[Hennyo]

I'm going to hear a Smyth Realizer pretty soon out of KGSSHV / Sr 009! I can't wait! The 28th could not come any faster. I hear it has really reputable engineers largely convinced. I've heard that these actualizers are quite good..
 
Michael

 

[HDMan]

Quote:

I'm going to hear a Smyth Realizer pretty soon out of KGSSHV / Sr 009! I can't wait! The 28th could not come any faster. I hear it has really reputable engineers largely convinced. I've heard that these actualizers are quite good..
 
Michael

Please post a review
 

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

I'm going to hear a Smyth Realizer pretty soon out of KGSSHV / Sr 009! I can't wait! The 28th could not come any faster. I hear it has really reputable engineers largely convinced. I've heard that these actualizers are quite good..
 
Michael

That should be a killer system for the Realiser as long as you have some killer PRIR's.
Let us know what you think of your new Realiser combo.
 
Because I am very new to the Stax headphones and Electrostatic Amp I am getting a Stax SRM-727 and the SR-009's that I should have in house this Saturday. 
I am going to focus at first on how my rig with my new toys sound with my theatrical certified THX 5.1 PRIR from AIX and of-course my reference 5.1 and 7.1 PRIR's from AIX.
As some know I don't use my Realiser for anything other than its magic so the audio signal from my source player to my W4S DAC remains digital, the W4S has both XLR and RCA ports that will feed my 727 and 009's. imo by keeping the audio digital there by having my W4S DAC (ES9018) do the only D to A conversion is the cleanest way to transport the audio signal to my amp. I use between 1M and 1/2M cables to keep the cables as short as possible between my gear, and use a P5 to power gear.
 
Later this year there are going to be at-least 2 new electrostatic amps coming out, so by that time I will have a good feel for what the SRM-009's can do with the Realiser, and if I want to, I will move to a different amp for the 009's.
 
 

 

[n3rdling]

 
Quote:

How about 009's. It is my understating that the 009's have a very nice sound-stage along with a large dynamic range.
 
 
 

They should be pretty much the best headphones you can use for the Realiser.  Besides having the extreme transient response and low distortion inherent to most electrostats, they also have a traditional fit with what seem to be robust earpads.  This might not seem to matter, but it definitely does.  You don't want the fit of the headphone to change a lot (K1000 you have to make sure you have the earspeakers angled the same way they were angled when you took the measurements with them/SR007 the earpads rotate which will change the angle of the drivers slightly but this should be a lesser problem as long as you get a good seal).  You want earpads that will retain shape over a long period of time otherwise they'll slowly compress and the distance between the ear and drivers will decrease i.e. change from what they were during measurement.  You could always remeasure the headphone every now and then to mitigate this factor though which is probably recommended anyways.  The reason this stuff matters is that the response and soundstaging of the headphone will change a bit if the driver/earpad cavity change.  You can imagine the cavity as the 'room' for speakers - the speakers will sound a bit different if you change the room dimensions a bit or if you move the speakers a bit.  The change probably won't be drastic in most cases, but the Realiser is about trying to get things as perfect as possible so you might as well strive for that.  I think you've got a winner in the SR009 for this system, and it certainly sounds fantastic in normal headphone mode as well.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

 


They should be pretty much the best headphones you can use for the Realiser. 
<snip>

Thanks for your reply and tips.
Anyway that was my thinking about the 009's also. And because of my novice status with the electrostatic amps, I can start to figure out what I like and don't like in a Amp with the 727 as a starter amp for my 009's.

 

[silverlight]

So I picked up and have a Realiser now in the system.  Just have to get it working!! Haven't had more than a few minutes and while I have the HW set up, just need to get the box working   Going to be using it with WES+009 and Cavalli LF+LCD3.  Business may take me to L.A. soon so will schedule to get calibrated at AIX.  Look forward to hearing it once I can figure it out

(it's not super obvious like every other piece of electronic gear I've ever owned).  I'm sure it's a quick learning curve though...

