Is It Any Good? 16 Channel AV Processor // Tonewinner AT-300 for your Home Theater
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- If you're looking for an unbiased review of the Tonewinner AT-300 AV processor, look no further! I go over all the features and how they perform, as well as what I like and don't like about this unit. If you're thinking about buying this processor, or just want to know more about it, be sure to check out my video review.
Check out my video and thank you to Fundamental Audio for sending this to me for review.
🔷 Tonewinner AT-300 - bit.ly/3DLOcuh
🔷 Fundamental Audio - www.funaudio.com.au
🔷 MY ELEKTRA REVIEW VIDEO: • IS A POWER AMPLIFIER W...
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00:00 Intro
02:35 Overview
03:01 Calibration
06:30 Initial Reaction
09:15 Feedback
--affiliate links used in this video description 
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Good honest review, clearly outlining whats required to get the most from it. 👍
Thanks mate :D
Thank you very much sir, for the important info on this processor.
Great 👍 video Tony , I would definitely not be easy for someone to learn REW and start putting filters in . Thanks for your honest review
That was my thought. I try to give the average guy who would buy it what they would experience.
I own this processor and purchased it based on reviews and price compared to the alternative, for me that was the monoprice processor at $4000. I am very much a DIYer, yet I still found it a bit frustrating to set up but still worth it due to it’s low price. I had some existing miniDSP DIRAC gear, from prior home theater setup, that allowed me to entirely skip any calibration offered by the Tonewinner. The result is a 9.2.4 System that sounds incredible. My feeling is that the Tonewinner has a solid video and sound processor but it’s all the other stuff that is lacking in stability and intuitiveness. It’s a bit finicky.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
They've release quite a few firmwares for this unit, the latest one now allows separate crossovers for surround, wide, and rears. Before they had universal crossover.
Hi Michael. Same here. I bougth it and, after some tweeking, sounds great except for one thing: I cannot make it work with a chromecast device. If I happen to pair with the Chromecast control, sound is gone. If I do not accept the bluetoothe pairing request, The chromecast pops up every 5 or so minutes requesting BT pairing. A pain in the teeth. Have you experienced something like that? Thank you!
@@eskerinola5845 no problems with BT here locks onto phono and laptop no problem.
Is this certified equipment?
Hey guys that are in the North America geography. The Tonewinner AT-300 is a incredible processor when output via XLR balance to there corresponding Tonewinner amplifiers and using a subwoofer via XLR input. Don't bother auto-eq. Just make sure your room supports 9 channel bed layer as the major differentiator with Tonewinner and the other receivers masquerading as processors.
I'm sure it's good because I heard it prior to installing it myself, but I doubt the RCA into my amplifier would make a difference over such a short run. The issue is the calibration. I just didn't have the time to learn all of that for this video.
@@BuildMontage It will make a big different, try it out and see for yourself.
@@janrar too late the unit is on its way back. Considering it sounded pretty decent out of the box I’m almost 100% certain my issues with how it sounded stemmed from the auto cal. If it were using rca converters on the amps it would have sounded terrible from the outset - but it didn’t. I wasn’t up for unplugging my Trinnov from all the xlr connections for this video. Maybe when I’m bigger and can afford a test setup :)
Nice video Sir 👍☺️
I have a X4700h, when I play movies that are Dolby Atomos the AVR auto switches. Does this do the same or do I have to press buttons to get it from Multi Channel to Dolby Atmos
It would switch between the native formats or you have it selected to Neural-X or Dolby Surround
Thanks for the review. the Denon x3800 in preamp mode is roughly the same price and seems to be light years ahead, certainly GUI-wise.
Yes that may be true, however, it has a smaller channel count.
Denon is £500 more
honestly dont know where else to ask this but, I'm wondering what streaming services offer uncompressed movies/audio? I have a decent setup and cant seem to enjoy it unless I'm watching a 4k dvd. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
There is only Kaleidescape that I know of and it’s EXPENSIVE!
@@BuildMontage Sony Bravia Core as well.
