[hekeli]

  So you believe that there is some simple hardware/software to accept 8 line inputs, convert to USB, input to PC,  which then concurrently outputs 7.1 LPCM over HDMI?  What about the processing delay? How would this affect the Smyth measurement and processing algorithm?  I have corresponded with  Smyth about this issue, and they do not know of such a workaround. I think many people would be interested though if it can be made to work.

 
It's standard audio I/O, recording from one device and outputting to another, nothing exotic about it. Software probably needs to support ASIO to handle 8 channels, using ASIO4ALL as driver for two interfaces should do the trick. Free Audacity has software playthough feature also: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/how_to_set_up_audacity.html. Of course there will be some delay (10-20ms+) depending on interface quality/drivers, but so have room correction DSPs etc, makes no difference to Realiser.
 
If money is no object, there exists a single hardware solution (http://www.aes-hdmi.com/aes-2h.html) for only ~1750USD

 Of course it still needs an expensive 8ch AES A/D converter in front too..
 
Too bad Smyth was lazy designing it, I would imagine it would have been quite easy to support outputting signal from the HDMI passthrough also.. (or since it's a studio apparatus, AES/ADAT interface??)

 

[DBAW]

Sold
 
Quote:

  New - available for less than the $3,000 price.
 
I bought the latest version with HDMI from the most recent run in July at full price in hopes that I could get it to work properly with my hearing aids.
 
Unfortunately the "dsp steering" built into my behind the ear double microphone hearing aids mostly defeats the benefits of the Smyth realiser.
 
This is essentially a Brand New Realiser in 10 condition with a 2gb card and portions (like the in ear mics) never removed from the sealed packing.  
 
I know have to take a hit for trying it, but be gentle and make me an offer.
 
Thanks 
 
Bruce

 

[Chillzone21]

I would like to make a thread with user comments of different headphones used with the Realiser and there effectiveness, understandably the Stax are most well renowned, but I wonder what some other headphones are like in comparison. Some come to mind I would like to audition but may never get the chance like, LCD-2/3, Hifiman, Oppo etc.
 
Electrostatics are good, but how do orthodynamics etc compare. I am really interested to know what the Koss ESP950 sounds like in comparison to the Stax line up. In search of headphones to use with the Realiser, cheaper options to the Stax are going to be a major consideration.

 

[hekeli]

Just read the whole thread, there is lots of info.
 
The headphone should be preferably very flat under 1khz, since HPEQ has no effect below that. That's one reason why some Stax and planars like Audeze are good.

 

[nassq8]

Up to this moment since owning them for 3 years, I'm still awed on how well D7000 performs with the Realiser. The theatrical atmosphere produces by such combination is shocking and unbelievable. 009 is another killer with Realiser, its transparency and detailing capabilities make everything touchable.

LCD3 crushed everything into a single point (I did not know why it behaved like that? bad experience for me!), HE-1000 is the best musical headphone I ever heard, yet I did not like it with Realiser. In general, all headphones I owned do not cut it with Realiser compared to D7000 and 009. Off course, this is only based on my subjective opinion

 

[hekeli]

Off course, this is only based on my subjective opinion

 
Everything depends on what the goal is. Someone enjoying music from "hifi speakers" could be different than one looking for a super flat 7.1 experience. The standard goal of Realiser is to hear exactly how the room sounds - not whether the headphones are "musical" etc.
 
So is your opinion based on comparing the actual headphone output to the speakers you are measuring (ie. both sounding identical, which is the goal of realiser), or are you just enjoying the sound generally?
 
For example the classic LCD3 sounded very good and A/B:ing with demo mode was very very close to the Genelec set I measured. Using something like D7000 would obviously color the bass etc (whether that is good or bad is up to the listener). I did PRIRs with Fostex TH900 which resulted in exactly that, very bloaty bass..

 

[nassq8]

 
Everything depends on what the goal is. Someone enjoying music from "hifi speakers" could be different than one looking for a super flat 7.1 experience. The standard goal of Realiser is to hear exactly how the room sounds - not whether the headphones are "musical" etc.
  So is your opinion based on comparing the actual headphone output to the speakers you are measuring (ie. both sounding identical, which is the goal of realiser), or are you just enjoying the sound generally?
 
For example the classic LCD3 sounded very good and A/B:ing with demo mode was very very close to the Genelec set I measured. Using something like D7000 would obviously color the bass etc (whether that is good or bad is up to the listener). I did PRIRs with Fostex TH900 which resulted in exactly that, very bloaty bass..

