[musicday]

Thank you all for the above listening impressions. Now we are closer than never and we know for sure that the A16 will be delivered this summer.
All we have to do is to have patience and wait a bit longer, it is coming and the sound when movies watching will never be the same, a whole new experience.

 

[dsperber]

was the EQ thingy from Sonarworks maybe? they are focused on EQ for speakers and cans. their more consumer oriented app is called True-fi if that rings a bell. I'm curious in case there are other people working on the same ideas with maybe different target responses. as the golden goose of neutral response on headphones turns out to be sort of a hit and miss depending on the listener.

Yes, you're right. Now that I've looked at the show guide, that WAS the Sonarworks product I sat down for a demo of.

Sorry I can't remember what headphone they were using. But again, my subjective reaction was that I preferred the raw "irregular and non-linear" sound of Dave Brubeck (through those headphones) just as I was accustomed to hearing from the recording, rather than the post-processed result out of their auto-eq software whose objective was to make the headphone response flat. I would describe it as the original having more "character", but perhaps it's just that it was more familiar sounding which made me prefer it.

 

[sahmen]

Thanks to dsperber and BombayTheIndian for your impressions.

 

[castleofargh]

Yes, you're right. Now that I've looked at the show guide, that WAS the Sonarworks product I sat down for a demo of.

Sorry I can't remember what headphone they were using. But again, my subjective reaction was that I preferred the raw "irregular and non-linear" sound of Dave Brubeck (through those headphones) just as I was accustomed to hearing from the recording, rather than the post-processed result out of their auto-eq software whose objective was to make the headphone response flat. I would describe it as the original having more "character", but perhaps it's just that it was more familiar sounding which made me prefer it.

thanks. they give a free demo of their app on their website, so people should go try and see if they like it. well you do need a headphone they have in their list ^_^. I was kind of hoping for some new players in the EQ game I didn't know about. no luck, but I certainly had no idea who the Vast Audio guys were before seeing your picture of their booth. google tells me they're doing something similar to the Waves NX head tracker, but adding vertical tilt. so like the Mobius idea without a headphone. do they (Vast) enter some custom parameters for the listener, of is it some universal simulation? Waves and I'm guessing Mobius as they have the Waves app, use 2 measures of the head to set up a simulation a little closer to the user's HRTF.

 

[Richter Di]

If the Atmos music tracks sounded compressed compared to the original, I can assume that the effect becomes similar or worse when emulating a true 2 channel setup. If you are ONLY using the A16 and a low/mid tier headphone, you may not notice it. However, with the HD800 they had hooked up to the a16 today, it was clear enough even through their processing and eq that you're not getting a perfect clone of a music setup.

With all of that being said, it's miles beyond what OOYH is capable of, probably due to the personalized tracking and measurements.

Hi @BombayTheIndian, I am honestly surprised. I demoed the A16 only with music in 2016 in Paris, but for me the sound over the HD 800 was better compared to the sound over the speakers. More details over all.
I never had the feeling of compression. As I bought the A16 only for the purpose of 2.0 Stereo I am a bit worried.
The question is, is it a difference in how the A16 has developed since I heard it or is it maybe the measurement you had? Or maybe you hear differently and you have other priorities when listening.
I truely hope it is one of the later two.

 

[Richter Di]

And @BombayTheIndian, thank you for your impressions.
And a big thanks to @dsperber for all the infos and impressions.

I can live with June.

 

[musicday]

And @BombayTheIndian, thank you for your impressions.
And a big thanks to @dsperber for all the infos and impressions.

I can live with June.

Yes June is good for shipping and we need to worry no more

 

[sander99]

music tracks sounded more compressed than the actual yamaha monitors

First of: thank you for sharing your experiences. The compression effect you descibe seems rather unlogical as being caused by the simulation. I would expect the "dynamic linearity" of the simulation to be mainly dependent on the headphones (and headphones amp). The speakers are measured at one fixed spl. The digital signal processing should be 100% linear with respect to dynamics I think (more so than any real speakers). What may have happened is that the Yamaha monitors by coincidence at the spl used for measuring the sweeps are a little "under" the linear line (maybe even just for certain frequency ranges). Then the peaks at higher levels are "overly linear" stronger over the monitors, and seem more dynamic than the simulation that stays 100% linear dynamic wise. Or something like that, I am aware it is a bit of a vague story. What I mean is that I have the intuitive idea that somehow this compression effect could have just happened in this specific instance. During a demo on a show it is undoable of course, but this is maybe an example why it is wise to do a few tries before drawing final conclusions.

 

[462429]

...
Overall, I found it a more convincing illusion for movies; music tracks sounded more compressed than the actual yamaha monitors being used for the demo, which are just monitors and not "audiophile" speakers to begin with. With that being said, the movie clips were incredibly realistic.
...

Thank you, BombayTheIndian, for sharing your interesting impressions. However, I'm confused with your impression that the Realiser somehow spoiled the music (it sounded more 'compressed' than through loudspeakers) while the movie clips remained equal ('incredibly realistic'). How is it possible? How does the Realiser differentiate music audio from movies audio?

 

[ajax1]

Yes, you're right. Now that I've looked at the show guide, that WAS the Sonarworks product I sat down for a demo of.

Sorry I can't remember what headphone they were using. But again, my subjective reaction was that I preferred the raw "irregular and non-linear" sound of Dave Brubeck (through those headphones) just as I was accustomed to hearing from the recording, rather than the post-processed result out of their auto-eq software whose objective was to make the headphone response flat. I would describe it as the original having more "character", but perhaps it's just that it was more familiar sounding which made me prefer it.

