[Eich1eeF]

This is exactly what they did. It is a Samsung TV remote. I posted a picture for comparison few weeks ago (although I'm not sure if it was on headfi or hififorum...)

And just like a Samsung TV remote, the User A volume button is marked in Braille as "V" (=volume), but the user B volume button is marked as "C" (=channel).

Has anyone asked the Smyths for a list of the IR remote codes the Realiser can handle (possibly more than are found on the remote)?

 

[Got the Shakes]

So I actually get a PRIR made tonight using two speakers at a time. Captured the fronts as a pair, the rears as a pair, and the center and SW together. I was then able to add to from their three separate PRIRs together to make one 5.1 room. For as crudely as I made it (I'm going to give it another go this weekend) it actually sounds really good. Like it sounds really close to the system I captured and it was my first attempt. This is my first real glimpse as to what this device can actually do when using customized measurements. Sorry, no videos as it was kind of a messy process

This is exactly what they did. It is a Samsung TV remote. I posted a picture for comparison few weeks ago (although I'm not sure if it was on headfi or hififorum...)

I think this is quite clever, because the hardware is the expensive part (do you even have an idea what a mould for a plastic part alone costs? Could easily be a 5digit number!)
I have no idea at all what's there to complain about!
Its bigger than tnat of the A8, more logical, bigger keys, and even has an illumination button, but I'm not sure if it works? Its not mentioned in the manual.

And I really hope that the IR reception of the A16 is better than that of the A8. With the original remote you have to point it directly to the A8. With the Harmony it's a bit better.
That's the next question: How does Logitech get the codes of the A16 remote?

Yes the illumination button works, but it only illuminates the power button, and both user volume controls. I can also tell you that you do not need to point the remote directly at the A16 to control it.

What I am hoping for is that you can dim the damn screen to the point of it being off. Otherwise, I will end up having to put a piece of posterboard over it when I want to actually watch something. Initially anyway, because eventually I'll have it behind some opaque glass. The lights on the A8 are blazing, even when "dim".

BTW, I'm more about something being utilitarian than looking good, but it just looked really cheap, and not even unique to its own hardware. Although I don't honestly know if the A8 remote was unique, or just a personalized version of another remote either.

There is actually a timer you can set in the settings to turn the front panel off. Shortest amount of time is 5 minutes.

 

[dsperber]

Has anyone noticed language in the manual related to an output mode for driving balance headphones? I've scanned through and haven't seen anything.

There is still the reasonable alternative of post-SVS pre-DAC optical output from the A16, feeding optical to DAC -> XLR to amp -> headphone, of your own quality choice and budget.

 

[Dixter]

Has anyone noticed language in the manual related to an output mode for driving balance headphones? I've scanned through and haven't seen anything.

From Update #34 back in July 2017:
Second, we will be including a differential headphone output mode for driving balanced headphones using both User A and User B headphone output jacks together. This mode is intended for single user operation.

I was told by Gilles that the balanced option has not made it into this firmware... no word as to when it would be implemented...

 

[kh36267]

I was told by Gilles that the balanced option has not made it into this firmware... no word as to when it would be implemented...

very disappointing. at least 2 of their updates along the way were spent touting the functionality and alerting us to the specs so that we could prepare the proper cables, etc.

was very optimistic about this item all of this time.....but with all of the depracated functionality, i'm not sure it functions much better than my current Beyerdynamic surround-sound headphone amp i've been using all of these years.....

 

[sander99]

i'm not sure it functions much better than my current Beyerdynamic surround-sound headphone amp i've been using all of these years.....

I don't know this Beyerdynamic surround-sound headphone amp, but can it fool you into thinking you are really listening to speakers in a room, including the feeling that the sound comes from a large distance, and make you think the sound you hear is totally unrelated to the headphones on your head? The A16 can! I know because I attended the demo in Munich, May 2017. The first moments I heard the simulation of the speakers over headphones I had to ask if I was really hearing the headphones and was not hearing the speakers anymore, it was that good! All of the depracated functionality is a pitty but the core functionality, simulating speakers over headphones, is superb.
[Edit: and reading the manual now I still see a lot of great functionality.]

