[Thomasphoenix98]

When you get your A16 back on Monday it comes pre loaded with a 15.1.8 loaded.... you can also use this 15.1.8 to populate a different room also...

Mine is a new one ( not upgraded) 1.95 firmware came with 9.1.6 presets , I enabled the 24 channel svs as per your guidance . Where do I enable the 15.1.8 presets ?

 

[sander99]

Mine is a new one ( not upgraded) 1.95 firmware came with 9.1.6 presets , I enabled the 24 channel svs as per your guidance . Where do I enable the 15.1.8 presets ?

I have never used a 24 channel A16, but I assume you would have to start editing a listening room (an Atmos listening room, I suggest to pick number 5 or higher because 1-4 sometimes will be overwritten when updating firmware or doing a factory reset). First unlock the room (make red key green gray). Set the desired listening mode, for example15.1.8. Select loudspeakers from PRIRs. (Lock the room when finished editing.)
Then in a preset (again I suggest 5 or higher for the same reason) of a user set the Atmos listening room to the one that you edited.
Select that preset as your active preset.
Again: I just assume that is how it works.

 

[Fox1977]

Is the manual updated to take in account the features added or modified with the new firmwares ?
If i want to get the manual, i'd have to take the one on the website and to go through all the firmware updates release notes and replace pages from the manual with some from the updates ?

 

[audiohobbit]

That depends if the factory PRIRs installed of BBC and Surrey room provide all the necessary speakers to populate those 24 ch Atmos setups.

As sander already wrote: Create a new listening room (manual p. 81 ff), select a 24ch listening mode like 15.1.8 then go to the first speaker, press Enter, select a PRIR like BBC, then select All matching speakers. Then browse through the list of speakers of your listening room. If every speaker labelled (Ref) has a Vspkr in the list and you see no "NO PRIR" entry than you're lucky and the PRIR you selected had all the speakers needed for that room. If not you have to look for the missing speakers in another PRIR etc.

I'm going to measure 15.1.8 setup and made a preliminary speaker map to aid my upcoming job. But I cannot seem to find speaker numbers for Lrh and Rrh speakers.

I used as a reference latest update from Smyth: 15.1.8ch (C, Lcs, Rcs, L, R, Lw, Rw, Ls1, Rs1, Lss, Rss, Lrs1, Rrs1, Lb, Rb, Lfh, Rfh, Ltf, Rtf, Ltr, Rtr, Lrh, Rrh, SUB)

I was able to find other speakers numbers from the official manual from 2019 on page 97.

Can anyone help with those missing numbers I have?

15.1.8 atmos speaker map.pdf

edit: I was able to find them just after posting this, fixed pdf already.

This is not necessary.
The Realiser A16 doesn't depend on speaker or channel numbers.
The important thing are the speaker labels like Ltf and so on. These must match between PRIR and listening room.

If you do your own PRIR recording you can assign speaker labels to output channels as you want, it doesn't matter afterwards.

For example, as I already wrote several times, last year we recorded 8 PRIRs with only 2 channels each.
We ALWAYS only used output 1 and 2. So we didn't have to unplug/replug all the time.
One PRIR has for example 1=L, 2=R, the next 1=C, 2=SW and so on.
Numbers don't matter.

When you look at you pdf, you have numbers like 38, 39 and so on.
What will you do with them anyway?
You only have 16 channels.
This numbering is just for internal reference, these numbers don't even appear visible to the user in the A16 device.

 

[audiohobbit]

Is the manual updated to take in account the features added or modified with the new firmwares ?
If i want to get the manual, i'd have to take the one on the website and to go through all the firmware updates release notes and replace pages from the manual with some from the updates ?

No it's not updated.
You have to add the FW update manuals to the manual. You have to read these and get an idea for yourself what has been changed. You can not just replace pages, this doesn't work.
If you read through all the major update manuals you get the idea I think.
Anyway, if I have the device in front of me, I rarely need to look into the manual at all.

I think the manual will be updated, when a "final" version of the Realiser will come out.

With every update they change some (smaller) things that are not documented. For example the "Gen BMP" button that activates the screenshot functionality by pressing the # key. This was at first in a Debugging submenu and is now in Settings/System/Misc.

Or the new test music loop I mentioned.
I also noticed that the startup splash screen seems to be different (seems to be a different lightning pattern than in the first versions). They already mentioned this in the manual that the splash screen at startup may change with versions.

 

[GeorgeA]

....If i want to get the manual, i'd have to take the one on the website and to go through all the firmware updates release notes and replace pages from the manual with some from the updates ?

I think it would be better not to replace pages but to have a consolidated version.

 

[Got the Shakes]

My A16 delivery seems to have stalled in the UPS system after clearing customs. Hasn’t moved in over 24 hours. Hope this isn’t a bad sign...

 

[GeorgeA]

It's probably just a sign that it was a weekend in the meantime when the courier was free.

 

[Got the Shakes]

It's probably just a sign that it was a weekend in the meantime when the courier was free.

