Storm Audio Owners Thread

Where I notice the change of processor most is whenever you get to the music score in films. It never ceases to amaze and your feet just start tapping or joggling about or you get goosebumps and think WOW now that’s actually very impressive. I just didn’t get the same feeling from any of the other processors I tried.

This is the feeling I missed when I moved to 4K and left the very good Denon 3800 analogue out for 2k duties in a different room, I am hoping my Acurus ACT 4 will bring these feelings back, this is what film track backing is all about :smashin: the very reason I am prepared to invest in an excellent processor for the sole duty of playing audio from BR and UHD disc to a 5.3.0 system.....
 
What are the dimensions of the ISP Mk2? Storm audio seem to put all the detailed spec stuff on the new website behind the Client Portal.
 
Hi everybody,
it seems is has become quiet in this thread which is hopefully a good sign as everybody is enjoying their Strom and not having time for postings anymore. I have ordered mine 16 channel MK2 upgrading from a Datasat LS10. Unit should arrive next week!
 
Probably a fair assessment, as that is exactly what I am doing. No fiddling, just turning it up and down while grinning from ear to ear :)

Nice to hear you have one inbound. Congrats 👍
 
Interesting the Bryston is now looking more Datasat than Storm !

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Not sure if I like the look of that or not!
 
I'm a bit lost on the Storm / Arcam rebrands... who is who these days? Is Bryston a re-badged Storm?

Rumour has it there may be a new forum Storm user soon - at this rate you'll be challenging the Trinnov owners :rotfl:
 
Probably a fair assessment, as that is exactly what I am doing. No fiddling, just turning it up and down while grinning from ear to ear :)

Nice to hear you have one inbound. Congrats 👍

Yes - I’ve discovered that the Storm has really extensive manual EQ functions so I’ve been learning to use those to see how I can improve upon the Dirac profiles with and without Bass control.
The options are almost endless for tweakers like me as you can measure in REW, set targets curves in REW, export filters from REW in Storm format to each speaker. You can do that before or after Dirac, even add individual manual EQ filters on top of that. You can even copy those filters from speaker to speaker ACROSS profiles!

I find my current manual EQ profile is a little more open than the full Dirac one with BC but not quite as even. It works great for Sky. The fully bass controlled Dirac profile is very consistent with more integrated bass and is best for multichannel music and bluray. I have another Dirac Profile without bass control which has a heavier bass emphasis for days when I want to go a bit wild.

All great fun if you like to tweak and tweak.

Lovely processor - user interface is a joy to use especially on an Ipad.

I’ve moved to 13 channels of ATI class D amplification as it‘s so dynamic, fast and clear. I miss the big Arcam Class G amps on music a little but it seems you can‘t have both or at least if you can I haven’t found a solution that comes in a realistic multichannel amp ”few boxes“ form factor.
 
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I'm a bit lost on the Storm / Arcam rebrands... who is who these days? Is Bryston a re-badged Storm?

Rumour has it there may be a new forum Storm user soon - at this rate you'll be challenging the Trinnov owners :rotfl:
Bryston is indeed a rebadged Storm but why anyone would buy that in preference to the original is beyond me. It’s more expensive and apparently did not take some of the recent Storm board upgrades. Ongoing support and firmware updates would worry me too. Bryston want to build more hi-fi related boards I understand but they don‘t have a great reputation for doing anything particularly quickly. Don’t bother is my advice!
 
Yes - I’ve discovered that the Storm has really extensive manual EQ functions so I’ve been learning to use those to see how I can improve upon the Dirac profiles with and without Bass control.
The options are almost endless for tweakers like me as you can measure in REW, set targets curves in REW, export filters from REW in Storm format to each speaker. You can do that before or after Dirac, even add individual manual EQ filters on top of that. You can even copy those filters from speaker to speaker ACROSS profiles!

I find my current manual EQ profile is a little more open than the full Dirac One with BC but not quite as even. It works great for Sky. The fully bass controlled Dirac profile is very consistent with more integrated bass and is best for multichannel music and bluray. I have another Dirac Profile without bass control which has a heavier bass emphasis for days when I want to go a bit wild.

All great fun if you like to tweak and tweak.

Lovely processor - user interface is a joy to use especially on an Ipad.

I’ve moved to 13 channels of ATI class D amplification as it‘s so dynamic, fast and clear. I miss the big Arcam Class G amps on music a little but it seems you can‘t have both or at least if you can I haven’t found a solution that comes in a realistic multichannel amp ”few boxes“ form factor.
I did delve into the manual EQ when I first got the Storm, but after a lot of previous fiddling with DIRAC on my Arcam 550 (and getting sub-optimal results), I decided to it was too advanced for me and stayed away.

I was impressed by the options available, but as I have 2 rows of seating, multiple subs, and mainly watch movies from blu-ray/NAS, I found the full DIRAC with Bass Control to be the best option for me. The Bass Control in particular has hugely improved the bass in the rear row (it was far too much as standard) and now gives a very consistent response across all seats.

I have considered a 'Netflix' profile of some description as I do find it to be a bit weaker as standard, but am not sure what i would be tweaking in practice.

