[esimms86]

Thanks. John has already PM'd me to provide additional detailed information and clarification.

But your response here certainly explains things sufficiently to wipe away much of my original confusion. You omitted mention of DTS:X as well, as a third factor regarding potential speaker placement and the total of 35 individual speaker definitions/channels required to support the three immersive formats. But I understand now what the 35 number represents.

Still to be determined is whether or not listening through anybody else's personalized PRIR (even measured using a dummy generic head) is sufficient to satisfy. Significantly better than something very basic, like Dolby Headphone? Any better than the A16's BBC listening room? Does its magic come from the underlying speakers and electronic equipment and room treatments, so that a PRIR captured in a million dollar room is guaranteed to give you more chills than from a 50,000 dollar room PRIR? Or does it come from your own ears and brain, truly having enjoyed one listening environment's sound more than that of another no matter the price, and being able to re-virtually immerse yourself into it again any time you want to listen to something new through that specific PRIR?

Is there an obvious "winner" among 20 different PRIR's? For you maybe, but someone else may pick a different "winner"? Probably.

Anyway, definitely worth pursuing, and experimenting.

My best advice to you is to go to the "Listen" option on the 3D Soundshop website and check out demos, also using your own HPEQ. It will not equal an in person PRIR but it will either work for you or not.

 

[castleofargh]

Thanks. John has already PM'd me to provide additional detailed information and clarification.

But your response here certainly explains things sufficiently to wipe away much of my original confusion. You omitted mention of DTS:X as well, as a third factor regarding potential speaker placement and the total of 35 individual speaker definitions/channels required to support the three immersive formats. But I understand now what the 35 number represents.

Still to be determined is whether or not listening through anybody else's personalized PRIR (even measured using a dummy generic head) is sufficient to satisfy. Significantly better than something very basic, like Dolby Headphone? Any better than the A16's BBC listening room? Does its magic come from the underlying speakers and electronic equipment and room treatments, so that a PRIR captured in a million dollar room is guaranteed to give you more chills than from a 50,000 dollar room PRIR? Or does it come from your own ears and brain, truly having enjoyed one listening environment's sound more than that of another no matter the price, and being able to re-virtually immerse yourself into it again any time you want to listen to something new through that specific PRIR?

Is there an obvious "winner" among 20 different PRIR's? For you maybe, but someone else may pick a different "winner"? Probably.

Anyway, definitely worth pursuing, and experimenting.

We have the normal hearing thing well modeled, but how will someone react to deviations from the norm is a fairly mysterious domain.
The intuitive guess is that if your body is close to that of the person/dummy capturing the impulses then the cues are likely to work pretty well. Beyond that...

To my ears all standardized surround/3D whatever that I tried in my life ranked from "meh" to total crap. And I tried many. From my anecdotal point of view of a head that's clearly not like a HATS, I find that even the sound from my tablet measured at my ears, is better than just about anything not done at my ears.
But then you have people who seemed really happy with OOYH or with the default rooms on the A16(not me). At the very least it depends on people and on the HRTF of the "source".

If you have the patience to get some ftp app and download a few of the demos, I find that it's a real eye opener when it comes to having someone else's HRTF applied to the sound getting in your ears:
http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/sounds.html
Each file is playing a bunch of "bzzz" sounds at various positions around you(as recorded by someone in an anechoic room). So the setup is always the same, the sound always the same, it's the person with mics in his ears that changes between files.
In my case, I'd feel like in some particular directions the sound comes closer(or completely collapses inside my head), and/or maybe moves up or down. I noticed that checking by ear, I ended up finding the most convincing results from people with similar head sizes(but given the number of files, it could be coincidental).
What's impressive for me is how much things change for a given angle between one HRTF and another one. On 2 different ones, the front might be ok and pretty similar, but it's the 90° that is completely different(placement wise). Or the opposite, the sides are fine but the center is a complete mess for one of the HRTFs.
And of course on top of that there are the differences between channels because one guy rarely has strictly identical left and right ears with perfectly symmetrical head.

