[TruBrew]

dsperber said everything very well. In case you are wondering the PS3 does work directly into the Realiser. Just go into the audio output settings and turn all of the DD/DTS options off, and make sure all of the PCM ones are on. I have no idea how your cable box works. I don't have cable, so I am not even sure how it works here. Just go into your cable box's audio output settings and see what the options are. If you buy it, you should definitely have a studio visit lined up. I forgot what I paid for travel and studio time, but it was a little under $1000. I considered it part of the purchase price.
 
I don't remember reading much about the Headzone. I am sure people who have not used the Realiser like it. 
 
 
silverlight, those Savoy Signature speakers look amazing. I have never heard a pair of Egglestonworks, but I would like to. Two of my friends went to Amsterdam to visit another friend of ours working on his Masters Degree there. If I had known about Wisseloord I may have gone as well. 

 

[arnaud]

Hoax: the whole point of the realiser is to use personalized hrtfs (prirs here). The salesman telling you a library of prirs will be good is a plain liar or is just clueless. Either way, if you're not going to obtain those prirs, just go get a headzone or one of these artificial virtualizers, you'll save yourself a lot of money. Plus, if you're happy with the level of fidelity of such device, why want to spend so much more.

 

[dsperber]

 
Quote:

Thanks alot for your explanation.. Getting a bit scared now to buy the Realiser.. I know alot of people in this thread probably look down on Beyerdynamic's headzone but the headzone doesnt need personal calibration. Would I be better off with a headzone or would even a Realiser without the proper personal calibration but with good templates to start from still sound better?
 
Edit -
 
Just to add what I mainly want to use it for: Games / Movies

 
I have no experience with a Headzone.  But it appears to be another "surround simulation" approach, much like Dolby Headphone which is licensed into Pioneer systems like the DIR-SE800C, 1000C and 2000C as well as the Philips HD-1500U.  These are NOT what the Realiser is competing with. There is NOTHING that the Realiser is competing with, nor that can compete with the Realiser. 
 
Yes, the Headzone (and Dolby Headphone) do not require "personal calibration" (i.e. measurement of how your own ears perceive the sound of a specific listening room, taking into account everything from carpet, walls, floors, baffles, electronics, speakers, speaker horizontal and vertical placement, listening chair placement, etc., all of which are analog-combined into the net final sound waves that reach your ears and microphones in your ears, in that particular room). And that's because Headzone and Dolby Headphone do not care about that.  Their purpose is to "simulate multi-channel surround" through headphones so that you can play games and watch movies and be "entertained" by the 3D-surround illusion.
 
But they have nothing at all to do with being a device that tries to "duplicate to your particular ears the particular sound of a particular listening room environment".
 
As was mentioned earlier and by others as well, there really is no "generic template" you can use that can properly reflect YOUR EARS and how YOUR HEAD/EARS/BRAIN hear sound.  There is no "optimal PRIR" that can be distributed (e.g. downloaded from some web site).  There's no such thing.  A PRIR is a particular digital description (i.e. "sonic photograph/filter") that permits playback of anything through that "filter" such that it will sound to you through your headphones as if you were listening to that content IN THE EXACT SAME LISTENING ROOM ENVIRONMENT in which the PRIR measurement/calibration was originally made.
 
The Realiser is not a Headzone.  Nor is it Dolby Headphone.  They are completely different products, with different purposes.  Different costs as well, but if you understand what the Realiser is for and can do, and you have access to an excellent sound studio or listening environment you can perform a PRIR measurement in, then the results will be worth it.  I'm sure most of us cannot afford a high-end multi-zillion dollar sound studio room or home theater with all of its treatments and electronics and speakers.  But if you can pay $200 for an hour in that room, and take a PRIR "sonic photograph" of the sound of that room to your ears, you can then take that PRIR home with you and use it in your Realiser when playing BluRay movies or HDTV or playing games and listening through your headphones. It will be like you were in that high-end room.  A DUPLICATE of the sound of THAT room.
 
That's what you're paying for.  Not generic virtual surround simulation "one size fits all" for entertainment value and a smile while playing games.

 

[Socrates]

Hoax,
 
I bought the Realiser without access to calibration or PRIR's. A few kind Head-Fi'ers sent me on their calibrations and I have found one that I find works very well for me, better than the personalised PRIR I made with my old midfi- system. Some work pretty well and some are terrible. It's a total crap shoot as to whether or not one of the PRIR's a vendor sends works well for you. Having said that, it may well stilll work out better than the Headzone which is not personalised.
 
If you think you may be able to get a personal PRIR done sometime in the future you may want to go the Realiser route. The PRIR's they give will work to a cetain extent and you may get lucky. 
 
Incidentally the German studio is charging €950 for a stand alone calibration. I'm in Ireland and I can't justify that cost plus flights and accomodation. If they will include a personalisation as part of the €3k cost I'd highly recommend you go down that route if at all possible - are there any budget airlines where you are that can get you to Munich?

