[GU1DO]

They do have a rack and a headphone stand edition, both available in black or silver. They email you for your choice when final payment is due which is in the next two weeks.
The rack edition comes without rack mounts but those are available for a small extra fee.

Thanks for the clarification ,, i think because you pre ordered you got more attention ,,
 
Final payment should be on the 30th June 2017
how it is in the next two weeks ?
 
Also did they provide shipping date ?
 
Thanks for sharing , your posts always helpful.

 

[AppleheadMay]

 
Thanks for the clarification ,, i think because you pre ordered you got more attention ,,
 
Final payment should be on the 30th June 2017
how it is in the next two weeks ?
 
Also did they provide shipping date ?
 
Thanks for sharing , your posts always helpful.

 
 
Yep, I preordered. At the time I was told I would get a mail in March to confirm my order and choice which I recently had. It was said then final payment would be by the end of March and in the mail I got last week I was told an invoice would follow soon. Maybe it's different if you didn't preorder.
 
When I preordered there was talk about a release date of September I believe. I don't know if that has changed yet, I'm just patiently waiting.
 
Anyway, I simply preordered this special surround processor as waiting until it's out and reading about it won't tell me much, I think it's something I'll definitely need to experience myself. So now I'm waiting to make the final payment and then I'll wait until it arrives.

 

[Evshrug]

Maybe they're making them in batches, kickstarter backer batch first, then preorders, and other orders after that.

That's pretty normal for Kickstarter... You're first in line so you get the device earliest chronologically (I backed it last summer, I believe they said they expected to start filling orders May or June, but mentally I'm just telling myself to wait till July), while people who order after release (or just before release) get their product chronologically later but had to wait fewer months.

If anyone wants to hear an A16, check smyth-research.com to see what CanJams and audio meets they are attending. Also was a great way for me to get my PRIR made free.

Edit: looking at the A16 Kickstarter page again, looks like the early birds are expected to have May, June, and not early but still preorder backers having July delivery. Would not be surprised if the preorders made after the Kickstarter campaign (ended last September) would have August or September delivery.

jgazal my lunch break just ended, so I don't have time to watch, but here is AIX studios talking about the Realiser, hopefully they talk about measurements and making PRIRs?

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Anyone compare their a8 to Out Of Your Head software? I've tried a few and have been getting great results. I did pre-order the a16 but wondering how much of an improvement it would be..

 

[AppleheadMay]

Anyone compare their a8 to Out Of Your Head software? I've tried a few and have been getting great results. I did pre-order the a16 but wondering how much of an improvement it would be..

I tried OOYH for a few hours and must say I never heard anything as crappy as that.
My 179 bucks Sony Platinum Wireless headphone is a LOT better for surround.

 

[Evshrug]

Anyone compare their a8 to Out Of Your Head software? I've tried a few and have been getting great results. I did pre-order the a16 but wondering how much of an improvement it would be..

I can't confirm, but I have heard on that there is a STRONG-strong-strong similarity between OOYH and a BRIR made from Smyth's SVS tech. I dunno, maybe it was licensed or something.

At RMAF 2015, Darin had a demo with a clip from Transformers. Movies don't usually do spaciallization very believably for me, especially transformers where "surround" is just another special effect, like "bass booms" are a special effect. I dunno, OOYH didn't do anything for me, and my ears, and my narrow head.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

With OOYH your mileage may vary.  Darin has about 25 presets and I've tried most of them.  Some were awful for me, and others I found were great.  I suspect this is because they were done with different heads which have very different HRTFs.  
 
Bottom line is if you can find an OOYH preset whose HRTF closely matches your own, you've found something which will greatly enhance your enjoyment of headphone listening.
 
Is it the equal of the SVS Realizers?  I suspect not, but remember the retail price of the A16 will be $2000, which is roughly 14 times the price of OOYH  which is $149 with one preset.
 
Also if a product such as OOYH were to add Head tracking and a means to take and capture PRIRs while remaining a strictly software based system (except for the binaural in ear mics and head tracker, of course),  it could undoubtedly sell for a great deal less the the SVS Realizers and, given the processing power of modern PCs, undoubtedly match its performance as well.
 
It puzzles me why Smyth does not actually offer this alternative to consumers on its own.  Inasmuch as it could probably preempt any competitor and put itself in a dominant market position, and maybe create a mass market phenomenon on the order of THS or Dolby sound related processing products.  Certainly seems like a quicker and surer way to make tons of money for the inventors than offering a single purpose, ultra expensive, processor in a box to a tiny fragment of the  already miniscule high end headphone audio market.

 

[castleofargh]

yeah the OOYH experience totally depends on our own head. if it feels right then it's a fairly cheap way to get a specific room. if it doesn't, and it really didn't for me(but then no standard effect ever worked well for me, be it surround, dolby or whatever), then there is no real alternative to the realiser right now.  many people are working on 3D sound for headphones right now, usually associated with atmos because it seems to be the most used standard on 3D googles and games which are the only reason why even the audio industry decided to join the 21Th century at long last. 
it's ironic because I hate 3D googles, they give me the strongest headache in no time, but it's the reason why my favorite stuff(proper imaging on headphones) will maybe become an industry standard. ^_^

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Ok thanks for the input gents, I feel better about my down payment now.