 

[Brownsfan]

Thanks for the welcome Phoenixdogfan! As a lifelong browns fan, I am old enough to have cheered for Leroy Kelly, but sadly too young for Jim Brown's Era. It has been tough sledding for us browns fans since the 90's, but I continue to remain irrationally devoted. I don't have an a16 yet, but hope to join the club soon.

Regards, Dave

 

[esimms86]

Thanks for the welcome Phoenixdogfan! As a lifelong browns fan, I am old enough to have cheered for Leroy Kelly, but sadly too young for Jim Brown's Era. It has been tough sledding for us browns fans since the 90's, but I continue to remain irrationally devoted. I don't have an a16 yet, but hope to join the club soon.

Regards, Dave

Our resident Lions fan, @Got the Shakes, feels your pain.

 

[Brownsfan]

Lol, we could start our own long suffering sports fan support group.

 

[DenverW]

Lol, we could start our own long suffering sports fan support group.

I think there are more people on here that could start a "waiting for my realiser" support group.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Our resident Lions fan, @Got the Shakes, feels your pain.

Lol, we could start our own long suffering sports fan support group.

Yeah being a Lions fan my entire life has been nothing but misery and hopelessness. Always fun to support a team that is in the running for the worst team in professional sports lol.

 

[esimms86]

I think there are more people on here that could start a "waiting for my realiser" support group.

It kind of already is for a lot of people. And yes, I know just how fortunate I am to have already received my kickstarter unit. I waited 3 1/2 years for mine so I can fully empathize.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

It kind of already is for a lot of people. And yes, I know just how fortunate I am to have already received my kickstarter unit. I waited 3 1/2 years for mine so I can fully empathize.

I paid full freight, got mine, had to wait to get it repaired for nearly a year, had it lost in transit a coupla time, had to pay $400 in use taxes, was billed two additional times for those same taxes for return trips for warranteed service (which I did resolve at no cost, but considerable grief to myself). But I did get a free upgrade to the 24 channel boards, and I did have the good fortune to make a few friends along the way who greatly furthered my enjoyment of the purchase (esp John at 3D SoundShop). Now it works perfectly and does most everything I want except it doesn't have Dirac Live, and PEQ features for its AV mode, so I could use it as a full-on processor for a 7.1.4 Atmos Speaker based system. Don't know if those features will ever be forthcoming. The Wifi interface would be great as well.

 

[anach]

Hello, people, a preorder customer here! Any particular reason to believe that Smyth will deliver something to us the waiting crowd? What is it now, almost two years they haven't delivered anything? Anyone got their money back recently? Thanks in advance!

 

[DenverW]

Hello, people, a preorder customer here! Any particular reason to believe that Smyth will deliver something to us the waiting crowd? What is it now, almost two years they haven't delivered anything? Anyone got their money back recently? Thanks in advance!

Has anyone gotten their money back, ever? I'm hoping that they'll continue to slowly distribute what was paid for, but the lack of communication really hurts them.

 

[anach]

Has anyone gotten their money back, ever? I'm hoping that they'll continue to slowly distribute what was paid for, but the lack of communication really hurts them.

Hurts them? I'm sorry, how? There is no reputation to speak of. The company is still operational, but not showing any interest in delivering the goods. Btw, what is UK law saying about similar matters, especially about the possible aspect of getting money back, anyone familiar? I'm not willing to continue normalizing this kind of waiting game. The audacity of Smyth's endless silence blows my mind.

 

[Richter Di]

So far I have been a strong advocate for in person PRIR. None of the generic PRIR had worked me so far. Downloaded PRIR from the Realiser Club did not sound right. Sound demos on 3DSoundShop did not work for me either.