 

[Hoax]

 
Quote:

Hoax,
 
I bought the Realiser without access to calibration or PRIR's. A few kind Head-Fi'ers sent me on their calibrations and I have found one that I find works very well for me, better than the personalised PRIR I made with my old midfi- system. Some work pretty well and some are terrible. It's a total crap shoot as to whether or not one of the PRIR's a vendor sends works well for you. Having said that, it may well stilll work out better than the Headzone which is not personalised.
 
If you think you may be able to get a personal PRIR done sometime in the future you may want to go the Realiser route. The PRIR's they give will work to a cetain extent and you may get lucky. 
 
Incidentally the German studio is charging €950 for a stand alone calibration. I'm in Ireland and I can't justify that cost plus flights and accomodation. If they will include a personalisation as part of the €3k cost I'd highly recommend you go down that route if at all possible - are there any budget airlines where you are that can get you to Munich?

 
Hi Socrates,
 
How tweakable are the PRIR's ? Is it possible to tweak other PRIR's to a point where you would (almost) get the same result as if you measured them yourself? I know most of you guys are probably perfectionists and aim for that exact clone but if I have no idea how it originally sounded but I can still get a hell of a sound of it that would give me that surround feeling. I would be more than happy
 
I live In Holland, next to germany however Munich is still 840 KM away. I really dont mind spending a few hundred euros on a trip and calibration, however I dont have a car so it would be a travel with busses/planes/taxi etc. And i might have to spend a night in a Hotel overnight. I just dont feel like going trough all the hassle just to get a good sounding sound system.
 
@ DSPERBER
 
The headzone actually uses the same concept as the realiser, but it uses a virtual room you have to tweak to your likings unlike the realiser where you could actually clone real setups. The headzone is a more limited because of this and according to the experts it will give a less natural feeling because of this

 

[Hoax]

 
Quote:

 
>>> How tweakable are the PRIR's ? Is it possible to tweak other PRIR's to a point where you would (almost) get the same result as if you measured them yourself? I know most of you guys are probably perfectionists and aim for that exact clone but if I have no idea how it originally sounded but I can still get a hell of a sound of it that would give me that surround feeling. I would be more than happy <<<
 
Anyone else able to answer this please?
 
 

 

 

[Socrates]

Hi Hoax,
 
The only tweak I did was to alter the distance of the speakers from me. There is a facility to make the sound nearer or further. The PRIR that worked for me was taken further from the screen than would be the case for me. I know there is a facility for equalizing various bands but I haven't tried any of that out. The PRIR works very well for me, so I don't want to mess around with it. If you download the manual you can see the various tweaks you can do.
 
Socrates

 

[Hoax]

Thanks for your reply..
 
I just got a message from the importer, I only got 2 weeks before I have to send it back. So that means having to find my way around this thing to use and tweak is very limited.. I was planning on trying with my beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro's first. However I dont have time to fool around and try another headphone later on if im not happy with the result so I guess its best to just get a good headphone right away .. The importer doesnt sell Stax, I found a shop in my own country selling Stax but they only got the SR 003 & SR 307 as their cheapest ones rather than the SR 202 that Smyth recommends, Is any of these any good or should I try a different one If i cant get the SR 202 ? Also im guessing the 307 would need amp?
 
Edit -
 
Just googled the SR 003 and those are not needed for sure.. remains the 307 as alternative for the 202

 

[Socrates]

Yes, any Stax headphone will need their amp/energiser.
 
Based on all the reviews I've read your biggest exposure will be getting a good match on the PRIR. You will make a personalised HPEQ for your DT990's and your ears, and combine this with the PRIR's the vendor will sell you. If it sounds lousy, no headphone will improve it enough to be satisfactory. A number of the reviews have said that the Realiser does an incredible job even with budget headphones, amd I see from reviews the DT990's are well regarded. Unless you were planning to upgrade anyway you may just want to try out the DT990's first, and upgrade later.
 
The main things to check with any setting when using someone elses PRIR are (i) how is the out of the head experience, are the speakers where they should be (they can be isolated using the remote so you can check each one individually, the centre speaker being the most important)  and  (ii) are they too bright or too dull, or acceptable.
 
You don't need to go electrostatic either, a good set of dynamic headphones would be fine. Before I got my Audeze LCD2, I used the Sennheiser HD650 and it was excellent. One thing I did need was an amp, the built in amp in the Realiser was insufficient to drive the headphones without clipping or distortion at high volumes or with deep bass notes. I also used a Stax 3030 headphone/amp combo. I found it worked very well except that the plastic shell of the stax cans seemed to creak  a bit when I moved my body.
 
If you go ahead with the purchase and want some additional PRIR's I can send you what I've got.

 

[Hoax]

 
Quote:

Yes, any Stax headphone will need their amp/energiser.
 