 

[Got the Shakes]

@Got the Shakes, I know that I speak for many people here in acknowledging how glad and grateful I am that you were one of the first people to receive the A16. I have personally found it very rewarding to read about your experiences in playing with, tweaking and getting to know the A16. The A16 is a complex piece of kit and I continue to read with great interest the experiences of folks who find themselves in the early queue. I very much look forward to reading your future posts and seeing your video uploads.

Appreciate it. Sorry I didn't have any videos tonight, I spent over an hour doing trial and error to get through the PRIR process and it involved so much getting up, plugging and unplugging of stuff that there was not really any way for me to shoot anything. As I posted above though, my first experience with a customized PRIR is really positive. I didn't really know what I was doing and still ended up with something that sounds about 90% identical to the system I captured. I finally got to experience that "wow" moment that I would see people have on the videos the Smyths put out.

I will also say this, the manual they put out tonight does a really good job covering some of the harder to figure out aspects of the interface.

 

[illram]

So I actually get a PRIR made tonight using two speakers at a time. Captured the fronts as a pair, the rears as a pair, and the center and SW together. I was then able to add to from their three separate PRIRs together to make one 5.1 room. For as crudely as I made it (I'm going to give it another go this weekend) it actually sounds really good. Like it sounds really close to the system I captured and it was my first attempt. This is my first real glimpse as to what this device can actually do when using customized measurements. Sorry, no videos as it was kind of a messy process

Did you do that by leaving your speakers as is and plugging/unplugging stuff or did you do it with the same two speakers and turning your head?

 

[kh36267]

I don't know this Beyerdynamic surround-sound headphone amp, but can it fool you into thinking you are really listening to speakers in a room, including the feeling that the sound comes from a large distance, and make you think the sound you hear is totally unrelated to the headphones on your head? The A16 can! I know because I attended the demo in Munich, May 2017. The first moments I heard the simulation of the speakers over headphones I had to ask if I was really hearing the headphones and was not hearing the speakers anymore, it was that good! All of the depracated functionality is a pitty but the core functionality, simulating speakers over headphones, is superb.
[Edit: and reading the manual now I still see a lot of great functionality.]

The Beyerdynamic Headzone has intelligent room modeling (i.e. room size and characteristics) so that you can create everything from a very intimate space to a large hall environment. It also decodes DTS in addition to Dolby (which is a plus at the moment). I'll certainly continue forward with the Realiser......i'm just saying it's not a slam dunk in terms of added functionality like it originally was meant to be (for me).

 

[Got the Shakes]

Did you do that by leaving your speakers as is and plugging/unplugging stuff or did you do it with the same two speakers and turning your head?

My original intention was to measure the front pair, the rear pair, and center leaving my speakers as is. I ended up just deciding to use the fronts as fronts and then doing a 180° and moving a bit further away to use the fronts as rears. The next measurement I do this weekend I’m going to take the extra time and leave them as is.

I know doing this I probably screwed up the angles, but I just wanted the easiest way to a PRIR with HRTF as possible. When I do it the right way I feel like it will sound that much closer to the actual setup.

 

[sander99]

I ended up just deciding to use the fronts as fronts and then doing a 180° and moving a bit further away to use the fronts as rears.

Did you take care that you did not end up with left right swapped rear speakers? The left front would have become the right rear. No changing of connections necessary for this I think: just select the proper speaker from the PRIR for left, and likewise for right(?).

 

[Got the Shakes]

Did you take care that you did not end up with left right swapped rear speakers? The left front would have become the right rear. No changing of connections necessary for this I think: just select the proper speaker from the PRIR for left, and likewise for right(?).

I did. Now that I know what I’m doing, I’m not sure that the process will be nearly as time consuming the second time. Oh what I would give for HDMI or even async sweeps. It really would be like a 5 minute process if there wasn’t a need to get up, unplug stuff, and repeat.

 

[Sanctuary]

So I actually get a PRIR made tonight using two speakers at a time. Captured the fronts as a pair, the rears as a pair, and the center and SW together. I was then able to add to from their three separate PRIRs together to make one 5.1 room. For as crudely as I made it (I'm going to give it another go this weekend) it actually sounds really good. Like it sounds really close to the system I captured and it was my first attempt. This is my first real glimpse as to what this device can actually do when using customized measurements. Sorry, no videos as it was kind of a messy process

That's cool, but when you say you added three separate PRIRs together, do you simply mean you added three separate measurements together before finalizing, or did you actually capture your fronts as a finalized PRIR, then did the same for the next two sets and then combined them? If so, and that works for you, then great, but it seems a bit convoluted. However... if you did do it that way, and it sounds good to you (*if it sounds as good as just making a single PRIR) then that in the end would save a lot of time for future PRIRs when wanting to use different speakers for other channels, but you want to keep, and use the previous measurements for some that came out really well.