I also tried the Sonarworks product at the show on Sunday. I was sitting in the rightmost chair. The headphone used in that position was the Sennheiser HD 800 S. I have no idea what headphones were used at the rest of the table.

 

[castleofargh]

First of: thank you for sharing your experiences. The compression effect you descibe seems rather unlogical as being caused by the simulation. I would expect the "dynamic linearity" of the simulation to be mainly dependent on the headphones (and headphones amp). The speakers are measured at one fixed spl. The digital signal processing should be 100% linear with respect to dynamics I think (more so than any real speakers). What may have happened is that the Yamaha monitors by coincidence at the spl used for measuring the sweeps are a little "under" the linear line (maybe even just for certain frequency ranges). Then the peaks at higher levels are "overly linear" stronger over the monitors, and seem more dynamic than the simulation that stays 100% linear dynamic wise. Or something like that, I am aware it is a bit of a vague story. What I mean is that I have the intuitive idea that somehow this compression effect could have just happened in this specific instance. During a demo on a show it is undoable of course, but this is maybe an example why it is wise to do a few tries before drawing final conclusions.

maybe just a little trouble with that one calibration(too much noise outside, not looking in the right positions...). or an issue with how the microphones were inserted in the ears, although I imagine they are now expert in helping people do it right.
or maybe somehow his brain just doesn't want to be fooled even with all the similarities of the simulation?

 

[Got the Shakes]

I just want to jump in as well and say thank you to @BombayTheIndian and @dsperber for taking the time to write up their experience from this weekend (and also to say I’m a bit jealous of you both for being able to attend CanJam). It’s good to hear that all the physical components of the A16 are ready to go and that they are shooting to ship in the next two months. Also I’m glad to hear that they know they need to focus on the final push and are skipping the next audio show to focus on getting the Realiser finally finished.

 

[KrishM]

Thanks to dsperber and BombayTheIndian for your impressions.

And @BombayTheIndian, thank you for your impressions.
And a big thanks to @dsperber for all the infos and impressions.

I can live with June.

I just want to jump in as well and say thank you to @BombayTheIndian and @dsperber for taking the time to write up their experience from this weekend (and also to say I’m a bit jealous of you both for being able to attend CanJam). It’s good to hear that all the physical components of the A16 are ready to go and that they are shooting to ship in the next two months. Also I’m glad to hear that they know they need to focus on the final push and are skipping the next audio show to focus on getting the Realiser finally finished.

No problem, happy to offer up some information and my own take on it!

Thank you, BombayTheIndian, for sharing your interesting impressions. However, I'm confused with your impression that the Realiser somehow spoiled the music (it sounded more 'compressed' than through loudspeakers) while the movie clips remained equal ('incredibly realistic'). How is it possible? How does the Realiser differentiate music audio from movies audio?

I'm not an audio engineer and not one of the creators of this product, so I don't think I have an answer that will truly satisfy. All I can say is that I've never listened to movies with headphones for anything other than flights with a pair of Bose noise cancellation headphones. It's just not something I do. With that in mind, the a16 sounded realistic for those explosions and sound effects played in the demos. However, I've had a number of different iterations of great 2 channel and headphone stereo-only audio systems, and I know what great music sounds like both on headphones and via traditional stereo setups. I think every little piece of the sound effects used in the movie demos are already eq'd to high heaven, which serve as a natural and perfect fit for the a16 (which is one massive eq and processing system). I thought those movie effects were very realistic. However, listening to the audio tracks was a different story. Maybe it's because they were only playing surround sound tracks in Dolby Atmos. Maybe it's because those music tracks weren't recorded that way initially but re-processed into an Atmos track for the demo. Maybe it's because the demo room was open and people were talking loudly during my calibration and demo (no joke, I had to ask the person doing my calibration to shoo one guy away so I could get a quieter environment). Maybe it's because the monitors were set up at a distance and angle great for listening to movies, but way closer than I would normally set up any stereo setup of my own. All I know is that in my long and varied experience with listening to headphone and stereo audio, this product felt like a detractor rather than an enhanced for me, but once again they didn't have any stereo music for demos. Perhaps if they had a 2 channel demo track AND had a pair of stereo tower speakers meant for music (no HT overlap for the sound signature) AND had those set up for a more traditional stereo listening experience, it would have had a different impression on me. Without any of those things available, the demo I had showed an approximation, not a replica. I still think it's great option for anyone into movies, or anyone with a low/mid end headphone setup wanting to use it for music.

 

[Fox1977]

@BombayTheIndian
When you made A/B comparison while listening to music tracks, was it also sounding wrong to you while playing on the actual speakers ?
The speakers they used are not high end, so maybe what you heard with A16 was true to the actual sound from speakers, but just these speakers were not fit for music the way you like it.
The A16 is not made to enhance the sound but to reproduce as good as possible the signature of a set of speakers in a room. Capture bad speakers and you’ll get the sameness bad results.

 

[KrishM]

@BombayTheIndian
When you made A/B comparison while listening to music tracks, was it also sounding wrong to you while playing on the actual speakers ?
The speakers they used are not high end, so maybe what you heard with A16 was true to the actual sound from speakers, but just these speakers were not fit for music the way you like it.
The A16 is not made to enhance the sound but to reproduce as good as possible the signature of a set of speakers in a room. Capture bad speakers and you’ll get the sameness bad results.

It didn't sound wrong to me via the speakers beyond the fact that surround sound mixed audio is "wrong" vs a more purist 2 channel approach. The frequencies represented sounded accurate over speakers.