I do agree that the iPad interface is great though :smashin:
 
Bryston is indeed a rebadged Storm but why anyone would buy that in preference to the original is beyond me. It’s more expensive and apparently did not take some of the recent Storm board upgrades. Ongoing support and firmware updates would worry me too. Bryston want to build more hi-fi related boards I understand but they don‘t have a great reputation for doing anything particularly quickly. Don’t bother is my advice!

I get deeply suspicious of anything where the justification is a "hi-fi" related anything. The cynic in me says that the boards are just stuff they have contracts with already. While not an expert on ATI, I also don't see a world where Arcam ever lead the charge in power amps - class is a design, not a sound and those hypex modules are meant to be saucy.

The new Lyngdorf multi channel amp on paper is class D and kicks everything else in the dick, but whether or not it will sound notably better than my current SDA 2400's remains to be seen - again, the cynic in me says 'probably not' But I do very much like the concept of the purify amps if nothing else.

I don't think the Bryston looks terrible but buying a re-badged anything seems weird, unless they have a better coding team on the firmware since that ultimately makes or breaks these things imo.
 
The new Lyngdorf multi channel amp on paper is class D and kicks everything else in the dick, but whether or not it will sound notably better than my current SDA 2400's remains to be seen - again, the cynic in me says 'probably not' But I do very much like the concept of the purify amps if nothing else.

What's the deal with these new multi channel amps? I'm not planning on changing this year, but could next year.
 
What's the deal with these new multi channel amps? I'm not planning on changing this year, but could next year.

Who knows.. They're supposed to be extra special with their SNR an just about everything. I want to believe of course - try this article as it all becomes a bit of word salad that I don't fully understand.

 
Nothing on the web site about them. Class D amps aren't normally very appealing ? , well none I've heard have been
 
Who knows.. They're supposed to be extra special with their SNR an just about everything. I want to believe of course - try this article as it all becomes a bit of word salad that I don't fully understand.


Thanks mate, I don't understand 98% of the stuff on there!

Any ideas on pricing?
 
I hope they weren't running the small set up at Munich as this as at least for me dissapointing, they mention 2019 Munich in the commentary.
 
Nothing on the web site about them. Class D amps aren't normally very appealing ? , well none I've heard have been

Still don't get this old HiFi group think at all in 2020. Sound is by design, not by class these days more than ever. There are many classes and designs that all sound great. These new purify designs are supposed to deliver the best performance across the board while remaining tone agnostic - if we assume that's true, the class becomes irrelevant.


Thanks mate, I don't understand 98% of the stuff on there!

Any ideas on pricing?

£6,995.00 inc VAT for 8ch - I guess the thinking is that you'd have 2 for 16ch applications.

There was a bit that mentioned heterodyning I was out at that point.. they're just making stuff up now. :rotfl:
 
Still don't get this old HiFi group think at all in 2020. Sound is by design, not by class these days more than ever. There are many classes and designs that all sound great. These new purify designs are supposed to deliver the best performance across the board while remaining tone agnostic - if we assume that's true, the class becomes irrelevant.




£6,995.00 inc VAT for 8ch - I guess the thinking is that you'd have 2 for 16ch applications.

There was a bit that mentioned heterodyning I was out at that point.. they're just making stuff up now. :rotfl:


Nothing to do with hifi tbh, I just haven't heard many nice sounding class D amps, they often sound quite 'hard' and fatiguing or at least a number I've heard did.
 
I bought the 3 channel nord acoustics with class d hypex amps for my lcr that has op amps and tbh I can’t tell the difference between it and my NAD Masters M25 that is class AB - it is certainly a lot lighter - george
 
Nothing to do with hifi tbh, I just haven't heard many nice sounding class D amps, they often sound quite 'hard' and fatiguing or at least a number I've heard did.

Steinway Lyngdorf, Lyngdorf, Nord? and of course Storm Audio. Any of these? None of them are hard or fatiguing and I would not like to be the man sitting in a blind test trying to guess the class of an amp. Anyone prepared to make claims that they could distinguish on class alone is a bat dolphin hybrid.
 
Steinway Lyngdorf, Lyngdorf, Nord? and of course Storm Audio. Any of these? None of them are hard or fatiguing and I would not like to be the man sitting in a blind test trying to guess the class of an amp. Anyone prepared to make claims that they could distinguish on class alone is a bat dolphin hybrid.

Ive not heard Nord and Lyngdorf sounds fine, Ive heard the storm system at Pulse and it sounded great, so things have probably moved on. I just recall doing some A-B's some time ago and they usually sounded 'harder' and perhaps leaner than AB designs.
 
Ive not heard Nord and Lyngdorf sounds fine, Ive heard the storm system at Pulse and it sounded great, so things have probably moved on. I just recall doing some A-B's some time ago and they usually sounded 'harder' and perhaps leaner than AB designs.

It would have been a fair bit of time.. Steinway Lyngdorf's power amps have been class D for a good while 2008? and Anthem were making class D monoblocks for years as well back in 2012. I dunno how long Storm have been on the go with theirs mind.
 

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