How to choose a high quality home theater amplifier?

How should we meet our personal and family entertainment needs in the post-pandemic era? This is a question worth thinking about. When going out is limited and work pressure increases, perhaps only movies and music can add fun to the boring home life.

In this case, why not build an audio-visual system at home that can meet the needs of watching movies, listening to songs and Karaoke at the same time? If you really have this idea, you don’t like the cinema and karaoke power amplifiers on the market that are advertised with functions but with average overall quality. Then, Tonewinner latest flagship panoramic sound and shadow K integrated power amplifier AT-2000, may be one of your most ideal choices at present.

Watching movies, listening to songs, singing karaokes, everything is covered

What can the AT-2000 do? First of all, you can think of it as an integrated AV amplifier with 11.2-channel output and rated output power of 285W per channel (4Ω load), which can drive most of the theater speakers on the market, and is compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats. In terms of video, the AT-2000 supports 4K/60Hz video transmission, as well as HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision high dynamic range technologies. In other words, it is not difficult to build a 7.2.4 panoramic sound system that can watch 4K film sources with the AT-2000 as the center.

Through the "Shadow/K Switch" button on the remote control, you can switch between movie viewing and karaoke mode with one click

It's easy to listen to music. AT-2000 supports 128g U disk, TF card local playback and Bluetooth wireless connection, as well as exclusive mobile APP for music playback, switching and management. Imagine when the control tool becomes a familiar phone, and everyone in the home can listen to their favorite music at any time.

If you have nothing to do and want to sing a song, just press the "Shadow/K switch" button on the remote control to switch to a multi-channel karaoke system. If possible, add an external karaoke machine. If you find it troublesome, you can use the HDMI audio return function to directly use the karaoke resources of the TV.

It is worth mentioning that the AT-2000 is not only equipped with a microphone connection port and a volume knob on the front panel, but also has a built-in professional DSP processor. The intensity of the microphone effect, reverberation and echo can be adjusted at any time. Nine levels of anti-whistling processing The technology can effectively suppress the sharp noise, prevent the spray of wheat, and let you sing happily!

So, what can the AT-2000 do? It can become a high-power audio-visual center, home music center and entertainment karaoke center in your home at the same time.

The rear panel of the AT-2000 is additionally equipped with two balanced subwoofer output ports and two wireless microphone ports.

Selected high-performance chips, rigorous circuit design.

Of course, it's one thing to be able to do it, and another thing to do it to what extent. Wanting to get a share of the traditional audio industry, Tonewinner knew for a long time that "self-improvement is the last word", the function and performance of the product are indispensable, and both hardware and software must be powerful. The AT-2000 is also a product of this concept. Let's look at the hardware configuration first.

In the HDMI input and output processing part, the AT-2000 uses the Panasonic MN864788 chip, supports 4K/60Hz, RGB4:4:4, YUV4:4:4 specifications, can handle up to 32 channels of audio objects, and superimposed OSD menus , which will bring a lot of convenience in EQ settings and tuning, which will be detailed later.

The specific audio decoding and processing is jointly responsible by Analog Devices' fourth-generation SHARC floating-point sound field processor ADSP-21573, Cirrus Logic CS42528 and ADSP 21573. Taking a closer look, the arrangement and circuit design of other electronic components around the chip are also very rigorous and delicate.

In order to ensure sufficient power, AT-2000 also uses the high-power toroidal transformer that Tonewinner amplifiers are used to. In addition to strong driving force, it also has the advantages of stable output and strong anti-interference ability, always escorting AT-2000, especially In the long-term, dynamic use state.

Tuning while playing, intuitive and detailed acoustic testing software

Next, I would like to focus on the acoustic testing and tuning software built into the AT-2000. Tonewinner officially calls it "Easy Test EQ Fully Automatic Room Acoustic Test System", which is independently developed and written by Tonewinner engineers. Before using it, you need to purchase a matching home or professional version of the test microphone. What we received this time is the EMT-2 professional version of the test microphone. In addition to the high-end microphone, there are also good quality cables and microphone stands.

"Professional Acoustic Test" can automatically correct each channel separately, or manually adjust the gain of multiple frequency bands for different channels

In the menu of AT-2000, it is divided into two sections: "Automatic Acoustic Test" and "Professional Acoustic Test". The former needless to say, just like most automatic tuning systems, just follow the system instructions to complete the test steps. The latter is much more fun. You can automatically correct each channel separately, or manually adjust the gain of multiple frequency bands for different channels. You can even choose "with/without EQ test", plus the side curve graph. The whole adjustment process is very intuitive and meticulous.

The "EQ Setting" function that follows the "Professional Acoustic Test" option is different. There are five modes including Cinema, Music, Karaoke, Auto EQ, and Direct. Except for Direct and Auto EQ, other Each mode divides the channel into five sections: left and right, center, surround, top and subwoofer, and each section can be clicked to perform multi-band gain adjustment.

With the superimposed OSD menu mentioned above, you can even adjust while playing the video, feel the changes in the sound, and finally call up the sound style you want. From the actual use experience, let's not talk about the effect, at least you can feel the importance and attention of Tonewinner to the sound field adjustment. In a whisper, it would be better if the aesthetics of the menu could be optimized.

Take advantage of EQ settings and get a balanced soundstage and tone at the same time

We tried the AT-2000 this time, and we didn't slack off. We connected a 7.1.4 panoramic sound system with it as the center in the audio-visual room, and performed automatic sound field correction with the matching professional microphone. The first time you listen to it, the default selection is "Cinema Mode". This mode is similar to the "Auto EQ" mode, but the advantage is that the sound field is more integrated, especially the surround and upper sound fields. Whether you're watching a "blockbuster" like "Gemini Man" or a musical like "The King of the Circus," you can easily experience an excellent sense of enveloping and atmosphere. The width of the left and right sound fields and the depth of the upper and lower sound fields are equally impressive.

Because a colleague who was auditioning felt that the treble of this mode was a bit brighter, he preferred the thick sound of the mid-frequency. So we tried switching to "pass-through mode" again, playing the same clips from Gemini Man and King of the Circus. The difference in the sense of hearing between the two modes is obvious. The “pass-through mode” has more balanced three frequencies, and the mid-frequency, especially the low-frequency, has more strength and elasticity. However, the scale of the sound field will be correspondingly smaller, and the presence of the front sound field will be more prominent.

My personal suggestion is not to settle for it, but to make full use of the manual adjustment and EQ setting functions of the AT-2000. Acoustic or mid-band gain, so you can take care of both.