 
You are absolutely right, I should have explained my purpose owning Realiser. I'm using it exclusively to replicate my 5.1 home  theater setup (Andrew Jones designed  Pioneer SP-FS52). I do not use it for music.
 
The result is jaw dropping with Sr-009, and sometime gets creepy in doing so! However, for me, D7000 adds fun in the mix, which I like for better theater effect. I made a PRIR specifically for D7000 with physical subwoofer set to neutral gain (0 dB). This helped to avoid bloated bass or unnecessary boost in the LF. I experimented with D7000 PRIR using negative dB, but didn't like it.
 
For LCD3, it collapsed the surrounding atmosphere to something my brain couldn't comprehend! the sense of directions simply lost with LCD3 under my setup, as I remember. It could be that I messed up the measurement process applied to  LCD3.

 

[dantesvictus]

Hello everyone.
 
Im trying to get my realiser working with my new pc equipped with nvidia geforce titan x.
 
Setup:
PC GFX HDMI output  -> Realiser HDMI Input 
 
I couldnt get windows 10 PC to detect realiser as surround device. it only shows as stereo with 2 channel.
 
Please help me fix this problem

 

[theboch]

  Hello everyone.
 
Im trying to get my realiser working with my new pc equipped with nvidia geforce titan x.
 
Setup:
PC GFX HDMI output  -> Realiser HDMI Input 
 
I couldnt get windows 10 PC to detect realiser as surround device. it only shows as stereo with 2 channel.
 
Please help me fix this problem

 
Can you not "force" Windows to send 5.1/7.1 PCM through the output?

 

[nassq8]

  Hello everyone.
 
Im trying to get my realiser working with my new pc equipped with nvidia geforce titan x.
 
Setup:
PC GFX HDMI output  -> Realiser HDMI Input 
 
I couldnt get windows 10 PC to detect realiser as surround device. it only shows as stereo with 2 channel.
 
Please help me fix this problem

 
Your setup won’t work like that for multichannel, because the Realiser is not designed as an AV receiver. So you need to find a way to output a multi ch PCM signal from your PC to the Realiser HDMI-in .  I cannot think of something that can do that. Your only bet is to go with analog inputs using AV pre-amplifier or your PC sound card analog  surround output.  Also, if your sound card supports Dolby lives or DTS connect, you can use Dolby/DTS to 5.1CH converter.  However, Realiser is really a high end sound processor, which deserves a high end equipment to go with.
 
I'm sure that hekeli can help here as he used it professionally.

 

[RandomForest]

  Hello everyone.
 
Im trying to get my realiser working with my new pc equipped with nvidia geforce titan x.
 
Setup:
PC GFX HDMI output  -> Realiser HDMI Input 
 
I couldnt get windows 10 PC to detect realiser as surround device. it only shows as stereo with 2 channel.
 
Please help me fix this problem

 
I have had similar problems whenver I change my setup. the underlying issue is your sound card needs to  know that it is hooked to a 5.1 or 7.1 capable device. The realiser by itself will not show itself as one. Try googling for 'EDID HDMI 5.1'. You can try to pass the HDMI through a HDMI switch or audio extractor that has an EDID that presents itself as a 5.1 capable device, for example try searching for  'ViewHD HDMI Audio Extractor' on Amazon, which I have had  some success with.

 

[dsperber]

  Hello everyone.
 
Im trying to get my realiser working with my new pc equipped with nvidia geforce titan x.
 
Setup:
PC GFX HDMI output  -> Realiser HDMI Input 
 
I couldnt get windows 10 PC to detect realiser as surround device. it only shows as stereo with 2 channel.
 
Please help me fix this problem

 
What do you have set when you right-click on the speaker in System Tray, and select Playback Devices from the popup menu?
 
Once you have selected the HDMI output of your graphics card as the playback device and set it to default, you need to push both (a) Properties and (b) Configure to enable multi-channel formats.  Now of course even if you send multi-channel output via HDMI, it's almost certainly going to be bitstream and still encoded, since this arrangement is designed to feed an AVR still-encoded digital audio via HDMI for external decoding there. It is essentially impossible to get the PC to do the encoding and send digital audio out via LPCM over HDMI, at least with standard Windows and with any software that I know of.
 
