I got my Sonic Voom unit yesterday, the unit is small and compact - It has 2 inputs an optical and coaxial (corresponding cables are included) and the unit has 3 outputs a 5.1ch output (looks like a DIN plug slot) and 2 for the headphones (this looks like a hole with a slot next to it ( 0--- ).
The unit included a LI-ion battery, power cable, optical & coaxial cables & surround sound headphones.
The unit is very easy to set up, (1) put in the battery (the unit will work as a portable unit on batt power), (2) plug the unit in, (3) connect a cable to the headphone output (I used a homemade cable with a mini-stereo plug (headphone size plug) on one end and red & white rca plugs at the other (note this does not come with the unit) (4) connect the optical cable (note - you will have to take off the protective caps to get the cable into the hole, this took me awhile to figure out and the manual says nothing (that I can see) about it). (5) turn on the power (on not batt) and set the volume & output (in my case it was optical). (6) Enjoy.
I am using it on the Fortec classic NA and it works great, although the Fortec seems to act a little clunky sometimes when you turn on the optical output but I chalk that up to the limited memory of the fortec classic NA.
The fortec did freeze one time when switching from standard audio to AC3 on one of the Equity channels and I had to power the unit down from the main (back of the unit) power switch.
The only other anomaly I found is that on some (or all of the PBS) stations the Fortec volume does not work (you can turn it all the way down and the level does not change) this is no big deal because you can just use the tv volume. Volume works fine on all other channels.
Pros:
- cost (the thing was cheap as chips at $10 + shipping)
- Does what it says, it decodes ac3
- The headphones that come with it sound great
- the unit is easy to set up (once you figure out that you need to remove the protective cover from the fiber optic cable - this only took me 10min of head scratching).
Cons:
- Fortec classic NA seems a bit slow sometimes with optical turned on (this is not a problem with the voom product just a heads up to Fortec users)
- there can be an audio lag in switching channels (although this my be another fortec problem or I could be switching channels too fast)
- Manual is pretty useless (it is a rudimentary manual) just the basics and thats it
The unit included a LI-ion battery, power cable, optical & coaxial cables & surround sound headphones.
The unit is very easy to set up, (1) put in the battery (the unit will work as a portable unit on batt power), (2) plug the unit in, (3) connect a cable to the headphone output (I used a homemade cable with a mini-stereo plug (headphone size plug) on one end and red & white rca plugs at the other (note this does not come with the unit) (4) connect the optical cable (note - you will have to take off the protective caps to get the cable into the hole, this took me awhile to figure out and the manual says nothing (that I can see) about it). (5) turn on the power (on not batt) and set the volume & output (in my case it was optical). (6) Enjoy.
I am using it on the Fortec classic NA and it works great, although the Fortec seems to act a little clunky sometimes when you turn on the optical output but I chalk that up to the limited memory of the fortec classic NA.
The fortec did freeze one time when switching from standard audio to AC3 on one of the Equity channels and I had to power the unit down from the main (back of the unit) power switch.
The only other anomaly I found is that on some (or all of the PBS) stations the Fortec volume does not work (you can turn it all the way down and the level does not change) this is no big deal because you can just use the tv volume. Volume works fine on all other channels.
Pros:
- cost (the thing was cheap as chips at $10 + shipping)
- Does what it says, it decodes ac3
- The headphones that come with it sound great
- the unit is easy to set up (once you figure out that you need to remove the protective cover from the fiber optic cable - this only took me 10min of head scratching).
Cons:
- Fortec classic NA seems a bit slow sometimes with optical turned on (this is not a problem with the voom product just a heads up to Fortec users)
- there can be an audio lag in switching channels (although this my be another fortec problem or I could be switching channels too fast)
- Manual is pretty useless (it is a rudimentary manual) just the basics and thats it
).
