[Got the Shakes]

I just called DHL and she told me they are still shipping from the USA and it would take 3 to 4 business days... one issue is she told me that in order to ship both ways .. (there and back) it is required to have a commercial account... not sure why... so DHL may not be the best way to ship... does anyone know what needs to be shipped back... just the A16 or some/all of the extras like the remote.??? so I guess we will need to insure for the $4K value..this is going to get expensive...

I'm assuming just the unit itself would need to go back since they're just retrofitting internal components in the A16 itself. I was a bit confused by James' email and return shipping and asked him for a clarification. He made it sound like they won't work out return shipping and once the unit is ready that they'll contact us "so you can arrange shipment for collection of your A16 unit." Am I reading that wrong? Like why wouldn't they just charge me whatever it costs for them to ship it back like they did when I paid the difference on my preorder to have my unit shipped here?

 

[You Gene]

I just called DHL and she told me they are still shipping from the USA and it would take 3 to 4 business days... one issue is she told me that in order to ship both ways .. (there and back) it is required to have a commercial account... not sure why... so DHL may not be the best way to ship... does anyone know what needs to be shipped back... just the A16 or some/all of the extras like the remote.??? so I guess we will need to insure for the $4K value..this is going to get expensive...

Gilles said in his email of 11th march 2020 : ...no need to send me the accessories...

But of course, better to check with James.

 

[esimms86]

I just called DHL and she told me they are still shipping from the USA and it would take 3 to 4 business days... one issue is she told me that in order to ship both ways .. (there and back) it is required to have a commercial account... not sure why... so DHL may not be the best way to ship... does anyone know what needs to be shipped back... just the A16 or some/all of the extras like the remote.??? so I guess we will need to insure for the $4K value..this is going to get expensive...

Aside from not having been stricken thus far with Covid-19, I also absolutely know for sure just how fortunate for (1)getting in on the A16 at a Kickstarter price, and (2)having had my A16 to enjoy since January 31st. The price of the combined upgrade all in(including payment to Smyth, payment to PayPal, shipping, insurance and any other costs tacked on) is, then, well worth it and a bargain for me. I do honestly feel sorry for those who have yet to receive their A16's(although, to be honest, I am slightly jealous of people who will be receiving their upgraded Kickstarter A16s over the coming couple of months) and I also feel for folks like @Got the Shakes who will be paying for the upgrade in addition to having already paid full price for their units.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Aside from not having been stricken thus far with Covid-19, I also absolutely know for sure just how fortunate for (1)getting in on the A16 at a Kickstarter price, and (2)having had my A16 to enjoy since January 31st. The price of the combined upgrade all in(including payment to Smyth, payment to PayPal, shipping, insurance and any other costs tacked on) is, then, well worth it and a bargain for me. I do honestly feel sorry for those who have yet to receive their A16's(although, to be honest, I am slightly jealous of people who will be receiving their upgraded Kickstarter A16s over the coming couple of months) and I also feel for folks like @Got the Shakes who will be paying for the upgrade in addition to having already payed full price for their units.

Appreciate the sentiment, but no need to feel bad for me. I’ve been able to get 8 months of use of of the A16 so far which has been wonderful and honestly no telling when I would have received it otherwise.The upgrade did come a bit sooner than I ever anticipated though as I assumed we might be a few years down the road when HDMI 2.1 becomes more widespread. Such is the curse of being someone who constantly is an early adopter of technology I guess.

 

[Dixter]

while stuck at home during this time frame its been hard for me not to look at whats new and watch all of the headphone related reviews on you tube.... we are very lucky to be able to have the A8/A16 for what it does for our hobby.... I can't imagine ever not having this in my collection... nothing.. and I do mean nothing comes close to what the A16 does for us...you can improve on the A16 by using updated DACs and AMPs and nicer sets of headphones but its the processing of the Smyth products that makes listening to music like this magical...
I decided to use the new Fiio M11 Pro as my music source feeding the A16(16ch) and the THX AAA 789 AMP... There's a new DAC and AMP that is being released soon that should be a great match for the A16.. its the Topping D90 MQA and the A90 matching AMP... the specs and the testing are great.. prices not too bad either... might have to spring for them... the M11Pro has been a great match up to the A16 also...