Remember the Realiser does not have its own decoding capability. It must be fed digital audio vial HDMI in already-decoded multi-channel LPCM format, with the expectation that the upstream source device/AVR has done the decoding and is delivering the now-decoded multi-channel digital audio via LPCM.  My own experience is that the Oppo 10x players (with two external HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs) are the only devices that actually provide that capability, using either DVD/Bluray disc-based source or external HDMI source input to the 10x via HDMI (e.g. from your cable DVR's HDMI output, going to the Oppo's HDMI input for feeding video to your AVR/HDTV and decoded digital multi-channel LPCM audio to the Realiser) are the only devices capable of feeding the Realiser via HDMI.  I use an Oppo BDP-103 in my own HDMI Realiser setup for exactly this reason, along with a Yamaha RX-V867 AVR.  HDTV video is fed from the Yamaha AVR (fed from the one of the Oppo's HDMI outputs) and the Realiser is fed HDMI multi-channel LPCM directly from the Oppo's second HDMI output.
 
For my PC setup (where no decoding to LPCM is possible within Windows or any player software that I know of) I use a different setup. This makes use of an earlier generation Yamaha RX-V863 AVR and my serial #0001 Realiser which has no HDMI input but which only supports already-decoded 8-channel RCA analog analog input.  I do not want to route HDMI output from my PC to the AVR, because that feeds video back to my second monitor which will be 1920x1080 and I want 1920x1200 on that monitor.  So instead I route optical output from my PC (which has an optical S/PDIF output for digital audio) to the AVR.  This is after selecting the optical output in Playback Devices to default, and configuring Properties and Configure to support all multi-channel formats.  Video to the second monitor remains standard, supported by a standard DVI cable from graphics card to the monitor.  It's only the digital audio that I've separated, and bitstreamed out of the optical connection to the AVR where it will then be decoded.
 
The AVR has 8-channel RCA analog "preamp outputs", designed for feeding an external amp/speaker system (although the AVR obviously has its own amps which can feed the multi-speaker sound system).  I send these already-decoded multi-channel analog "preamp outputs" from the AVR to the 8-channel analog inputs of the Realiser.  I have an old Stax SRM-T1S/Omega-1 headphone system connected to this old Realiser and old Yamaha AVR, for listening.
 
Note that optical connections do not support 7.1, but only support 5.1.  However what I'm listening to from my PC through this external audio equipment is Windows Media Center recorded HDTV, as this PC is my HTPC.  Since HDTV only delivers DD 5.1 audio, the optical arrangement from PC to the AVR is not really a limitation at all.  So I don't really need DD7.1 audio from this particular Realiser.  Yes, I do have a BluRay drive in this machine and do have CyberLink PowerDVD on the machine if I wanted to play a BluRay movie (which I never do) with 7.1 audio possible.  But I simply can't choose the True-HD MA or other 5.1/7.1 lossless formats, since optical also does not support lossless formats nor does it support 7.1.  But then I never actually watch a BluRay movie on my PC this way.  I go to my "main equipment" based on Oppo 103 and Panny 65VT50 and Yamaha RX-V867 and HDMI Realiser feeding Audio-GD NFB9 DAC optically, which feeds my Stax SRM-007tii amp via XLR which feeds my Stax SRM-SR-009 headphones.
 
Anyway, I don't know what software you are planning on using on your Win10 machine, but you cannot just feed still-encoded multi-channel bitstream digital audio via HDMI to the Realiser.  You have to feed already-decoded multi-channel LPCM digital audio to the Realiser via HDMI.

 

[darinf]

   
What do you have set when you right-click on the speaker in System Tray, and select Playback Devices from the popup menu?
 
Once you have selected the HDMI output of your graphics card as the playback device and set it to default, you need to push both (a) Properties and (b) Configure to enable multi-channel formats.  Now of course even if you send multi-channel output via HDMI, it's almost certainly going to be bitstream and still encoded, since this arrangement is designed to feed an AVR still-encoded digital audio via HDMI for external decoding there. It is essentially impossible to get the PC to do the encoding and send digital audio out via LPCM over HDMI, at least with standard Windows and with any software that I know of.
 
Remember the Realiser does not have its own decoding capability. It must be fed digital audio vial HDMI in already-decoded multi-channel LPCM format, with the expectation that the upstream source device/AVR has done the decoding and is delivering the now-decoded multi-channel digital audio via LPCM.  My own experience is that the Oppo 10x players (with two external HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs) are the only devices that actually provide that capability, using either DVD/Bluray disc-based source or external HDMI source input to the 10x via HDMI (e.g. from your cable DVR's HDMI output, going to the Oppo's HDMI input for feeding video to your AVR/HDTV and decoded digital multi-channel LPCM audio to the Realiser) are the only devices capable of feeding the Realiser via HDMI.  I use an Oppo BDP-103 in my own HDMI Realiser setup for exactly this reason, along with a Yamaha RX-V867 AVR.  HDTV video is fed from the Yamaha AVR (fed from the one of the Oppo's HDMI outputs) and the Realiser is fed HDMI multi-channel LPCM directly from the Oppo's second HDMI output.
 
