This idea finally took shape in 2025, when Verbier UNLTD director Stephen McHolm, together with Leonard, dreamt up a 7.4.1 listening space in a chalet room used mostly for Academy masterclasses and workshops.
The expert team at Hi-Fi Lausanne – who have worked with the festival in previous years – curated a playback system in partnership with dCS, Stenheim and Nagra, providing four dCS Lina Network DACs, a Vivaldi Master Clock, seven Stenheim alumine two speakers and four Nagra amplifiers.
(plus a Audient Oria Immersive Audio Interface and Monitor Controller)
Considering there were 4 Lina DACs / 4 Nagra Stereo Amps, presumably it must have been 8-chanel ATMOS masters supplied through the Oria.
The system is just a “disaggregated multi-channel AV Receiver”; So, instead of the ATMOS receiver + multi-channel DACs + multi-channel amplification all being in a single box, like with a Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, etc etc, this system has each element as a discrete component, all synced together with an external Clock.