Looks like UPS calculated the customs due in it and I have to pay them before there is any delivery. $38, but I don’t have any link to pay it...

Edit: I also noticed today for some reason that James was shipping it to a street address that was wrong so I had to change that. I paid for the taxes so we’ll see how this shakes loose. Hopefully I’m all set and on track for a delivery maybe tomorrow.

 

[Dixter]

Mine is a new one ( not upgraded) 1.95 firmware came with 9.1.6 presets , I enabled the 24 channel svs as per your guidance . Where do I enable the 15.1.8 presets ?

I am providing you instructions to load the pre installed 15.1.8 room... if your unit came with this room pre installed then this will work... if it wasn't sent with your A16 then this wont work... lets try it and see how it goes...

1) Remote - Power Button... let it boot up all the way to the speaker room display
2) Remote - Menu Button... hit the enter key - we are going to use preset 1 for now, so with the Remote use the ADJ+ or ADJ- key until the preset shows 1....
3) Remote - click the down arrow key and you will land on ATMOS... now with the ADJ+ or ADJ - key cycle thru the setting while watching for the 15.1.8 BBC room, it should be on room 4
4) Remote - click the up arrow till you land on the top of the screen and then hit the enter key on the remote so the preset loads...
5) Remote - using the down arrow key click all the way down to the bottom of the page and then click the down arrow key one more time to navigate to the next page and there you will see PCM Audio management... hit the enter key and then hit the ADJ+ key to select Dolby surr
6 Remote - click the Back key two times then use the up arrow key to navigate to the top of the page and hit the enter key... this will load everything again
7) Remote - hit the green button PA and this will land you back to the speaker room display...
you should see the 15.1.8 is now populated on the speaker room display....

 

[Fox1977]

Has anyone tried this 15.1.8 room yet ? how does it sound ? The difference with a 9.1.6 room is very noticeable ?

 

[Dixter]

Has anyone tried this 15.1.8 room yet ? how does it sound ? The difference with a 9.1.6 room is very noticeable ?

During my testing of different sources ( external DAC, Apple TV4K, OPPO 4K, Fiio M11Pro,Dell Laptop ) with inputs of Stereo and HDMI what I found was the 15.1.8 sounded fantastic via the OPPO 4K.... and the upmix of the HDMI was pretty cool too with the 15.1.8... the upmix isn't what you would expect as its not like my AV receiver upmix where it upmixes to all speakers.... the Atmos upmix tries to use all of the 15.1.8 speakers but really depends on what kind of source your feeding it... you have to examine the level meters to see it best while in this mode... for the HDMI testing I used the 4K Blue ray Mad Max and it was great using the OPPO player... it sounded good without the upmix but you could tell the difference with the upmix turned on......
To test the effectiveness of the 9.1.6 vs the 15.1.8 you can also use the Test button on the remote and cycle through the two... you can hear the difference quite easily...

 

[You Gene]

My upgraded A16 just left Paris this afternoon on its way to Brussels according to the tracker.
I was using firmware 1.81 before because 1.90 and 1.91 were giving me buzzes.
Soon enough I will check on what Stephen wrote by email to me on 6th June : ...I apologise for this inconvenience. It is likely that the new upgrade will resolve this problem...

It is very much like a TV serial : final episode now, next season coming over to you soon...it never ends but it is always entertaining !!!

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

Thanks again, Dixter! I got 15.1.6 as the option 4 , as per your instructions, couldn’t find a 15.1.8 option though .

 

[audiohobbit]

as its not like my AV receiver upmix where it upmixes to all speakers.... the Atmos upmix tries to use all of the 15.1.8 speakers but really depends on what kind of source your feeding it... you have to examine the level meters to see it best while in this mode... for the HDMI testing I used the 4K Blue ray Mad Max and it was great using the OPPO player... it sounded good without the upmix but you could tell the difference with the upmix turned on......
To test the effectiveness of the 9.1.6 vs the 15.1.8 you can also use the Test button on the remote and cycle through the two... you can hear the difference quite easily...

Stephen said that the upmixer hasn't changed and does still not use the Front Wides. Can you check this?

Mad Max? You mean the original from 1979? Is there a UHD Disc?
Otherwise if you mean Fury Road -> this already has an Atmos Soundtrack, so no upmixing there.


When you test and solo the speakers then of course you can easily hear a difference. The questions is how is the difference in a real movie between 9.1.6 and 15.1.8. Can you hear the difference between phantom sources and real speakers without soloing etc. With the Realiser with the A-B comparison it's very easy to make that comparison.
-> Considering that you're always in the sweet spot with the Realiser I don't think that you would hear too much of a difference.
-> To be really meaningful for this comparison one should have a real "personal" PRIR of the 9.1.6 and 15.1.8 rooms though ...

When I look at the 9.1.x setup at the ear-level speakers: 7 speakers (fronts, side and back surrounds) are usually in the "Bed" and playing constantly. The front wides are only used for objects and not used that often during a movie, most of the time they are silent.
I would imagine that this would also be true for the other additional speakers like Lsc, Lrs1 and so on.