[phoenixdogfan]

Here in the Netherlands as of now until (minimal) April 6th schools, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, sport clubs, and "sex clubs" (yes, really) are closed.

Oh, no! Not the windows!

 

[sahmen]

Here in the Netherlands as of now until (minimal) April 6th schools, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, sport clubs, and "sex clubs" (yes, really) are closed.

Oh, no! Not the windows!

Not to worry... As long as "product" is freely circulating, they can close whatever they want, and the Netherlands will still rock and remain very dear to many hearts and stoners, so me no panicky

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Not to worry... As long as "product" is freely circulating, they can close whatever they want, and the Netherlands will still remain very dear to many hearts and stoners, so me no panicky

I wasn't referring to weed!

 

[sahmen]

I wasn't referring to weed!

I know you weren't. I just thought the weed might serve as a kind of temporary consolation or compensation for many demographics, during this period of the absence of many other usual forms of public entertainment, including some of the parties who might miss the action in the windows, as it might for those who might miss the action inside the brothels themselves, or in the bars, the restaurants, the cinemas, etc. etc.... or maybe not? I do not know, but I just did not want to underestimate the social power of the product in the Netherlands

Of course, I hope it is very clear that this is also a joke that is not meant to be taken either literally or seriously, when all is said and done. I did not think I needed to point that out explicitly, given the presence
of the smileys ==>>.

 

[You Gene]

Corona Facts :
- MDS (Momentum Data Systems) is located in California where the Governor declared a state of emergency. Their distributors are Canada, China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK.

- 2020 CanJams timetable : June for SOCAL, July in London, August in Singapore, September in Shenzhen, October in Chicago, November in Shanghai. CanJams are obviously also a source of income to the Smyths. It is like a sales point.

- Heavenly Sound, the Chinese partner is also impacted by this situation (manufacturing company in Shanghai and a Barco joint-venture in China)

I will not comment on any of this : no ifs and no it will be over soon.

One of the positive aspects is that goods are circulating freely.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I know you weren't. I just thought the weed might serve as a kind of temporary consolation or compensation for many demographics, during this period of the absence of many other usual forms of public entertainment, including some of the parties who might miss the action in them windows, as it might for those who might miss the action in the bars, the restaurants, the cinemas, etc. etc.... or maybe not? I do not know, but I just did not want to underestimate the social power of the product in the Netherlands

Of course, I hope it is very clear that this is also a joke that is not meant to be taken literally or seriously, when all is said and done. I did not think I needed to point that out explicitly, given the presence
of the smileys ==>>.

Let's just say both forms of recreation are capable of bringing on the smileys.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Corona Facts :
- MDS (Momentum Data Systems) is located in California where the Governor declared a state of emergency. Their distributors are Canada, China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK.

- 2020 CanJams timetable : June for SOCAL, July in London, August in Singapore, September in Shenzhen, October in Chicago, November in Shanghai. CanJams are obviously also a source of income to the Smyths. It is like a sales point.

- Heavenly Sound, the Chinese partner is also impacted by this situation (manufacturing company in Shanghai and a Barco joint-venture in China)

I will not comment on any of this : no ifs and no it will be over soon.

One of the positive aspects is that goods are circulating freely.

Hope that goods continue to circulate freely. I was expecting to get a new Realiser after mine was returned for repair.

 

[You Gene]

I asked MDS last Saturday for how long the "old" HDMI repeater/audio decoder were to be on sale.

Their answer was received today :
..."Yes, MDS’ confidential manufacturer-customers can still obtain both 41Q and 89L as needed on custom-order basis.
Also, MDS normally maintains a small inventory onhand for immediate warranty service purposes as needed.
As to how long? That depends upon market availability of all the components used on those products; for APM-89 for example, there is currently a world-wide shortage on memory devices that impacts how and when we can build more. Neither product has yet been declared EOL (end of life) but this may occur by or before end of 2020...
Please contact me directly if you have any additional questions or concerns"...

At least we know a little bit more...and have it straight from the horse's mouth !

PS : and what about world-wide shortage of memory devices for the new items :
apparently the shortage is concerning DRAMS/DDR mostly and the datasheet mentions DRAMS for the 89L and DDR for the APM110. To be confirmed by someone more enlightened than myself.

they also mentioned on the internet : ..."we have considerable engineering-design experience, along with local hardware manufacturing capability"...
Which means USA corona schedule.

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

I wrote to Audio Note India ( my order is with them) , response was no delay in delivery expected as of now. I was promised an Early April delivery .

