McIntosh Laboratory has announced that its MX122 processor will soon support DTS:X and Auro-3D via a free firmware update (although the Auro-3D portion of the update is not available in Japan or China).
To perform the update, the MX122 must be connected to a router that has Internet access, which can either be via a wired Ethernet connection or a wireless connection using the MX122 Wi-Fi capabilities.
Priced at £6,995 and available in the UK in March via Jordan Acoustics, the MX122 has been optimised to act as the brains of an advanced home theatre system in that it can be paired with a variety of McIntosh amplifiers and speakers, and is fully compatible with modern 4K Ultra HD video sources whilst also providing upscaling lower resolutions to 4K Ultra HD.
In addition to 3D audio, existing formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are supported for legacy disc collections, while the MX122 offers a plethora of inputs and outputs, including seven HDMI, four digital, one balanced and eight unbalanced analogue stereo, an unbalanced 7.1 multi-channel audio, three component and four composite video, along with USB.
For multi-room, users can create two additional ‘zones’ in the home and send select audio and/or video to them from the MX122. Outputs include both balanced and unbalanced connections configured for 11.2 (also referred to as 7.2.4) surround sound, three HDMI (1 dedicated for ‘Zone 2’), two component and two composite video (one of each for ‘Zone 2’) and two unbalanced stereo (one for ‘Zone 2’ and one for ‘Zone 3’). All HDMI inputs and outputs are HDCP 2.2 and support High Dynamic Range (HDR), 4K Ultra HD at 50/60Hz, 4:4:4 colour, Rec. 2020 and 3D video pass-through.
The MX122’s processor is compatible with a variety of high-resolution digital music formats up to 24-bit/192kHz and can up-convert two-channel audio to multichannel. Users can also connect to cloud-based and online digital music services using both wired and wireless network connections.
Bluetooth and AirPlay connectivity allows for easy streaming from mobile devices and DSD64 files can be played from flash drives or over networks. Where available, interfaces to popular streaming services including Pandora, SiriusXM and Spotify are included, while vTuner lets users connect to 1,000s of Internet radio stations – including McIntosh Music.
Audyssey’s MultEQ XT32 room-correction technology offers accurate room calibration, enabling the processor to reach its full sonic potential. Each audio channel has its own 32-bit premium DAC and a nine-band equalizer offers additional fine-tuning.
The free update also adds DTS Neural-X as well as other minor improvements.