Based on all the reviews I've read your biggest exposure will be getting a good match on the PRIR. You will make a personalised HPEQ for your DT990's and your ears, and combine this with the PRIR's the vendor will sell you. If it sounds lousy, no headphone will improve it enough to be satisfactory. A number of the reviews have said that the Realiser does an incredible job even with budget headphones, amd I see from reviews the DT990's are well regarded. Unless you were planning to upgrade anyway you may just want to try out the DT990's first, and upgrade later.
 
The main things to check with any setting when using someone elses PRIR are (i) how is the out of the head experience, are the speakers where they should be (they can be isolated using the remote so you can check each one individually, the centre speaker being the most important)  and  (ii) are they too bright or too dull, or acceptable.
 
You don't need to go electrostatic either, a good set of dynamic headphones would be fine. Before I got my Audeze LCD2, I used the Sennheiser HD650 and it was excellent. One thing I did need was an amp, the built in amp in the Realiser was insufficient to drive the headphones without clipping or distortion at high volumes or with deep bass notes. I also used a Stax 3030 headphone/amp combo. I found it worked very well except that the plastic shell of the stax cans seemed to creak  a bit when I moved my body.
 
If you go ahead with the purchase and want some additional PRIR's I can send you what I've got.
 
>>>>>>>>>
 
Thanks alot again for your advice, In the mean time I found out the SR-202 (originally shipped with the realiser) are discontinued and the new model is called SR-207 and in combination with a stax amp cost about 1099 euros. combo is called: SRS-2170. However now I read your advice I will wait with that and just go ahead and test it on my old DT's. And I do like to try your or anyone else's PRIR's
 
Thanks alot in advance, I will send you a message with my email adress .. If there's anyone else willing to share too please drop me a message, I'd really appreciate it!

 
 

 

[HDMan]

Having some troubles with the new Emotiva UMC-1 preamp.
 
Previously everything worked for 7.1 channel audio using my PC soundcard as the source. Now with the Emotiva as a source, it will only recognize the Realiser as a 2 channel amp.
 
PC - HDMI > Emotiva - HDMI > Realiser.
 
 
Tried all options for input selections.
 
Last thing I can think of is that the Emotiva is reading the headphone jack, but how (I am using the Realiser headphone jack for now)? The Realiser has 7.1 channel input.
 
Maybe a DAC with Optical input from the Realiser will solve this problem.
 
I have sound with the Realiser, but no C, LS, LB, RS, RB.  Only stereo works.
 
 
Also I have a HDMI output from the Realiser to a display port on my PC, this is only a dummy, I have a D-DVI input from the PC for a 120hz screen.

 

[VandyMan]

I spent some time looking for a pre-pro that would output multi-channel PCM. I could not find one in my price range that does this and I checked the manuals of half a dozen. I'm guessing it is a limit from the content providers who are concerned that if the encrypted input is converted to multi-channel PCM, it can easily be copied. (Total nonsense, ofcourse.) I'm unsure why the Oppo can output multi-channel PCM on HDMI, but pre-pros don't. Smyth's HDMI solution is very limited because they don't decode any of the common multi-channel formats other than PCM.

 

 

[silverlight]

Agreed, would have been a great inclusion, but presumably the licensing costs would have affecting pricing?  I happen to do some movie viewing from my computer (Mac Mini w/ HDMI out), and I definitely had to go through some hoops to convert some blu ray ISO's I keep on my media server (TrueHD/DTS-MA/etc into PCM and remuxing into an MKV file, etc.) in order for it to work on the computer.  Enough of a hassle I won't be doing that too often...  Will try to get going with just using the Oppo 93 as BD player and media server

 

[wsilvio]

For those of you who have done you measurements at AIX, I have a question:
 
Lorr has told me that there are two possible systems I can be calibrated to.  the first would be to do a 7.1 and 5.1 with their B&W/profounder system.  The other choice is to do that, plus their JBL 5.1 cinema system.  Anyone done both?  If so what are the differences?  I have a few weeks to decide before I go to LA, but thought I get your opinions.  Thanks,
 
will

 

[silverlight]

Quote:

For those of you who have done you measurements at AIX, I have a question:
 
Lorr has told me that there are two possible systems I can be calibrated to.  the first would be to do a 7.1 and 5.1 with their B&W/profounder system.  The other choice is to do that, plus their JBL 5.1 cinema system.  Anyone done both?  If so what are the differences?  I have a few weeks to decide before I go to LA, but thought I get your opinions.  Thanks,
 
will

 
Having just been there a couple weeks ago, at AIX's suggestion I just stuck with the B&W setup.  They viewed that the JBL setup was less impressive than the B&W configuration, and I was running a little short of time so didn't do measurements with them.  Its not that much more to have the JBL done while you're there and you'll get the choice on the fly to do it or not.  So not actual feedback, but hope this is helpful.