[JohnEW]

Well because I'm impatient and impulsive when it comes to technology, I ended up paying the difference. I was told it ships via 2 day shipping and will arrive either Saturday or worst case on Monday. I'm pretty excited obviously, even though I know that probably should have just waited. Oh well, you only live once, right?

When you take delivery of your precious package, take slow deep breaths and keep calm. Make sure to place your package securely on the table and don't drop it. Stand back and admire what Smyth has finally sent you. now breathe out slowly. Just remember these are extremely scarce and finding another one in the wild may be near impossible.
I'm just envious of you sitting listening, while I may see mine next year sometime.

PS. Good luck with the degree..

 

[Richter Di]

I was told the same although the explanation was that these cancelations are people who were early in the order already.

Which would make sense.

Well because I'm impatient and impulsive when it comes to technology, I ended up paying the difference. I was told it ships via 2 day shipping and will arrive either Saturday or worst case on Monday. I'm pretty excited obviously, even though I know that probably should have just waited. Oh well, you only live once, right?

Congratulations. Looking forward to hear your impressions.

 

[CanMad]

As KS backer number 9 I gotta be soon right?

 

[Erik Garci]

Maybe I understand it completely wrong but to me it sounds like you want to record a speaker once and then change the angle settings in the GUI to place it to different positions virtually. if so: That's impossible IMO.

One possible way is to measure a speaker at 30-degree increments (similar to the A8's "ONE" method), and the Realiser can interpolate between those measurements to create more virtual speakers (similar to how it interpolates for headtracking). For example, it can create a virtual speaker at 45 degrees by interpolating between measurements at 30 and 60 degrees. It can also support +/- 30 degrees of headtracking by interpolating to 15 degrees (between measurements at 0 and 30 degrees) or 75 degrees (between measurements at 60 and 90 degrees).

 

[esimms86]

There are a lot of unknowns here and one of them is what role Heavenly Sound plays in deciding which customers get their A16's in what order(no pun intended).

Parenthetically, I find it interesting that we have gone from thinking about the A16 as possible vaporware to now wondering/worrying about when each of us will be receiving our delivery. It's progress, to be sure, but it would be great if we were all left with a warm, fuzzy, satisfied feeling inside re: the shipping situation. Anyway, that the legacy of the Smyth public relations experience.

I'm figuring that the majority of folks receiving their units throughout this whole process will be those people who don't already have a PRIR. There has to be a significant learning curve for even capturing your own home stereo in a PRIR. Getting out to have one made elsewhere, at a high end studio or audio store, for instance, is a whole 'nother thing. Expect to see lots of posts regarding tips and tricks on how to make a PRIR. It would also be most cool if Smyth Research could get up and running soon on links to places that have agreed to be sources for (and, hopefully, are already up to speed on how to produce) PRIRs.

 

[sander99]

One possible way is to measure a speaker at 30-degree increments (similar to the A8's "ONE" method), and the Realiser can interpolate between those measurements to create more virtual speakers (similar to how it interpolates for headtracking). For example, it can create a virtual speaker at 45 degrees by interpolating between measurements at 30 and 60 degrees. It can also support +/- 30 degrees of headtracking by interpolating to 15 degrees (between measurements at 0 and 30 degrees) or 75 degrees (between measurements at 60 and 90 degrees).

Yes yes with the A8 you can do that, but that is not exactly what audiohobbit meant (he meant that you can not measure one speaker once - with only the normal 3 head positions - and create speakers in all positions from only that measurement) AND the A16 initially only supports the following type of PRIR measurement so it also can not do the trick you mentioned anyway:

1. 16ch synchronous measurement using internally generated excitation signals from the 16ch analogue outputs.

Which by the way raises some other questions/potential problems that I will address in another post.

 

[CanMad]

I never thought it was vaporware.

As for difficulty measuring, I found getting the microphones correctly placed in my ears one of the most difficult steps with my A8.

 

[GU1DO]

What other operating modes and features that are missing (beside the DTS-X and Auro3D decoding ) and may or may not be introduced in the future as firmware updates ?

 

[Richter Di]

As KS backer number 9 I gotta be soon right?

Next week I would guess.
I am 98.

 

[RRod]

So no elevation in the head tracking? I guess that's ok but was that always the plan?

 

[jgazal]

So no elevation in the head tracking? I guess that's ok but was that always the plan?

I suppose it refers to dual user mode with individual headtracking for each user. Just guessing.

 

[sander99]

I suppose it refers to dual user mode with individual headtracking for each user. Just guessing.

No, the initial version has head tracking for two users, but only horizontal (azimuth), not vertical (elevation).

 

[jgazal]

No, the initial version has head tracking for two users, but only horizontal (azimuth), not vertical (elevation).

Exactly, which raises the question. Does it have computing power to render vertical for two users?
In that perspective, I would prefer the interpretation meaning that vertical elevation is not even implemented in single user mode and that in the future it will have computing power to render vertical headtracking for dual users individually.

 

[jgazal]

But then again such interpretation raises doubts about the efficiency of their vertical interpolation for the vast majority of users. I thought all that was certain from the beginning of ks campaign.
Either way I see it, I fear something is not fully feasible or developed.

 

[sander99]

Exactly, which raises the question. Does it have computing power to render vertical for two users?
In that perspective, I would prefer the interpretation meaning that vertical elevation is not even implemented in single user mode and that in the future it will have computing power to render vertical headtracking for dual users individually.

I think we are miscommunicating here, I should have said it better I guess:
It will initially not have vertical head tracking. Not for one user. Not for 2 users. This by the way was already mentioned in one of the updates months ago. I am pretty sure the first prototype
didn't have vertical head tracking either.

What other operating modes and features that are missing (beside the DTS-X and Auro3D decoding ) and may or may not be introduced in the future as firmware updates ?

1. Indeed no elevation head tracking.
2. No measurement sweep over digital outputs. No asynchronous PRIR measurements with sweep disc. (With this method you can just play the disc with sweeps on a system without having to connect the Realiser to the sytem, and when just playing the sweep disc all digital processing, in particular room correction/EQ, will be in effect. Because the sweeps are now only available over analog out we are back to the old problem how to measure a system including the room correction/EQ? Many, if not most, AV Receivers bypass all digital processing when using the multichannel analog inputs, because otherwise they would have had to build in a multichannel AD-converter just for this purpose.)
3. (If I interpret correctly) No special PRIR measurement mode for single speaker measurements, just a complete 16 channel measurement.

Unknown (I hope the user manual will be available soon to answer these questions, or that the first users can figure out and report):
1. Did they implement the parametric EQ already? I sure hope they did because then at least I can try to manually copy the EQ settings from my AV Receiver to solve the above mentioned problem, but I am mildly pessimistic they did.)
2. Did they implement the capability to combine speakers from different PRIRs into one preset? (I expect they will have done this, but am not sure of course.I hope they did because then we can do measurements with one speaker, or some smaller number than 16 by simply making several 16 channel PRIRs with a subset of the analog outs simply not connected so it would be a dummy measurement for those channels. And then combine the speakers from the different PRIRs to one 16 channel setup in a preset. Also by measuring just one or two speakers at a time you can use the room correction/EQ of your receiver because it will work for analog stereo inputs. But if you move the speakers around, or change which speakers are connected to the left and right front outputs of your receiver you will have to re-calibrate EQ with your reciever. So that would be a lot of work.)