 

[You Gene]

It has been a week now since James little message…

Time enough to digest and think about what we have been told so smoothly.

Do I like 24 channels : yes of course ! Then shut up You Gene…well I won’t.

The whole explanation is far too pat for me and I smell not something fishy but we have not been told the whole truth :
-in a change this big, Stephen should have done the communication himself, any self- respecting manager would have done so. Where is he for goodness sake ?
In cuckoo land ?
- James said : ..the change has been forced on us due to the discontinuation…and that was all the explanation we received, a few words.
- the French importer had his web site all ready to take all the orders online right away, no delays, everything perfectly orchestrated.
- Hurry up guys, it is limited-time-return-to-factory offer : when were these guys ever in a hurry since 2016 ?
- James + French importer had the price all ready for us to the exact cent.
- all of a sudden with this big a change everything is ready for shipping end of March hardware, software, you name it.

Perfect orchestration is not Smyth strong point…

Everything is about the upgrade exclusively. Thus let us go to the manufacturer. He signed a confidentiality agreement with all his buyers and we cannot barge in just like that. But what I learnt in a roundabout way by the manufacturer himself is :
they inform customers well in advance of any discontinuation and send them prototype samples for their testing. They say it takes some time and effort to integrate a new model with a new software to modify in order to integrate it. The manufacturer further says that it is not an overnight process.

Well well well...

I like the 24 channels but I do not like being lied to.

 

[Fox1977]

@You Gene The way i see things, MDS informed Smyth Research that their boards will be discontinued likely at some point in January. They sent them samples of the new boards. SR needed some time to adapt the firmware to the new hardware and the new features coming with it (mostly the 24 channels). That could explain why there was pretty much no shipping in February.
Even though MDS can still send the previous boards for a few months, Smyth Research decided that it was smarter to switch right now to the new models and propose straight away an enhanced A16. However, they still had a certain number of old boards in stock, which represents quite some money, so they couldn't afford to throw it away and replace them with the new ones. Consequently, they decided to continue shipping A16 with the old boards till they ran out of it, and only then to inform customers of the changes and that's why they said that the modifications were effective immediatly.

Note that i don't actually know if that's what really happened, but it's the way that would make sense to me.

 

[J.Villain]

I hope they don't have to re certify any thing because of this. I have to wonder how much time they spent changing the software to accommodate the extra channels?

 

[hadron70]

Just listened to the "The Road to PS5"-Talk by Playstation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny.

The PS5 will have an audio section that will be able to render sound similar to the A16 (most probably even more powerful). Cerny elaborates on the HRTF and the procedure to measure it with in-ear microphones we all here in this thread are so familiar with.

He then says "obviously it is not possible to measure the HRTF of every Playstation user", that the PS5 at launch will come with 5 generic HRTFs the user can chose from, and that it will be a journey for the years to come to better individualize the HRTF, e.g. based on images or videos of the user's ears.

The A16 with head tracking based on an individually measured HRTF/PRIR will still be unmatched for several (many? few?) years, but it was still very interesting to watch.

The part where he talks about this starts here:

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Just listened to the "The Road to PS5"-Talk by Playstation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny.

The PS5 will have an audio section that will be able to render sound similar to the A16 (most probably even more powerful). Cerny elaborates on the HRTF and the procedure to measure it with in-ear microphones we all here in this thread are so familiar with.

He then says "obviously it is not possible to measure the HRTF of every Playstation user", that the PS5 at launch will come with 5 generic HRTFs the user can chose from, and that it will be a journey for the years to come to better individualize the HRTF, e.g. based on images or videos of the user's ears.

The A16 with head tracking based on an individually measured HRTF/PRIR will still be unmatched for several (many? few?) years, but it was still very interesting to watch.

The part where he talks about this starts here:

At this point, the A16 is both SOTA and a sunk cost. And I'm getting the upgrade gratis, so I personally have no complaints. Now if the Home Theater Audio section and the headphone amps live up to the initial published specs, and if they license Dirac Live, individual channel parametric EQ, and the Illusonic mixer...

Well, then, I will be absolutely turning cartwheels which will be quite the sight to see considering I'm a 67 YO fat guy.

 

[esimms86]

I have to be honest and say that, as much as I love the A16, the supplied cables do not appear to be particularly substantial. I can only imagine what would happen if my cat took a sudden interest to one. Of course, plenty of folks sell cables with 3.5 mm jacks terminating each end. I wonder, however, if anyone sells (sturdy) replacement in ear microphones compatible with the A16. For instance, are there any 3rd party binaural microphones that would do the trick?