Smyth Research Realiser A16

[dsperber]

I'm in if someone will allow me the use of their Realiser to make a PRIR. Since I live in Nashville, I can bring my HD 800s and LCD Xs. Want to know what the estimated tariff will be. Hoping it's under $500 per person, assuming you can get Blarkbird's management to consent.

You don't need to bring your own A16 or even have one, in order to get a PRIR measured. Lorr brings his own A16 and microphones and ear pads and cables, etc., and we all just sit in the "sweet spot" one person at a time and go through the measurement process using the one set of equipment. You will then be given an SD card with your PRIR(s) on it. Lorr also keeps a copy of your PRIR, just in case you lose it and need it again in the future.

As far as headphones, he also comes with a standard headphone setup (used to be entry-level Stax, but I think they may use something else now). This is just for the A/B comparison test at the end of the PRIR process. So all that's needed is a quick HPEQ measurement (takes almost no time) with you wearing these borrowed headphones, and then you can use these headphones for the A/B comparison involving the PRIR. There's no need for you to bring your own headphones in order to get a PRIR made.

Now if you happen to want some assistance making the HPEQ(s) for your headphone(s) (and it's always better if you have some other person properly positioning the tiny microphones in your ears while you sit very very still during the HPEQ measurement), then bring them and Lorr will do that for you as well. Personal HPEQ's can be done by you, at your own home, having nothing to do with the listening environment room which is being measured and reflected by the PRIR. The HPEQ for a given headphone/amp is totally independent of any PRIR. Unrelated. Apples and oranges. But if you want an expert to place the microphones in your ears correctly so that your HPEQ(s) are properly made, go ahead and bring your own headphone/amp(s).

 

[phoenixdogfan]

You don't need to bring your own A16 or even have one, in order to get a PRIR measured. Lorr brings his own A16 and microphones and ear pads and cables, etc., and we all just sit in the "sweet spot" one person at a time and go through the measurement process using the one set of equipment. You will then be given an SD card with your PRIR(s) on it. Lorr also keeps a copy of your PRIR, just in case you lose it and need it again in the future.

As far as headphones, he also comes with a standard headphone setup (used to be entry-level Stax, but I think they may use something else now). This is just for the A/B comparison test at the end of the PRIR process. So all that's needed is a quick HPEQ measurement (takes almost no time) with you wearing these borrowed headphones, and then you can use these headphones for the A/B comparison involving the PRIR. There's no need for you to bring your own headphones in order to get a PRIR made.

Now if you happen to want some assistance making the HPEQ(s) for your headphone(s) (and it's always better if you have some other person properly positioning the tiny microphones in your ears while you sit very very still during the HPEQ measurement), then bring them and Lorr will do that for you as well. Personal HPEQ's can be done by you, at your own home, having nothing to do with the listening environment room which is being measured and reflected by the PRIR. The HPEQ for a given headphone/amp is totally independent of any PRIR. Unrelated. Apples and oranges. But if you want an expert to place the microphones in your ears correctly so that your HPEQ(s) are properly made, go ahead and bring your own headphone/amp(s).

I probably will bring the phones b/c I'd like the HPEQ(s) done as well. I really hope this can happen, it will not only give the participants a first class PRIR of a really great studio, but it will also provide a tutorial on how to make PRIR (s) as well. Anyone who participates, will start getting their money's worth out of their Realiser investment almost immediately.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

The good thing about convolution in this case is, it can only process quasi-static events - noise is a dynamic event and cannot and will not be reproduced.
Therefore any noise present while doing the PPIR and HPEQ measurements will not introduce noise in the music later auditioned over the Realizer.
Noise present during the measurements of the PPIR is handled like reverb, thus will change the room decay curve, making the reverb stronger.
And fortunately, by using a longer measurement sweep the noise can be reduced.


So these assumptions below are not valid:

So does this mean the quality of the electronics (DAC, AMP, DSP) don't really matter b/c their distortions will not be reproduced? How about speaker distortions? Phase distortions? Speaker directivity issues? What besides transducer FR and room acoustics affect the quality of the emulation?

 

[Maestroso]

Realiser (headstand SN 44, backer #12) just arrived in Austria!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaahhhhh!

(PS: Not so happy that the washing machine broke [amongst other things] and that I won’t have time to play with the Realiser until mid next week. Nevertheless, I’m excited!)

 

[Maestroso]

 

[Maestroso]

 

[KaiSc]

So does this mean the quality of the electronics (DAC, AMP, DSP) don't really matter b/c their distortions will not be reproduced? How about speaker distortions? Phase distortions? Speaker directivity issues? What besides transducer FR and room acoustics affect the quality of the emulation?

Convolution can only reproduce quasi-static events in the frequency and time domain.
For each time slot (sample) it captures a single state - a bit like video which takes a static picture every 1/30s.
The difference to video it is, the sample rate is magnitudes higher: 48,000/s vs 30/s.