 

[dsperber]

Quote:

So I picked up and have a Realiser now in the system.  Just have to get it working!! Haven't had more than a few minutes and while I have the HW set up, just need to get the box working   Going to be using it with WES+009 and Cavalli LF+LCD3.  Business may take me to L.A. soon so will schedule to get calibrated at AIX.  Look forward to hearing

Welcome to the club!  You're going to enjoy.
 
But it's not really THE BOX itself that "gets calibrated".  It's basically your own ears that get "measured" through calibrated microphones plugged into the Realiser (which is sending out known sweep signals to each speaker individually and measuring the response in those microphones) while listening to the sound system in some particular environment.
 
The results of the "ear measurement" (i.e. how that listening environment  sounded to your ears) is then stored in digital form in what's called a PRIR file.
 
A similar "ear measurement" is made of your specific headphone/amp playback equipment, with the headphones when placed over your ears, and it's then stored in a second digital file named an HPEQ.  This is so that the appropriate EQ calculations can be made by the Realiser during playback, enabling it hopefully to more accurately reproduce the original listening environment sound when played back through the PRIR.
 
Then the combination of both PRIR and HPEQ files is combined by the Realiser and used as a "playback filter", for listening to any any [multi-channel] content at all that you care to listen to through it and your headphones.  The effective result is that anything you now listen to through the Realiser and your headphones will presumably sound very very much like the original listening environment "sonically photographed" by the PRIR-creation measurement process you went through.
 
So you won't need your own Realiser or even the ear microphones at AIX (I believe they have one, or Lorr will bring his if you arrange with him to meet you at AIX and do the measurement).  You only need to bring a 2GB SD flash card with you so that the PRIR produced at AIX can be taken home, and then read into the memory of the Realiser so that you can "create a preset" which is accessed conveniently using the Realiser remote.
 
You'll now be able to "listen to anything as if you were at AIX"... just by putting on your headphones and selecting the AIX preset on the Realiser.

 

[Kiritz]

Hi there,
 
For those of you who now have HMDI I have a question.  I just got the box back and turned it on.  I see a letter A in the lower left quadrant and the letters are white on black background.  Looking at the instructions, it would appear that to switch to HDMI I need to push MENU and the dot.  Then, I need to toggle to D.  There is something about lines 1-4.  I have no idea what they are, but they do show in order.  The problem is that when I save with the ! and go back to the original screen, the A is still there and the signal is still analogue and there is no HDMI capability.  
 
My source is an Oppo 95 and it is set for HDMI audio, so that isn't the problem.  Any ideas anyone?  It's most frustrating.
 
Stewart

 

[Kiritz]

Sorry everyone.  As usual, I made things more complicated than they are.  I found the mode switch and all is good.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

Sorry everyone.  As usual, I made things more complicated than they are.  I found the mode switch and all is good.

As long as you have set the HDMI/digital up right, your Realiser should now always default to H (HDMI,digital).
Also play with the settings on your BDP-95 and hear what is best for you. I use the HDMI sub port 2 for my audio out of the BDP-95 and set port 1 for video only.
 

 

[blessingx]

I've read about 2/3rds of this lengthy thread, so apologies if this has been answered already. There appears to be several users who bypass/do not use the Realiser for 2 channel playback (not to mention HDMI being the only digital in). This would be my sole use. I'm intrigued by 2 channel speaker emulation, and have briefly heard the Smyth twice, but the longer-term experience of members foregoing the Smyth with 2 channel has me concerned. Anyone have any thoughts on this or who use the Smyth primarily for stereo use?

 

[HDMan]

I have been looking to buy the Stax SR-007's, the differences between the MK1 nad MK2 are subtle, but I don't think it will matter all that much since the Realiser has it's HPEQ. Any thoughts?
 