Although now i understand why some of the effects absolutely work for me and some sound wonky (on OOYH). CHEERS!

 

[castleofargh]

sorry I need to say it, you're making a few good points in your signature.

 

 

[jelt2359]

Does anyone know if the A16 can output digital out to an external DAC?

 

[raband]

Yes - it can.
 
Output the signal to a DAC with the SVS effects processed digitally - will be a straight digital path from the source to the DAC

 

[jelt2359]

  Yes - it can.
 
Output the signal to a DAC with the SVS effects processed digitally - will be a straight digital path from the source to the DAC

So it could work as a DDC, between my streamer and my DAC?
 
Also is it a good idea to do upsampling and so on on the signal from the A16?

 

[m8o]

Just paid my deposit. I'm in! (and now subbed)

So, sooooo, thankful the Smyth team made it to CanJam NYC. What a mind blowing experience. But no need to preach to the choir.

 

[jgazal]

With OOYH your mileage may vary.  Darin has about 25 presets and I've tried most of them.  Some were awful for me, and others I found were great.  I suspect this is because they were done with different heads which have very different HRTFs.  

Bottom line is if you can find an OOYH preset whose HRTF closely matches your own, you've found something which will greatly enhance your enjoyment of headphone listening.

Is it the equal of the SVS Realizers?  I suspect not, but remember the retail price of the A16 will be $2000, which is roughly 14 times the price of OOYH  which is $149 with one preset.

Also if a product such as OOYH were to add Head tracking and a means to take and capture PRIRs while remaining a strictly software based system (except for the binaural in ear mics and head tracker, of course),  it could undoubtedly sell for a great deal less the the SVS Realizers and, given the processing power of modern PCs, undoubtedly match its performance as well.

It puzzles me why Smyth does not actually offer this alternative to consumers on its own.  Inasmuch as it could probably preempt any competitor and put itself in a dominant market position, and maybe create a mass market phenomenon on the order of THS or Dolby sound related processing products.  Certainly seems like a quicker and surer way to make tons of money for the inventors than offering a single purpose, ultra expensive, processor in a box to a tiny fragment of the  already miniscule high end headphone audio market.

I am not an expert in the movie, gaming or audio industry (so I may say things that are plain wrong) and sorry to derail the thread, but I believe there is an alternative view to your post.

Potential buyers can be divided into several groups, but consider cinephiles, gamers and audiophiles.

Hardware or software purchase is primarily driven by content.

Cinephiles buy blue ray discs with Dolby, DTS or Auro, because those are the standards chosen by the movie industry to distribute their motion files.

And those audio codecs were probably chosen by the industry to solve the acoustics challenges of audio reproduction for a large audience in movie theaters (if an array of transducers and beamforming at each seat were available before, the choice could have been other; a similar issue occurs with audio playback in car cockpit/cabins).

How many cinephiles have network attached storage of movie files? If they do, how many use network ready blue ray players? How many of them output video from the PC to a high definition television or projector? How many of them do buy multichannel receivers (and speakers) with a DSP capable of running the SVS algorithm by itself?

What are the platforms in which the most popular video games run in? Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo or PCs?

Does the potential buyer want to keep both the main platform and the personal computer running at the same time?

Do the personal computers owned by such potential buyers have HDMI or S/PDIF input?

The Realiser A8 may have had more success in professional audio industry due to a few factors: studios with good acoustics are expensive to build; the users had the appropriate repertoire to understand the full potential of the algorithm; although declining, DSP chips were costly.

That said, I see the advantages brought by Smyth Research to the audiophile niche more like "positive externalities".

Audiophiles that like two channel content playback with loudspeakers would rather buy a crosstalk cancellation DSP or wave field synthesis or a combination of both, if he/she is not a purist that do not want DSP. Even adopting such option, the two channel content may be not optimized for such method of playback.

So finally we get to you and me, people that - I believe - want to listen to music with headphone externalization. Are we stuck to any platform/media/codec such as DVD-Audio or SACD? Do we want to have a PC as a primary content source?

Now that those groups are identified, how many potential buyers are in each of them? How many out there have the same aim as you and me?

So eventually we would assume that the hardware/software DSP externalization provider might no be so free to choose between a hardware based product or a solely software product if such provider wants to attend the maximum number of potential buyers.

Now consider the cost of producing one additional OOYH and one Realiser A16 (marginal cost, including royalties to Dolby, DTS, Auro and Illusonic) and the number of units both are selling.

I would not be surprised if the profit of both are similar for very different technical and intellectual challenges surmounted.

Is there anything preventing the DSP externalization providers to launch both hardware and software based products? Why would you assume the risk/cost of software copyright infringement and enforcement if you already have the costs (fixed and marginal) of producing hardware units?

I invite you to watch Home Theater Geek episode 340 where Smyth Research, Dts Headphone X and OOYH products are mentioned. I wonder why Peter Otto, Chief Scientific Officer at Comhear, says he is familiar with two of them. Which two do you think he is referring to?

People, do not worry. End of vacation. Won't post text walls like this one anymore.

Edit: References to wave field synthesis and bacch were wrong.