Inexpensive USB2.0 Digital-to-Digital Converters (DDC) Pt.1: Douk Audio U2 PRO (Upgrade Version) and SMSL PO100 PRO - initial look, about I²S-HDMI. In praise of unofficial Atmos mixes!

This SMSL unit also does MQA decoding for those who want the feature. Unlike the Douk, this box only has an LED to indicate MQA decoding status but does not tell us the PCM or DSD samplerate.

While I've tested some inexpensive devices (like the Topping D10s DAC) which have the ability to convert USB 2.0 input into S/PDIF output, I have not specifically looked into these Digital-to-Digital Converter boxes which some audiophile reviewers (like this fellow, and this) seem to rave about.

For me, there just hasn't been any reason to be particularly interested since other than conversion from one interface type to another, the other promise of such devices - the reclocking capability - just hasn't been of great interest to me. As far as I can tell from listening, it's not like jitter has ever really been much of an issue unless severely bad for any decent modern device I've ever come across even at low price points (nor was jitter really an issue even with old CD players)!

However, since I have not tested I²S/I2S/IIS, I figure I'd buy both the Douk Audio U2 PRO 2025 upgrade version (US$63; Amazon Canada) and SMSL PO100 PRO (US$74; Amazon Canada) boxes to try out; have a listen and run some measurements. Unfortunately due to time limits, I'm not quite ready to show the measurements yet, so keep an eye out for those results, perhaps next week! For now let's just introduce you to these devices and talk about the I²S-HDMI connection.

As typical of the majority of my reviews/critiques, I bought these through retail channels.

Dolby Atmos Visualization: Elton John's "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)". [And Deadmau5 & The Neptunes' "Pomegranate".]

Still image from the official "Rocket Man" video.

For those who have attended multichannel demos over the years, you've probably come across Elton John's "Rocket Man" as a good track to listen to especially if it's the first time experiencing Atmos. 

[Other multichannel demo tracks you'll run into may include Pink Floyd material from Dark Side, Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue, Roger Waters' Amused To Death, Beatles Abbey Road, even Madonna's Immaculate Collection all are pretty cool.]

You might be surprised to learn that this track was remixed by Greg Penny in 2013. Recall that Atmos was first shown in theaters in 2012 with the Disney-Pixar movie Brave. So even though we typically associate multichannel audio and Atmos with movies, realize that music mixing in this format should not be seen as an after-thought that came many years later! Of course, we've had many multichannel music releases since the early 2000's on SACD and DVD-A but without the height dimension, potentially with audio objects, available now in Atmos, DTS-X, Sony 360 RealityAudio (MPEG-H 3D Audio) and Auro-3D content.

REVIEW / MEASUREMENTS: ELAC Debut 2.0 A4.2 Atmos Speakers

Well, with the pandemic of 2020/2021, one thing that has changed markedly in my family is that we're spending way more time watching movies and miniseries at home this past year. In fact the last movie I watched at the local "cineplex" was 1917 right before the Oscars on February 9, 2020. As such, 2020 has been a year of microwave popcorn, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and the occasional UHD Blu-Ray played on my Oppo UDP-205 with the family on the sofa.

Wanting to use the Energy C100 bookshelf speakers elsewhere (see what I was doing here), I figured it was time to grab a pair of actual "Atmos elevation speakers". Not unexpectedly, the ELAC Debut 2.0 A4.2 Dolby Atmos Add-On Speakers were on sale before Christmas which you see in the image above.