The Audison bit One, credited with helping to launch the craze in car audio digital processing, is getting an update to Hi-Res Audio capability. Plus it has some new features that make it one of the most advanced processors to date.
The new bit One HD is likely to ship in either later this year or the first quarter next year at a suggested retail price of $1,700. It plays back Hi-Res Audio 24 bit/96kHz audio files from a Hi-Res Audio source in the car such as a Sony RSX-GS9 deck or an Audison bit Play HD storage device.
With the bit One HD you can also build an ultimate “full digital” system, using amplifiers with digital inputs such as the Audison Voce.
Another new feature of the bit One HD is that it adds time alignment correction on the input signal to erase any time adjustments embedded in a factory system. It’s only the second third processor to do this, the first being the JBL MS-8 followed by the more recent JL Audio FiX.
“It takes an extreme amount of processing power in order to time correct the factory signal. That’s a lot of work,” said Rob Wempe of Elettromedia USA, Audison’s parent company.
The bit One HD then de-equalizes the factory signal and sums it so you get an unaltered two channel signal that can be used to add high quality amplifiers and speakers to make a factory system sound great.
The bit One HD adds more inputs and outputs than the current bit One. It gives you 12 channels of input and 13 channels of output and it has 2 digital inputs and an auxiliary input.
“It takes whatever you are feeding it and processes it, in native resolution, without downscaling,” said Elettromedia’s Larry Penn. “Our idea is to take a guy with a factory system and build something great as well as take the signal from our bit Play HD or other Hi-Res sources for the ultimate audio experience.”
Elettromedia said the bit One HD “uses the most powerful chipset to maintain the throughput of high-resolution audio at 96kHz/24-bit.”And while it has 12 input and 13 output channels, these can be configured to 7 channels for higher sound quality. This is done by applying Audison’s optional Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters.
The new processor also uses an an open platform design so it can improve with new software updates, said the company.
A production sample of the unit was shown at the KnowledgeFest show in Dallas last month. The product also won a European EISA award.
Yep, that sentence should read: It’s only the third processor to do this, the first being the JBL MS-8 several years ago, followed recently by the JL Audio FiX and now the bit One HD.
See reply to Andy. My apologies.
So really can’t wait to see how many future “software updates” this DSP is likely to have…
Good thing that the $2k ‘OEM module’ threshold
(installed + tuned), has now been crossed.
No, the MS-8 was the first one to remove factory delays, but whobwemembers what happened 7 years ago?
I remember Andy, I remember.
Thank you for the correction Andy. I made a change. CEoutlook is very sorry!
If this is the Andy I believe it is…. the revolution will continue next year with another new product from his camp that will indeed be a game changer.