For my PC setup (where no decoding to LPCM is possible within Windows or any player software that I know of) I use a different setup. This makes use of an earlier generation Yamaha RX-V863 AVR and my serial #0001 Realiser which has no HDMI input but which only supports already-decoded 8-channel RCA analog analog input.  I do not want to route HDMI output from my PC to the AVR, because that feeds video back to my second monitor which will be 1920x1080 and I want 1920x1200 on that monitor.  So instead I route optical output from my PC (which has an optical S/PDIF output for digital audio) to the AVR.  This is after selecting the optical output in Playback Devices to default, and configuring Properties and Configure to support all multi-channel formats.  Video to the second monitor remains standard, supported by a standard DVI cable from graphics card to the monitor.  It's only the digital audio that I've separated, and bitstreamed out of the optical connection to the AVR where it will then be decoded.
 
The AVR has 8-channel RCA analog "preamp outputs", designed for feeding an external amp/speaker system (although the AVR obviously has its own amps which can feed the multi-speaker sound system).  I send these already-decoded multi-channel analog "preamp outputs" from the AVR to the 8-channel analog inputs of the Realiser.  I have an old Stax SRM-T1S/Omega-1 headphone system connected to this old Realiser and old Yamaha AVR, for listening.
 
Note that optical connections do not support 7.1, but only support 5.1.  However what I'm listening to from my PC through this external audio equipment is Windows Media Center recorded HDTV, as this PC is my HTPC.  Since HDTV only delivers DD 5.1 audio, the optical arrangement from PC to the AVR is not really a limitation at all.  So I don't really need DD7.1 audio from this particular Realiser.  Yes, I do have a BluRay drive in this machine and do have CyberLink PowerDVD on the machine if I wanted to play a BluRay movie (which I never do) with 7.1 audio possible.  But I simply can't choose the True-HD MA or other 5.1/7.1 lossless formats, since optical also does not support lossless formats nor does it support 7.1.  But then I never actually watch a BluRay movie on my PC this way.  I go to my "main equipment" based on Oppo 103 and Panny 65VT50 and Yamaha RX-V867 and HDMI Realiser feeding Audio-GD NFB9 DAC optically, which feeds my Stax SRM-007tii amp via XLR which feeds my Stax SRM-SR-009 headphones.
 
Anyway, I don't know what software you are planning on using on your Win10 machine, but you cannot just feed still-encoded multi-channel bitstream digital audio via HDMI to the Realiser.  You have to feed already-decoded multi-channel LPCM digital audio to the Realiser via HDMI.

I have two Lenovo Yoga computers )Yoga 13 and Yoga 2 Pro) and one Dell Inspiron 13 laptop that will output 7.1 LPCM via their built-in HDMI outputs. I have other laptops and desktops that will not.
 
On the computer that do work with the Realiser, I connect the HDMI output of the laptop directly to the HDMI input of the Realiser. Then I connect the HDMI output of the Realiser to a TV that accepts 7.1 audio via HDMI. This way the laptop "sees" a 7.1 capable device at the end of the HDMI chain. (At least I think that's why it works.)
 
So then on my laptop, in the properties of the HDMI audio output, I can set it to 7.1 audio output.
 
From that point on, any media player that supports 5.1 or 7.1 will decode Dolby or DTS encoded content and send 7.1 LPCM out the HDMI port. I know it works since I can play a Blu-Ray in JRiver or VLC and get 7.1 channels to work on the Realiser.
 
But, I tried a lot of different laptops and video cards and a majority of them would only output two channels from the HDMI ports. 

 

[hekeli]

Just update your Nvidia drivers and check playback devices / properties as said. There's no legit reason why it wouldn't work. Usually it's just driver (buggy or old version) or sound settings problem.
 
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2796/~/which-hdmi-audio-formats-do-nvidia-gpus-support
 
There's no need to chain anything after Realiser, it's a native 7.1 HDMI device (how else would all the people use it standalone?). Passing through stuff usually just creates problems..

 

[dantesvictus]

 

 

 

 
attached pictures. i tried to uninstall and reinstall the driver. it still shows the same.
 
if theres any high end device that decode hdmi audio from pc to realiser 7.1 , please do let me know. it has to be compact!
is there any device hdmi device sends 7,1 audio wirelessly @ zero latency?