I wonder even more, people say that the SR-009 are like %15 better than the SR-007, surely that percentage would be greatly reduced by the Realiser's ability to HPEQ any headphone.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

I have been looking to buy the Stax SR-007's, the differences between the MK1 nad MK2 are subtle, but I don't think it will matter all that much since the Realiser has it's HPEQ. Any thoughts?
 
I wonder even more, people say that the SR-009 are like %15 better than the SR-007, surely that percentage would be greatly reduced by the Realiser's ability to HPEQ any headphone.

Can't say what the difference is between the 007 and 009 would be using a HPEQ, but can say about the difference between the 504's and 009's, and its fairly big.
Of-course I am at the early stages of comparisons and imo, but what I am hearing is that the 009's sound like speakers. What I am trying to say is that when using MCH 5.1 Blu Ray movies HQ disc and there is a lot of side Ch activity (same goes for all speaker locations), the 009's and my 5.1 PRIR from AIX gives me the impression that the sound direction is coming from the placement of speaker and at the same distance that I have ever heard before. Plus the tonal difference, however that can be a good thing or not so good, meaning the 009's are so life like and such a large dynamic speaker like range that if the audio track is not mastered well you will hear it.
 
imo the HPEQ and how well it turns out will mostly affect the sound-stage, its your PRIR's that make the difference and of-course how well your rig and headphones can bring out the speaker rig.
 
Note, I have only had this Stax amp and 009's for a few days plus I am fighting a head cold. I have not tried 2Ch or 7.1 Ch yet.
 

 

[Kiritz]

I use the Realiser primarily for two- channel.  I have had the unit for about 6 months and am extremely pleased with it.  The two- channel reproduction via the emulation taken at AIX Studios produces such a wide and deep sound stage that it often seems that 5.1 is unnecessary, or even unwanted.  In other words, the sound stage extends so far to the left and right that surround is almost superfluous.  Of course, if I used the Realiser for movies with fighter planes flying around and such, no doubt I would enjoy the emulation of 5.1.  But I haven't really gotten into that. I do have some surround discs, like the Pentatone remasterings of quadraphonic tapes, where the surround effect does seem to add some realism by way of capturing the ambiance of the hall.  But there is more variation with most of my source material from one recording to another than between 2-channel and surround.   
 
I bought the unit because we sold a big house and moved into a smaller one with a listening room that really is not big enough, even with serious room treatments, to give a good result with my speaker system.  So I simply don't use the speakers often, and primarily listen through the headset, which is directly connect to an Oppo 95 player....no amp or preamp.  I do use my subs.  They are connected to the TAC output of the Realiser and add that extra visceral effect of air moving in the room when a bass drum is struck, a bass fiddle plucked, etc.  I listen mostly to classical music and mostly to hi res discs and files.
 
On another note, I just had the unit upgraded for HDMI.  The jury isn't in yet, but so far I think the sound stage for most discs is deeper and wider with HDMI.  Switching back and forth from A to HDMI I can actually hear certain instruments move further out from the center to the right of the stage or the left when HDMI is activated.   I have pretty educated ears and still don't think I am hearing much difference between HMDI and RCA connections on SACDs other than this, even though I know the DTS output of the SACDs is being converted to 24/96 PCMI.  Switching between analogue and HDMI and comparing the effects, I just don't think there is much lost, and actually think there is something gained via HDMI, but this is in terms of sound stage, not other characteristics of the reproduction.
 
 

 

[Kiritz]

Quote:

I've read about 2/3rds of this lengthy thread, so apologies if this has been answered already. There appears to be several users who bypass/do not use the Realiser for 2 channel playback (not to mention HDMI being the only digital in). This would be my sole use. I'm intrigued by 2 channel speaker emulation, and have briefly heard the Smyth twice, but the longer-term experience of members foregoing the Smyth with 2 channel has me concerned. Anyone have any thoughts on this or who use the Smyth primarily for stereo use?

Please see my post above, in reply to this.  I do mostly 2-channel speaker emulation.