That wouldn't mean anything to those that are just having some professional do their measurements, but for those of us who will be doing it ourselves, and potentially piecemeal/upgrade, it would be a really good feature.

Did you take care that you did not end up with left right swapped rear speakers? The left front would have become the right rear. No changing of connections necessary for this I think: just select the proper speaker from the PRIR for left, and likewise for right(?).

After spending almost an entire week learning how to use the A8, and doing all sorts of combinations for myself, at the end, I thought I knew what I was doing well enough that I could quickly make a 5.1 and 7.1 PRIR for a friend. Well, the first time we ended up with a really good 7.1 PRIR...except I reversed the damn left and right surrounds and rears and then the next day when we got another good 7.1, we then decided to also just do his 5.1 at that time. Both came out great, aaaaand, I forgot to save the 7.1 to its own slot (each new PRIR stays in slot 64 until you make a new one, then it overwrites whatever was in that slot previously).

 

[Got the Shakes]

That's cool, but when you say you added three separate PRIRs together, do you simply mean you added three separate measurements together before finalizing, or did you actually capture your fronts as a finalized PRIR, then did the same for the next two sets and then combined them? If so, and that works for you, then great, but it seems a bit convoluted. However... if you did do it that way, and it sounds good to you (*if it sounds as good as just making a single PRIR) then that in the end would save a lot of time for future PRIRs when wanting to use different speakers for other channels, but you want to keep, and use the previous measurements for some that came out really well.

That wouldn't mean anything to those that are just having some professional do their measurements, but for those of us who will be doing it ourselves, and potentially piecemeal/upgrade, it would be a really good feature.

Maybe I'm missing something when going through the setup process, but best I can tell there's no setting to do a bunch of measurements of different speakers individually before finalizing. The way the process works is that before you do the gain level correction you select which speakers you're going to measure. This can be anywhere between a single speaker and 16 at a time. Once you run the sweeps for the speakers you are capturing, in this case for me it was in pairs because of my lack of analog outs, you are given two options after it completes. Press enter to save or SPK to remeasure. I'm fairly certain from testing that going back and remeasuring doesn't allow you to then select different speakers to measure to add before finalizing, I think it wipes the measurements you just took for given speakers and then redoes those same measurements. So how I've been doing it is selecting to save after every pair I did. This created three PRIRs in the end, one with the front left an right, one with the center and sub, and one with the rear left and right. The A16 allows you to create a setup with speakers picked from any PRIR on the system and then saves them together as a room. I selected to make a new 5.1 room. Once you do that you see a list of speaker positions in that virtual room. You then go through and click on each position and individually add a matching speaker from any PRIR on the system. So the speaker I added for the front left in the room was the front left from one of the two channel PRIRs I made tonight, and then repeated the process for every speaker. Upon exiting that setup process it saves them all together in a room that you can then add to a preset. If I wanted I could change it to a 7.1 room keeping the 5.1 channels I captured tonight and then adding the addition side channels from the BBC preloaded room or any other room that has a left side surround and right side surround. It's actually quite cool because if you have tons of systems measured you can literally mix and match speakers from all the setups to make various virtual rooms. I know that was long winded, hopefully I explained it well enough to kind of explain the process and why I did it how I did.

 

[sander99]

That's cool, but when you say you added three separate PRIRs together, do you simply mean you added three separate measurements together before finalizing, or did you actually capture your fronts as a finalized PRIR, then did the same for the next two sets and then combined them? If so, and that works for you, then great, but it seems a bit convoluted. However... if you did do it that way, and it sounds good to you (*if it sounds as good as just making a single PRIR)

If you are not referring to the fact that he used the front speakers as rear speakers or which speakers for what in general, but only to the difference of doing 3 x 2 measurements in one PRIR or 3 x 2 measurements in 3 PRIRs:
There is absolutely no reason why that would sound different. It is just another way of grouping the individual channel to ear impulse responses (in seperate files instead of in one file). The individual impulse responses and the mathematical calculation of the end result are identical.