming service you're watching now) supports 5.1 and I sometimes make content in 5.1. Physical media isn't the answer for everything.

[@aussieexpat]

@@joentell you know you can't fit a surround system in a toilet... where i watch youtube :😜

[@joentell]

@@aussieexpat use some AirPods Pro 🤣