Nice video
i have the same model from Ioata, impressive performance for the pricetag. The DACs are extremly good. SNR was not tested with a device but we tried running the full active speakers my friend runs in his stereo system with a 108db 1w/m horn. And we got next to no noise. Not audible from listening position. Also we then A/B ( not blind tough ) tested it against his Stereo Pre System from Rotel and besides a minor weakness in the upper base frequencies ( around 70-90 hz i think ) we could not hear any diffrence.
Did you manually calibrate it?
Hi there, I am also thinking of buying the IOTAVX AVX17. Would you recommend it. I am also interested in the Anthem MRX740 but it’s a bit expensive. I wonder if the IOTA will be close in terms of sound quality.
@@rayking507 The MRX740 has build in amps. Havent listened to it but pretty sure the Ioata Pre outs are better by a factor of 10 when it comes to THD. Having the amps in the chain is very difficult to do right and in one small device like an AVR that does so much diffrent stuff as well its next to impossible. If you want to go external AMP for all channels anyway and are fine with not using the build in room eq but buying a mic yourself and spend a few hours ( automatic room eq does not deliver very good results anyway , maybe trinnov does but other then that ... nah ) so even a novice should get around Dirac level pretty fast. 15-20 hours of work included. The Ioata has filters for delay, volume and PEQs for matching your speakers to one another and to the room in a good amount.
IMO there are only 2 devices anyone should really look into if they want to dig deep into home cinema. The Ioata AVX 17 for everything under real high end. If you can spend alot more then go with a JBL processor that allows for Digital out. The Ioata offers some settings as already mentioned while the JBL is a real high end solution. I have a Dynacord P64 Matrix System with 16 input 48 Outputs behind the Ioata which allows me to manually calibrate everything i want. With a JBL i could go into the P64 with digital Input, saving myself from 2 convertions, once to analog and the P64 has to convert analog to digital to manipulate the signal. Have to safe up for that tough :D
@@12P14D22C What amps are you using for IOTA. And how is the Dolby surround processing for up mixing for atmos channels with non native atmos tracks. Many thanks.
@@rayking507 i dont use any upscaling sorry. Native all the way. If i watch a mono movie its mono. Tried them all. They may add more "3d" immersion but sound quality drops dramaticly. My Amps are a bit difficult to understand, hope you know what active speakers are. I run a 3 way system so 3 amp channels per speaker. 1 4140 per speaker ( mono 400w amp ). As well as half a 4410 per speaker, 1 channel to 2 Visaton TI100 and 1 channel to Visaton MHT12. Atmos has diffrent tweeters because those need wider dispersion so i run DSM 25 tweeters on those. Same amps. Subwoofer Amp is 1 EV P3000 with that i run 4 Monacor SPH 380.
I do alot more trickery with channels distribution. Manipulate the LFE channel etc so my setup is not really great for a comparison like that. Everything is done for exactly MY room. The AMPs are great. Better then most 5000€/$ Hifi amps. But difficult to get your hands on. I bought everything 2nd hand and 4410 needs to be soldered and setup correctly for use on normal speakers. They have ELA functionality. So if you dont know what you do, you may kill all your speakers when plugging them into the amps. Amps are from dynacord. Realised never mentioned it. The 4140 are for 2 tiw 250 in the fronts and for 2 tiw 200 for the surrounds per speaker.
I enjoy the review on the unit but it will not be my new toy to have . But I will get my DENON as planned. Cheers
Thanks for watching Gary.
Tone Winner needs to get off their butts and create detailed calibration videos (REW). The AT-300 could be a real gem of a processor but some will be turned off if there is a steep learning curve.
Yes, either that or work on the auto-cal to at least make it a viable option.
To be honest, in my experience automatic calibration seldom works 100% out of the box as acoustic of the room is a variable and there is no perfect "plug and play" sound tool. Ideally you'd like an equaliser AFTER your gear so you can compare units in "flat" mode. But if your room needs EQ (which doesn't!) then doing a listening test with no EQ or with auto-eq is - in my view - not fair for the device.
