Smyth Research Realiser A16

[zdjh22]

Just received my 2U A16. It’s going to be a busy next few days .

If anyone has any recommendations for a sound shop with a good ATMOS listening room in the Denver or Colorado Springs area that might be willing to rent me the room for a couple of hours to produce a PRIR, please let me know.

 

[zdjh22]

Just received my 2U A16. It’s going to be a busy next few days .

If anyone has any recommendations for a sound shop with a good ATMOS listening room in the Denver or Colorado Springs area that might be willing to rent me the room for a couple of hours to produce a PRIR, please let me know.

Also, I was delighted that the A16 came with a coupon of appreciation for 3D Sound Shop (@Litlgi74). Looking forward to sampling the PRIR’s there.

 

[GeorgeA]

Just received my 2U A16. It’s going to be a busy next few days .

If anyone has any recommendations for a sound shop with a good ATMOS listening room in the Denver or Colorado Springs area that might be willing to rent me the room for a couple of hours to produce a PRIR, please let me know.

Congratulations on your new purchase and success in discovering the menus and functions of the Realiser A16.

 

[Dixter]

new firmware out... https://smyth-research.com/downloads/

Issues fixed with this update (All hardware variants) 1. Previously the TACTILE outputs had developed a tendency to glitch as a result of poor signal quality on the PCM clock lines. Signal drive currents were increased to eliminate this problem.

2. Previously volume adjustments using the external knobs incremented by +/‐2dB. This has been reduced to +/‐1dB.

other enhancements per the release notes

 

[GeorgeA]

Besides issues fixed with this update, there’re also some new interesting features (all hardware variants)

1. Auro‐3D decoder and Auromatic up‐mixer
2. Bit‐stream format and upmixing information
3. SVS Microphone Differential Gain adjustment
4. SVS Binaural Panning (balance)
5. APM110 C1 Hardware Backward Incompatibly
6. A16 Motherboard Hardware (MB HW) Backward Incompatibly

I look forward to reading feedback on those new features as I have to wait the firmware update for Realiser A16 SE.

 

[Litlgi74]

Having Auro 3D in the presets section is kind of a bummer... Now, in order to hear the change... The preset must be reloaded... In fw 2.12... the changes were heard (live) as they were made.

 

[Camano]

Having Auro 3D in the presets section is kind of a bummer... Now, in order to hear the change... The preset must be reloaded... In fw 2.12... the changes were heard (live) as they were made.

I'd like to understand more about what the "bummer" is. In my case (firmware 2.12) all sources are Dolby (something) or Atmos. Auro upmixing is always on, so everything except Atmos get Auro upmixing. Atmos stays Atmos. The fly in the ointment is when resuming an Atmos program after pause, there's several seconds of silence while it tries the upmixer first and then switches in Atmos.

I was hoping that the new 2.15 firmware would let me use two identical presets except one has Auro upmixing turned on and the other is turned off. For an Atmos program I'd select the preset with Auro turned off and wouldn't experience those re-sync delays.

Am I missing something?

 

[Litlgi74]

Am I missing something?

Nope... You wish will be granted.

It's just a personal preference of mine... If an audible change is going to be made.. I'd like to hear it as it is happening (like APM bass) versus ABing presets.

No biggie.

 

[GeorgeA]

Has anyone carried out the newest firmware update yet?

By comparing and contrasting among four available documents (Firmware-rev-2.15-May-19-2023-update-instructions, A16_manual_v2.0, auro3d_home_theater_setup_guidelines_v8_13062017 and One-for-all-Setup-Guide_V5-0_englisch), it follows that those three explicitly recommended configurations in auro-3d setup_guidelines (Auro 9.x, Auro 11.x and Auro 13.x) are roughly reflected on rows 16, 20 and 26 of the table at page #6 of the update-instructions. And yet, some confusing aspects still remain. According to auro3d_home_theater_setup_guidelines, the nominal angles for the azimuth of the left and right surround speakers are -110 and 110 degrees, respectively, in all configurations. The same angles are used for the height left and height right surround speaker. The A16_manual_v2.0, in table 19.1 at page #120, specifies different values.

No reference is made to the elevation angle in the update-instructions, while in auro-3d setup_guidelines and One-for-all-Setup-Guide an elevation angle of 30 degrees is clearly specified. The A16_manual_v2.0 gives a wrong elevation angle of 40 degrees.

However, it’s good that there’s note 1 at page #121: The azimuth and elevation angles are default values – the angles can be changed to match a physical loudspeaker layout during a PRIR measurement.

 

[audiohobbit]

All those angle values are just for reference and have no influence on the PRIR at all.
The respective speaker is at the place where it was "recorded" in the PRIR, no matter what anlge entry there is written besides the speaker.
So it's better to rely on specifications and recommendations of the different format manufacturers, when placing speakers yourselves, or take the positions you find in a given recording environment.

 

[GeorgeA]

Got it. Thanks.

 

[CaptainFunk]

I love the new SVS Binaural Panning feature. I mentioned a while ago that in all 3rd party PRIRs and even custom measurements the center speaker seems to be a bit off center. I am not noticing this with normal Stereo at all, just with the Realiser speaker virtualisation. I tried to solve this with manLOUD but it didn't really work. As an experiment, I just increased the SVS Panning on the right by 1.5 dB and now the center speaker is perfectly centred! I also feel like the localisation of the other speakers improved a bit, but it is not that obvious as with the center channel. I know this function should be used for something else, but it finally fixed the center issues for me.

Apparently my right ear canal is much smaller than the left one, so maybe this has something to do with it. I think I am going to write James an email with my experience, perhaps they heard about similar issues.

 

[Litlgi74]

I love the new SVS Binaural Panning feature. I mentioned a while ago that in all 3rd party PRIRs and even custom measurements the center speaker seems to be a bit off center. I am not noticing this with normal Stereo at all, just with the Realiser speaker virtualisation. I tried to solve this with manLOUD but it didn't really work. As an experiment, I just increased the SVS Panning on the right by 1.5 dB and now the center speaker is perfectly centred! I also feel like the localisation of the other speakers improved a bit, but it is not that obvious as with the center channel. I know this function should be used for something else, but it finally fixed the center issues for me.

Apparently my right ear canal is much smaller than the left one, so maybe this has something to do with it. I think I am going to write James an email with my experience, perhaps they heard about similar issues.

Hi...

Are you experiencing center imbalance issue when using a flat HPEQ?

 

[CaptainFunk]

Hi...

Are you experiencing center imbalance issue when using a flat HPEQ?

Yes, the center is always off to the left. Some PRIRs are better or worse than others, but no PRIR is perfect.

 

[Litlgi74]

Yes, the center is always off to the left. Some PRIRs are better or worse than others, but no PRIR is perfect.

Gotcha... I too experience imbalance issues from time to time... Even with my own PRIRs. It took me a while to figure out what was going on... ALLERGIES!!! It can be very frustrating.

Like you, I tried the SVS Panning... It does help a bit but only when the correction is made for the correct ear... Unfortunately, that changes on a daily... Sometimes hourly basis.