What is reproduced:
- Frequency response.
- Phase response.
- Speaker's impulse response.
- Directivity of the speakers used, in the same way we hear it, as changes in the room sounds frequency response.
- Room reflections and reverb (up to a limit of 850ms).
- Errors or differences in measurement microphone placement between PPIR and HPEQ measurements.
- ADC's and DAC's high frequency impulse response caused by anti-aliasing filters.
Currently measurements can only use the analog outputs of the A16, so direct connection to the speakers amplifiers is recommended if no DSP is necessary for speaker frequency response correction, LF routing, delay compensation etc.
But - if your setup is relying on DSP processing this must be included in the measurements to exactly reproduce it.


What is ignored:
- The frequency response of the measurement microphone if you use both, PPIR and HPEQ, is fully compensated.
You need to use the same microphone with the exact same placement in your ears to achieve this.

- All kinds of nonlinear distortions, except those that are very strong (~ >10%).
Strong generated overtones or rattling stuff in the room can change the room sound frequency response if the short sweep or the overlapping measurement mode is used.
So it doesn't make a difference if you use this "sweet and smooth sounding tube amplifier" as long as this characteristics is caused by the overtones (nonlinear distortions) created, and not a result of changed frequency response.
On the other side, it doesn't hurt if you do use it.
The same is true for all other equipment in the signal chain, like ADCs and DACs.

- Noises (random signals) are handled as if they were static.
Noises present during the measurement will not cause any noise during reproduction of music through the Realizer.
Noises change the resulting room decay curve in the time and frequency domain.
The room may sound brighter (or darker if e.g. a car drove by during measurement) than it actually is if a lot of noise is present.
This is especially true for the quiet part of the decay curve.
A big source of noise is your own breathing during the measurements.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Really does look nice. I wonder whether the control window is larger on the headstand model than the 2u model? That could be an interesting feature for some of us older folk who are gonna have a time reading that screen across the room.

 

[audiohobbit]

Realiser (headstand SN 44, backer #12) just arrived in Austria!

Congrats! Didn't know that Hong Kong is in Austria...

Did you order a second headtracker?

 

[sander99]

A big source of noise is your own breathing during the measurements.

Ah, I didn't "realise" that or think about that before. So everyone hold your breath or rather breath very slowly during your PRIR measurements! With 16 times
12 seconds non overlapping sweeps (per lookangle) I think Smyth had better implemented a few breathing pauses in the process.

 

[audiohobbit]

I wonder whether the control window is larger on the headstand model than the 2u model?

You mean the LCD screen?
I'm pretty sure that the hardware is completely the same in the headstand and 2U-unit, just arranged differently, so no, I think not.

But it is bigger than that of the prototype and that is an advantage.

 

[sander99]

Really does look nice. I wonder whether the control window is larger on the headstand model than the 2u model? That could be an interesting feature for some of us older folk who are gonna have a time reading that screen across the room.

I rescaled one picture to match the other as you can see from the size of the volume knobs, and the distance between the volume knobs (that are atached to the same PCB inside), duplicated one picture and part of the other, and voilà: the optical illusion is unmasked.

 

[Juy777]

Hi everyone, my A16 arrived a couple hours ago, opening the box was better than christmas

Just as a heads up for everyone connecting the A16 the first time, it happened to me that the A16 did not find the HDMI audio of the audio source at first.
At least with my test setup using a tv set top box the HDMI audio only got detected when i first switched on the A16, and only after the A16 loaded i turned on the tv set top box.
Then the audio got deteced.
So first switch on your A16, wait until it loaded the presets, and after that the audio source device. It might work in any order for other users using other source devices, but i wanted to let you know just in case
anyone sits there not getting any signal.

Also if your headphones are incredibly low volume, there is a little gain switch next to the volume nob which has low/mid/high boost which is set to low by default.

 

[Kiritz]

go to the kickstarter site and log on... once logged on click the blue globe at the upper right side and there select the backed project " realiser A16 " then at the top of the page on the left it will say
" your a backer " just to the right of that line you should see how much you pledged and " view " click the view and at the very bottom will be your " backer number " so far they seem to be shipping out a little more than 10 per week... so you should be able to do the math to see where you are in the line... best of luck...

Thanks so much! I see I am #242 so I guess it will be a while. One thing that is confusing. It says I pledged one pound. I thought I paid for a full unit at some point in time. But maybe not. If I only pledged this small amount, will I be billed for the rest? They show that they have my credit card. Will they bill it before sending?

 

[audiohobbit]

Sounds like very bad luck for you (sorry) as you probably clicked the wrong plege, there was one with 1 pound or more just for support and be able to comment on KS:

Pledge £1 or more
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