 

[esimms86]

Appreciate the sentiment, but no need to feel bad for me. I’ve been able to get 8 months of use of of the A16 so far which has been wonderful and honestly no telling when I would have received it otherwise.The upgrade did come a bit sooner than I ever anticipated though as I assumed we might be a few years down the road when HDMI 2.1 becomes more widespread. Such is the curse of being someone who constantly is an early adopter of technology I guess.

I hear you. A huge upside is the fact that the A16 has now been shown to be upgradable without having to buy a whole new unit. Having to spend (another)$4k in order to get a significant upgrade would really suck. I anticipate that somewhere down the line there will be a hardware upgrade available for HDMI 2.1(or whatever HDMI version exists in the not too too far off future). I’m totally cool with that and will cross that bridge one way or another if and when the Smyths make that announcement. I just hope that they stay in business, fulfill their Kickstarter and pre-order commitments, get the Realiser Exchange up and running, and eventually get around to obtaining DTS-X and Auro 3D certification(and yes, asynchronous measurement capability would also be nice!).

 

[snejk]

I don't get how they can prioritize upgrading fully working A16 units over shipping unfulfilled kickstarters and preorders.. Why not just wait with the upgrades until all the previous commitments are fulfilled? Is it the financial reasons still?

 

[dsperber]

Almost two years ago now (amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun!) I decided to send my Stax SR-009 headphones back to the factory in Japan for repair (which turned out to be quite expensive and almost a complete renovation) rather than spend more than an additional $1k to just buy a new one. Either way it was going to be expensive but in the end I decided to trust the factory overhaul and save the money. Turns out the repair was perfection, just not cheap.

I had to ship it to Japan and after doing some research decided to go with Fedex International Economy because I trusted them and the price was right. The package weighed 7lbs. and the actual Fedex shipping charge (one way) was $100. I dropped it off locally at the Fedex depot on June 4 2018. The email shipping advice I received indicated that it arrived in Japan almost overnight, made it through customs, and was delivered to the designated recipient at the Stax factory on June 7. Remarkable.

Because the value was more than $2500 I had to get a "commercial license" (or course I'm not a commercial entity, but that's what I had to do). I also had to fill out lots of online paperwork describing the item I was shipping and its value. Looking back now at the charges it was only $10 (paid through Fedex) to file the EEI (Electronic Export Information) for approval by the US AES (Automated Export System), in order to complete the "commercial license" process so that I could ship the item to Japan. I had never done anything like this before, but guided through all of the forms by the Fedex online "wizard" (along with a few questions answered over the phone by the Fedex special shipping rep for things like this when I had some questions that I could simply could not figure out without some human assistance). After pushing OK on the Fedex form to submit the EEI it was literally only 10 seconds before it was processed and approved by the US AES. I was then able to print out all of the appropriate shipping documents (again through the Fedex "wizard") and multi-copy transmittal forms, packed up the headphones and drove off to Fedex to get it sent.

Once repaired Stax paid for the return shipping and again it arrived remarkably quickly. Again it was shipped by Stax via Fedex International Economy from Japan on July 17 and made its way through US Customs and arrived at my house on July 20.

Although I haven't decided yet whether or not to send my A16 in for the hardware upgrade, I suspect it might be somewhat different since the value of the A16 at the pre-order price is less than $2500. So I believe the whole procedure is simpler than what I had to go through because of the value of the SR-009. If I'd paid full retail price for the A16 I guess it would be very much the same process to ship to Smyth as I had to go through for shipping to Stax. Note that I was not buying an item, or shipping a new item to them. It was simply a "repair", just like we're talking about with the A16. Nevertheless shipping things internationally with a value over $2500 for any purpose is a whole different ballgame.

 

[GeorgeA]

If Smyth Research manufactured, e.g., 100 Realiser A16 units a day, I would understand that they might deal with upgrading fully working A16 units at the same time. I second @snejk’s opinion that they should focus on shipping unfulfilled kickstarters and preorders. However, I’m aware that by upgrading fully working A16 units there is some positive cash flow for them. On that, there should be some sort of compromise.

 

[Got the Shakes]

James responded by sending me an invoice for the upgrade. $520 total (not sure what it will cost in currency conversion fees and whatnot). He states to ship the unit back with no cables and accessories and to use UPS or DHL.

Looks like via UPS it’s going to cost at least $200 to ship it to them which I imagine means the same cost in a return trip. That will make this a $1000 upgrade all said and done.

