[davidsh]

Sucks not having access to any nice speaker systems.

 

[hekeli]

Wherever one lives, there's probably a bunch of mixing studios, schools, hifi shops etc withing driving distance. You just have to do the dirty work of finding and talking to them.

 

[Dorohedoro]

Hi guys I need help.
 
I want to buy the realiser, but I have the Soloist SL Amp and a pair of HD650 all plugged into my pc soundcard (I watch my movies from my pc, blurays mostly), Im good to go with my setup?
 
Also, how can I connect the realiser to that^^?, Im kinda new to this so... please forgive me for my ignorance.
 
Thank you so much.

 

[hekeli]

You need HDMI out from your PC. If you don't have one, get a cheap extra $30 GPU with one.
 
But at this stage I probably would wait for the rumoured next Smyth product, unless you can find a used Realiser.

 

[Dorohedoro]

Yeah, my gpu has hdmi. How can I connect the realiser with my setup (Soloist SL Amp and a pair of HD650) to watch movies in dolby or dts? can I connect the hd650s directly into the realiser or do I need also the amp?

Thanks!

 

[RandomForest]

I have been eying El-8 (open) for using with  PRIRs played through a VST convovler  as a portable option. I avoid traveling with my LCD-3s and I prefer planars. Has anyone here tried  El-8 with the realiser (I understand the chances are slim as these are just out), or do you have a recommendation for an open + relatively portable planar headphones you have used with the Smyth realiser?

 

[darinf]

  Hi guys I need help.
 
I want to buy the realiser, but I have the Soloist SL Amp and a pair of HD650 all plugged into my pc soundcard (I watch my movies from my pc, blurays mostly), Im good to go with my setup?
 
Also, how can I connect the realiser to that^^?, Im kinda new to this so... please forgive me for my ignorance.
 
Thank you so much.

Yes, the best way is to output from your PC via HDMI to the Realiser. But you have to make sure your HDMI output supports 7.1 audio. I have some PC's that have HDMI outputs, but will only output two channel audio via HDMI. You also want to make sure the HDMI output you do have "handshakes" OK with the Realiser. 
 

Yeah, my gpu has hdmi. How can I connect the realiser with my setup (Soloist SL Amp and a pair of HD650) to watch movies in dolby or dts? can I connect the hd650s directly into the realiser or do I need also the amp?

Thanks!

The Realiser does not do any surround decoding. But on a PC, the media player app generally does all the surround sound decoding. You can use apps like JRiver Media Center or VLC, or others. Most of those apps will decode 5.1 and 7.1 audio. (7.1 decoding may require some third party files to be downloaded and installed.) Then the decoded multi-channel audio will be sent out the HDMI port to the Realiser.
 
Once you get HDMI into the Realiser, then the Realiser does have a built-in DAC and headphone amp. You can plug your HD650's directly into the headphone jack of the Realiser.  Some people prefer to use an external DAC (that has an optical input.) People also prefer to use an external headphone amp depending on the headphones.

 

[Dorohedoro]

Thanks for the amazing reply.

So, let me see if Im clear with this:

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->soloist sl->hd650's

Or

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->hd650's

 

[darinf]

Thanks for the amazing reply.

So, let me see if Im clear with this:

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->soloist sl->hd650's

Or

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->hd650's

Yes. Sorry I forgot you said you had a headphone amp already.
 
In that case, you are probably better off with your option 1 above where you would take the line level headphone outputs from the Realiser into your Soloist amp --> HD650's.

 

[Dorohedoro]

Great! Thanks for the reply!

 

[theboch]

Also if you are thinking about investing that big amount into the Realiser, you should think about upgrading your headphones. You will have a much better experience with say a HD 800 or even better a Stax.

 

[Dorohedoro]

I dont have that kind of money right now, maybe in the future.

Thanks!

 

[theboch]

I dont have that kind of money right now, maybe in the future.

Thanks!

 
Ok, then maybe you should "try" the Realiser with your HD650's first, before you finally buy it.

 

[darinf]

  Also if you are thinking about investing that big amount into the Realiser, you should think about upgrading your headphones. You will have a much better experience with say a HD 800 or even better a Stax.

 
 

I dont have that kind of money right now, maybe in the future.

Thanks!

Don't worry about it. I have the HD800's and Stax 009's, but the HD800's are too bright for me when doing virtual speakers and the Stax are great but not practical for mobile use like when I want to watch a movie on a plane or a hotel room when I am travelling, etc. 

 

[dsperber]

Thanks for the amazing reply.

So, let me see if Im clear with this:

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->soloist sl->hd650's

Or

Pc with hdmi with 7.1->realiser->hd650's

 
To be clear... the digital audio via HDMI from source (e.g. PC) to Realiser MUST BE LPCM, i.e. DECODED DISCRETE MULTI-CHANNEL from DD5.1 or DD7.1 or DTS or whatever. The Realiser does not have any decoding capability of its own, so if you just pass on the still-encoded multi-channel audio from the source program being played by the PC it will not work. Whatever you use on the PC to deliver multi-channel digital audio out via HDMI must also decode that digital audio to LPCM out via HDMI.