After my disaster at msm Munich … okay wait, if you have read my initial post here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-917#post-17048264 you would rightfully say, you said the process was less than ideal but the result was good. Actually, it is not. Unfortunately. There is no clear pinpointing for all loudspeakers and the Dolby Atmos experience I get when listening to music via Tidal (Amzon Fire Stick with LAN) is not really enjoyable.
I have contacted ForTune (the German distributor) and Smyth about it and got mixed messages. After checking my PRIR ForTune agreed the measurement was not correct. I send them a list of proposals how to make the next measurement better ( it is a very long drive for me and I need to stay over night in Munich, which is quite expensive), but they never answered. Also my second try did not lead to any response. I will publish my translated email later. Anyhow, going on …

After my disaster at msm Munich I kind of had given up to ever get a great PRIR.
So now testing the Omega from 3DSoundShop I was not too hopeful.

I have no idea how John @Litlgi74 from 3DSoundShop has done it but having tried out the Omega on my own A16 with my own HPEQ optimized via manLoud for the Omega PRIR I can say it is finally the result I was looking for. Everything is crystal clear and every sound source properly located. It sounds great with film and music (of all genres).
I am so happy I could jump around. Finally audio heaven. Took a while.
Thank you John!!!

 

[esimms86]

So far I have been a strong advocate for in person PRIR. None of the generic PRIR had worked me so far. Downloaded PRIR from the Realiser Club did not sound right. Sound demos on 3DSoundShop did not work for me either.

After my disaster at msm Munich … okay wait, if you have read my initial post here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-917#post-17048264 you would rightfully say, you said the process was less than ideal but the result was good. Actually, it is not. Unfortunately. There is no clear pinpointing for all loudspeakers and the Dolby Atmos experience I get when listening to music via Tidal (Amzon Fire Stick with LAN) is not really enjoyable.
I have contacted ForTune (the German distributor) and Smyth about it and got mixed messages. After checking my PRIR ForTune agreed the measurement was not correct. I send them a list of proposals how to make the next measurement better ( it is a very long drive for me and I need to stay over night in Munich, which is quite expensive), but they never answered. Also my second try did not lead to any response. I will publish my translated email later. Anyhow, going on …

After my disaster at msm Munich I kind of had given up to ever get a great PRIR.
So now testing the Omega from 3DSoundShop I was not too hopeful.

I have no idea how John @Litlgi74 from 3DSoundShop has done it but having tried out the Omega on my own A16 with my own HPEQ optimized via manLoud for the Omega PRIR I can say it is finally the result I was looking for. Everything is crystal clear and every sound source properly located. It sounds great with film and music (of all genres).
I am so happy I could jump around. Finally audio heaven. Took a while.
Thank you John!!!

I’m so thrilled for you. And manLOUD is the icing on the cake.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

So far I have been a strong advocate for in person PRIR. None of the generic PRIR had worked me so far. Downloaded PRIR from the Realiser Club did not sound right. Sound demos on 3DSoundShop did not work for me either.

After my disaster at msm Munich … okay wait, if you have read my initial post here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-917#post-17048264 you would rightfully say, you said the process was less than ideal but the result was good. Actually, it is not. Unfortunately. There is no clear pinpointing for all loudspeakers and the Dolby Atmos experience I get when listening to music via Tidal (Amzon Fire Stick with LAN) is not really enjoyable.
I have contacted ForTune (the German distributor) and Smyth about it and got mixed messages. After checking my PRIR ForTune agreed the measurement was not correct. I send them a list of proposals how to make the next measurement better ( it is a very long drive for me and I need to stay over night in Munich, which is quite expensive), but they never answered. Also my second try did not lead to any response. I will publish my translated email later. Anyhow, going on …

After my disaster at msm Munich I kind of had given up to ever get a great PRIR.
So now testing the Omega from 3DSoundShop I was not too hopeful.

I have no idea how John @Litlgi74 from 3DSoundShop has done it but having tried out the Omega on my own A16 with my own HPEQ optimized via manLoud for the Omega PRIR I can say it is finally the result I was looking for. Everything is crystal clear and every sound source properly located. It sounds great with film and music (of all genres).
I am so happy I could jump around. Finally audio heaven. Took a while.
Thank you John!!!

Really happy for you. As someone who has a good PRIR, I know how much better it is than the stuff I downloaded from the common drive. None of that stuff worked for me. Glad to see John was able to hook you up. Obviously, he has the secret sauce.