 

[CaptainFunk]

I can’t imagine the Smyth’s making a profit with these upgrades. They probably want to upgrade as many A16’s as possible, so they can eventually drop the firmware for the original A16 and only focus on the new version. Perhaps people who choose to not upgrade now will get an offer on a new machine in the future eventually, who knows. I am definitely going to send in my A16, I use mine daily and I want to make sure it is going to be supported as long as possible. Luckily I am already on the right side of the pond, so the shipping risk might not be that high (knocking on wood many times).

 

[Om ma Ni]

Hi everyone, looks like we all feeling exited in different ways regarding the retrofitting / upgrade of the A16...I will probably send mine back for it too with UPS.
I also received the latest James email etc... was just wondering how will it work for us to organize the shipment on way back from their place to our place? Is it difficult to organize?
Also, i will insure fully my A16 (around 4K), will the import duty tax be based on the insurance value of the item? on both ways, like charged once arrived to them and back to us again?
Asking bc all these expenses will be from our pocket...

 

[Got the Shakes]

Hi everyone, looks like we all feeling exited in different ways regarding the retrofitting / upgrade of the A16...I will probably send mine back for it too with UPS.
I also received the latest James email etc... was just wondering how will it work for us to organize the shipment on way back from their place to our place? Is it difficult to organize?
Also, i will insure fully my A16 (around 4K), will the import duty tax be based on the insurance value of the item? on both ways, like charged once arrived to them and back to us again?
Asking bc all these expenses will be from our pocket...

These are all things I am trying to figure out as well. I've never had to send anything internationally and certainly never had to arrange for a return shipment myself for the return. I asked James yesterday if there was any way Smyth could handle that and then just charge me whatever via PayPal and I never really got a response except for a PayPal invoice this morning for $520 for the upgrade itself + PayPal fees. I've been looking at UPS and DHL and it looks like it will cost me about $250 to ship the A16 my house to the UK. Probably safe to imagine the return shipping will be about the same. James did make some notes on the invoice including to make sure to select that the unit is being shipped to them for "service or repair" and I wonder if that will avoid having to pay duty tax?

 

[Om ma Ni]

These are all things I am trying to figure out as well. I've never had to send anything internationally and certainly never had to arrange for a return shipment myself for the return. I asked James yesterday if there was any way Smyth could handle that and then just charge me whatever via PayPal and I never really got a response except for a PayPal invoice this morning for $520 for the upgrade itself + PayPal fees. I've been looking at UPS and DHL and it looks like it will cost me about $250 to ship the A16 my house to the UK. Probably safe to imagine the return shipping will be about the same. James did make some notes on the invoice including to make sure to select that the unit is being shipped to them for "service or repair" and I wonder if that will avoid having to pay duty tax?

We are in the exact same boat..i also never done it before ..Will you insure your unit around its full price?
Will be super cool if all of us who are upgrading can ask James if they can as you said cover the logistic for sending back our units and then charge us the fees..?

 

[sahmen]

I don't get how they can prioritize upgrading fully working A16 units over shipping unfulfilled kickstarters and preorders.. Why not just wait with the upgrades until all the previous commitments are fulfilled? Is it the financial reasons still?

But then if they waited to complete all scheduled KS/Preorders shipping before bothering with the upgrades, wouldn't that create another logistical nightmare, namely, the prospect of having every single and already shipped A-16 re-shipped back to Bangor for the upgrade? The slowness of the "normal" shipping process they have adopted so far is already "epic" and unprecedented, and will most likely not be completed before 2021, that is assuming Covid-19 related complications do not throw more obstacles in the way. So imagine waiting till some point in 2021 to complete shipping, and then immediately recalling all shipped A-16's back to Bangor for an upgrade that could have been done in 2020, an upgrade request that would come with all kinds of renewed anxieties about the logistics of shipping, all over again. Can you imagine the uproar from A-16 owners...?

Note that we have not even touched upon DTS-X and Auro 3D upgrades yet, and what other complications those two might generate, if the upgrades cannot completely be done via firmware. The other note is that the above statement shouldn't in any way be confused with any attempt on my part to defend the Smyths. I'm just weighing the pros and cons of these two options, without claiming to know anything else about the real motivations or plans of the Smyths.

Oh, and by the way, there are still no fully working A-16s in existence yet, as far as I know, if by fully working, you're referring to an A-16 furnished with all its originally promised features. The present version of the A-16 that is currently shipping is still a work in progress, as we all know, and will remain that way, even after this particular round of upgrades. Sorry for having to state the obvious.