One last comment on the level: converting from Balanced XLR to unbalanced RCA will likely drop the overall signal by 6dB (it depends whether the source or the amps automatically boost it internally) so that could be the issue of the low level. You could do a quick test: take an SPL measure of one channel while connected via RCA, then temporarily go into the amp via XLR and take the same SPL measure.
This isn't my first receiver/processor install/review I've done. I have never found XLR to RCA convertors giving a 6dB drop personally. I actually did plug XLR cables directly and it made no difference to the output. This processor is just not benefiting from an auto-cal and requires a completely manual PEQ set of filters for each speaker to make it sound right. The reason I didn't was because of the time investment required for the type of video I was making - unfortunately I was not prepared to go in depth - it was an overview and unboxing/first impressions video. By the time the video was released the processor was already back with the distributor. I wasn't prepared to undo all the cables on my Trinnov Altitude 16 to test it out. Until I can work out a second "test" rack, I'm limited to what I can do, but I was asked to give this one a go so I did.
BTW - out of the box sounded far better than after the auto-cal. Just for context.
@@BuildMontage If the devices are properly built and the adaptors are properly made, you shouldn't have a drop. But if you get proper differential/balanced signal and you just connect one leg (+ typically) to the unbalanced input, then you'll likely have 6dB drop of signal - that's because the differential amplifier at the end expects two out pf phase signals which will eventually be put back in phase and summed together and if one is missing, you have a level drop. Grounding the unconnected leg usually triggers an automatic level boost as the circuit realises that one leg is missing. I am not saying you are doing anything wrong, just that when connecting (proper) balanced to unbalanced might cause a 6dB level drop. You'll also have to consider that balanced should be +4dBu and "consumer" unbalanced should be -10dBV so you might expect a level change depending on what you use. But that also depends on how your devices actually deal with those levels - i.e. you can find "balanced" outputs which are not really balanced and not really +4dBu :)
Seems like a huge amount of work. I’ll stick with my LX-503 for now still.
I have the Pioneer VSX LX 503 in my living room setup -awesome reciever
@@BuildMontage yea it’s my second one. I’m running the Pioneer Elite Atmos system and dual SVS PB1000s for subs. Next year we plan an addition to build a dedicated theater room. It’s why I’ve been following you for a while checking out future AV hardware.
Good luck with the build!
My home DTS sound system model
Thanks Tony. I think we should just used this with native XLR input / output without RCA adapters and tried the 9.x.4 setting. The Tonewinner sounds better than any Denon receiver in pre-amp mode.
Honestly, I doubt that the XLR adaptor for my amplifiers would have made a difference at all. The outputs from the processor were all short run XLR cables, and my amplifiers are all high quality low distortion amps - the cables were short so RCA or XLR would make little difference. The main thing was the calibration - that needed a more professional touch. My video is an unbox and installation experience for the average person - what they would expect.
@@BuildMontage not quite true. There is actually often a problem introduced in switching from Chinch to XLR in german we know this as Brummschleife so it should be called ground loop in english. Neutrik NTE1 or something like that would be needed to truly do it justice. Sounds stupid but have run into these problems quite often over the years. It reduces your SNR and therefore clarity in the signal. In my expierience with the Ioata which should be the same model, just branded diffrently is on par with a Denon 8500H if not a bit better. Thats atleast my expierience.
@@12P14D22C Thats possible - but I don't think that played a part in the results I experienced. I know my amplifiers - I have used them extensively with the Denon 8500 before I upgraded to the Trinnov Altitude16 which is of course XLR output - and they were in RCA mode while I was running the 8500 in pre-amp mode using RCA - NO issues at all. Also, the uncalibrated experience of the Tonewinner was almost passable compared to the auto-cal version, so my experience is squarly aimed at the auto-cal as being the problem.
@@12P14D22C Precisely. The Tonewinner distributors should produce a video and website on REW manual eq adjustment with the AT-300. In addition the room eq on the AT-300 is the same as Emotiva EM-Q room correction.
