Smyth Research Realiser A16

[MichaelJames99]

I can understand why you might need to use other people's PRIRs, but why would you use anyone's HPEQ other than your own made in 2 minutes with your own ears and your own headphone?

update: Nevermind.... I had PRIR and HPEQ processes reversed..It appears the A16 generates its own test tones for HPEQ measurements No speakers are involved.

I am concerned how I am going to get a single speaker positioned in 16+ locations around the room..especially for example, the 4 overhead locations. Maybe I misunderstand the process...

 

[sander99]

I am concerned how I am going to get a single speaker positioned in 16+ locations around the room..especially for example, the 4 overhead locations. Maybe I misunderstand the process...

Instead of re-positioning the speaker you can also reposition yourself (at least your head, ideally also your torso) relative to the speaker. For the overhead positions you can bend over in front of the speaker and bend backwards with the speaker behind you. (And of course relative to each of those assumed positions you will have to turn your head to the required lookangles for headtracking).
I made a 9.1.6 PRIR using one stereo pair of speakers:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-529#post-15433317

 

[VandyMan]

I gave them an approximate carton size and weight going to Bangor Ireland...

FYI- Bangor is Northern Ireland aka the UK.

 

[esimms86]

FYI, the shipping weight for my A16 in the original box and with the original packing but without the accessory boxes or any additional packing material is 8.30 pounds. My A16 has cleared customs on this side of the pond and is on its way to Bangor via UPS, with estimated arrival on Thursday between 10 a.m. and Noon. At this point, I await its safe arrival in the Smyths' hands and any information regarding additional fees to be paid. I find it curious that @Got the Shakes took his A16 to a UPS site on Sunday and it has an estimated arrival date of Friday, whereas I brought mine in on Monday with estimated arrival on Thursday. OTOH, I don't think that items brought in to UPS on the weekend actually get picked up anytime before Monday.

@You Gene, from the pictures accompanying your post it looks like we might see new BBC room presets with up to 24 speakers when our A16s are returned to us!

 

[Got the Shakes]

FYI, the shipping weight for my A16 in the original box and with the original packing but without the accessory boxes or any additional packing material is 8.30 pounds. My A16 has cleared customs on this side of the pond and is on its way to Bangor via UPS, with estimated arrival on Thursday between 10 a.m. and Noon. At this point, I await its safe arrival in the Smyths' hands and any information regarding additional fees to be paid. I find it curious that @Got the Shakes took his A16 to a UPS site on Sunday and it has an estimated arrival date of Friday, whereas I brought mine in on Monday with estimated arrival on Thursday. OTOH, I don't think that items brought in to UPS on the weekend actually get picked up anytime before Monday.

@You Gene, from the pictures accompanying your post it looks like we might see new BBC room presets with up to 24 speakers when our A16s are returned to us!

My A16 did not get pickup from the store I dropped it off at until yesterday evening. The one day they don't do pickups is on Sundays even if the UPS Store is open. I was originally given a date of Friday when I dropped it off and that hasn't changed yet. We'll see what happens with customs in the UK though as that seems like it's getting a bit messy. I assume it's because I declared and insured it for a value over $2499.99. One UPS person had me fill out and scan a new Power of Attorney form which they say will allow them to handle things. The rep that helped me at the store on Sunday said it's out of my hands, and the Symths will have to provide some info to UPS once my A16 reaches customs in the UK so I'm not sure what to believe or what to expect at this point.

 

[Got the Shakes]

This is a disaster. Now UPS is estimating that there is going to be 714 GBP of duty due on my A16. This is getting ridiculous. If this keeps up, it's going to cost me $2000 for this upgrade.

 

[esimms86]

This is a disaster. Now UPS is estimating that there is going to be 714 GBP of duty due on my A16. This is getting ridiculous. If this keeps up, it's going to cost me $2000 for this upgrade.

My duty is 456.1 GBP which translates to $560.98. I’m sure that my estimated duty is less because my declared value is less. Right now, my A16 is in Newtonabbey in the UK, and still scheduled for Thursday delivery.

So, thus far, I’m in for a total of $930.02 for shipping, and that’s based on a customs estimate one way, not including return shipping. Clearly, I won’t be doing this again unless they offer a gold bar free in a future offer. I also anticipate that some folks who had already paid SR the sum of $520 will be changing their minds and canceling their order. I’d be curious to know how many people have signed up for this and how many units the Smyths will receive when all is said and done. @Got the Shakes, what did you pay for shipping to the US when you first purchased your A16? I’m trying to get a sense of what ballpark I’ll be in after return shipping is paid for. Thanks.

 

[Got the Shakes]

My duty is 456.1 GBP which translates to $560.98. I’m sure that my estimated duty is less because my declared value is less. Right now, my A16 is in Newtonabbey in the UK, and still scheduled for Thursday delivery.

So, thus far, I’m in for a total of $930.02 for shipping, and that’s based on a customs estimate one way, not including return shipping. Clearly, I won’t be doing this again unless they offer a gold bar free in a future offer. I also anticipate that some folks who had already paid SR the sum of $520 will be changing their minds and canceling their order. I’d be curious to know how many people have signed up for this and how many units the Smyths will receive when all is said and done. @Got the Shakes, what did you pay for shipping to the US when you first purchased your A16? I’m trying to get a sense of what ballpark I’ll be in after return shipping is paid for. Thanks.