One device not having that problem does not exclude another one introducing it. It depends on how the whole chain is actually build. Is there a common ground in the device? Share some channels a ground? etc pp. The Tonewinner is build cheaply but good. IMO you should rlly only use it if you go xlr all the way. Because counter mesurements for these problems are probably not done.
Litttle more work than higher end processors but it is a great value even without Auro 3D
Yes a little "more" work than I could do for the video unfortunately - the learning curve was too steep for the time I had to keep my studio in that state I'm afraid. I have heard it though as mentioned in the video properly calibrated and it sounded great.
I think the Emotiva BasX MC1 13.2 channel might be the better choice for me. Also, it’s $500 cheaper. I hope you get one to review sometime.
I think I'm done reviewing processors for a while LOL - unless I can rent a space to set things up and not interfere with my private setup...
The Emo MC1 is a clone of the Tonewinner.
It's the same inside.
I guess $500 for balanced outputs.
I wish it had 4k120.
I won one of these in a raffle. And I had a separate high end 7 Chanel power amp I wanted to use it with and had low expectations when considering the price of say an Anthem processor. I wasn’t let down, the interface is diabolical. The manual provided was all in Chinese, the online manual is senseless Chinglish. So I got it all up and working and thought I could forgive the interface once it was all set up. It’s video processor has something seriously wrong with it, the shop recommended a firmware upgrade, after hunting around I found it and it made no difference. The video processor doesn’t seem to have enough memory and just brings up a caching circle every couple of minutes when playing 4k disks and it’s not the player as the players counter keeps going there just isn’t any video or audio coming out and then about 30 seconds later it comes back having missed 30 seconds of the movie. This happened on every 4k disk I tried. Each time I happened I plugged my high end disk player into my 8k TV and playback wan’t a problem. There is also high pitched clicking on play back when it starts back up after stalling. I went back to my Onkyo AVR and just pre outed it to my power amp and haven’t had a single problem playing 4k since. And to be clear the caching issues also happened with 2K bluray disks as well. The spec sheet looks good. In use it is frustrating and makes movies unwatchable. Weight is usually a good measure of build quality when it comes to AV, you can pick the unit up in one hand easily and I’ve had better quality remotes supplied with $200 DVD players. So the old saying when something seems to be too good to be true it probably is applies to this unit. Not to blow my own trumpet but when you get something like this for free and you put it back in the box a week later its a sad comment on it as I really hoped it would be fantastic. The shop suggested returning it but I can’t see how it is a one off issue I think the design is seriously flawed, they’ve tried to get a $5k job done for $1200 and it can’t be done.
Hahaha what a crock of shit. Circle? That's not the tonewinner.
Well you got a bad defective 1 then 🏡 home boy. They make thousands of them and you can't expect every one of them to be perfect like mine. So just return it and get a new 1 because this thing sounds crazy good. 🍿🎬
"Plug and Pray" intentional or not?
It’s a saying well known in the IT industry. Plug it in and pray it works.
Manual eq parametrich filter with rew an mic Is a nice game to understand your room and speaker capability. Phase response , time alignment ecc. Audissey Is not Always the solution. Mybe never
"like it's from 1975" :)
This unit is simply annoying to use and it doesn’t sound great anyway (to counter its level of annoyance). Ot truly feels like a half-done (if that) pre-pro that should have never been released to begin with.
Just my 2 c
Hey David - did you try a manual calibration using PEQ filters and REW? Curious because I just didnt have the time investment for this video - it was intended as an overview and initial thoughts more so than a super detailed review -- more of a "this is what to expect if you buy it"
Why never released? It is made by the same entities that produce Emotiva.
You know the best way to listen to the tonewinner? Plug it in and playback TrueHD Atmos of DTS:X and prepare to be marveled. I don't know why everyone is room tuning without trying to listen as a baseline with no correction or equalization.
No av reciever in this world is worth more than $250
Poor man eh
@@user-gf7kj5vj3p its just a scam.. Keep buying
First❤