So I emailed James about this and he said he's going to try and reach out to UPS tomorrow. I was also told by UPS that the Smyths providing their Tax ID or whatever it is in the UK might qualify for the waiving for the import fees. James also mentioned providing UPS with the original commercial invoice that was produced when they shipped the A16 to me to show that this is a unit I own. I unfortunately am in too deep at this point and I'm in for like $1200 with shipping and fees plus $520 for the upgrade itself. I believe that it was around $120 to ship to me originally insured for $3,995 in value. As I've been emailing James about this whole fiasco, I asked him if they would facilitate return shipping since it would be cheaper and then just invoice us. He seemed receptive to that. The cost of this just doesn't seem normal. Like it just doesn't make sense that we're paying $560-$875 in import fees on an item that we aren't selling and is going to be returned to us. This in general has been a nightmare financially. I actually would have been better off if UPS would have lost my shipment somewhere over the Atlantic and I could have just filed a claim to purchase an upgraded model outright. Mine is also in Newtonabbey, but doesn't have a delivery date anymore. It seems to keep doing that as issues have popped up like randomly needing to fill out and scan a Power of Attorney form to UPS so they could process my shipment even though one got filled out at the UPS Store when shipping originally.

Edit: This is a line item in my tracking update from earlier, and it's the only thing that gives me a bit of hope: "Additional information is needed from the importer to provide duty relief for shipment repaired at origin." I'm hoping that means there's a way for Smyth Research to provide whatever info UK customs wants which would lead to a reduction or elimination of the import fees. Did that ever pop up for you @esimms86 ?

 

[esimms86]

Thanks @Got the Shakes. In retrospect, the Smyths should have researched in advance how providing their tax ID would affect how things would work out for us financially when shipping our A16s across the pond. I have already had my credit card charged for the estimated duty fee so I am hoping against hope that Smyth can get that fee waived and that I could be reimbursed for that amount.

In his email to us, James had requested that units be shipped by Friday. I expect that a number of A16 owners will be waiting to learn what James finds out tomorrow before making the trip out to their local Fedex or UPS stores. To state the obvious, we have to consider how the pandemic has already wreaked havoc with our livelihoods and budgets.

Now, I don’t anticipate that this will happen but, wouldn’t it be great if our units were returned to us with our CanJam PRIRs installed? Although it wouldn’t negate the financial blow, such a measure of good will would at least in a small but significant way partially make up for the headache caused by this shipping fiasco.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Thanks @Got the Shakes. In retrospect, the Smyths should have researched in advance how providing their tax ID would affect how things would work out for us financially when shipping our A16s across the pond. I have already had my credit card charged for the estimated duty fee so I am hoping against hope that Smyth can get that fee waived and that I could be reimbursed for that amount.

In his email to us, James had requested that units be shipped by Friday. I expect that a number of A16 owners will be waiting to learn what James finds out tomorrow before making the trip out to their local Fedex or UPS stores. To state the obvious, we have to consider how the pandemic has already wreaked havoc with our livelihoods and budgets.

Now, I don’t anticipate that this will happen but, wouldn’t it be great if our units were returned to us with our CanJam PRIRs installed? Although it wouldn’t negate the financial blow, such a measure of good will would at least in a small but significant way partially make up for the headache caused by this shipping fiasco.

UPS played pretty dumb too when I asked them Sunday about what fees may be needed for customs.

I haven’t paid my fee yet because they don’t have a card in file for me. They also say it can be paid up to 30 minutes before delivery so I figure I’ll see what the next few days bring before I’m resigned to the fact that I have to pay the import fee.I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone whose been following this rethink shipping their unit for the upgrade.

This shipping fiasco has made me decide to return the 16” MacBook Pro I bought. I didn’t really need it and I certainly can’t justify it with these mounting A16 costs and the LG CX OLED I had delivered (in anticipation on an A16 being sent back to me at some point with eARC). Oh well, live and learn I guess.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Instead of re-positioning the speaker you can also reposition yourself (at least your head, ideally also your torso) relative to the speaker. For the overhead positions you can bend over in front of the speaker and bend backwards with the speaker behind you. (And of course relative to each of those assumed positions you will have to turn your head to the required lookangles for headtracking).
I made a 9.1.6 PRIR using one stereo pair of speakers:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smyth-research-realiser-a16.807459/page-529#post-15433317

Alternatively, I'm thinking you could sit on the floor for the overheads. Might be easier for some of the "golden agers" among us. Or raise you speakers if they are mini monitors and you have adjustable height speaker stands. And you don't have to do all 16 channels in one PRIR. You could do the 9.1 in a first PRIR and do the 6 overheads in a second prir, and combine them together when you make a room.

 

[Fox1977]

@Got the Shakes @esimms86
I feel very sorry for you guys.. that's insane to be charged so much for an item that you are NOT selling but just sending to get serviced... Already the shipping fee is enormous...
I suppose for European customers it will cost less, first because it's less far but also since the EU rules for goods circulation are still applying for the UK in 2020 despite Brexit.
I don't know why Smyth Research did not use their business account in the first to organize the shipping and charge you for the bill, it would have been much cheaper.
Maybe they were afraid it would take a lot of time and paperwork to do it for all the unit that will be upgraded, and since they are already late on schedule, they chose to leave this to customers asking for the upgrade...

 

[kh36267]

This shipping fiasco has made me decide to return the 16” MacBook Pro I bought. I didn’t really need it and I certainly can’t justify it with these mounting A16 costs and the LG CX OLED I had delivered (in anticipation on an A16 being sent back to me at some point with eARC). Oh well, live and learn I guess.

I'm in a similar position here.....looking around the house for anything I can put on eBay to help defray the costs

 

[esimms86]

I'm in a similar position here.....looking around the house for anything I can put on eBay to help defray the costs

...assuming that people can afford to buy anything these days.

 

[Dixter]

FYI- Bangor is Northern Ireland aka the UK.

where exactly do the elves live... is it close by...