[rsbrsvp]

Yes, way, way, way better. With normal speakers in a room both ears hear all speakers and all reflections and reverberations of all speakers. The A16 emulates all that, and in accordance with your personal hrtf, for up to 24 speakers (16 in the older hardware version), and with headtracking (so the virtual speakers stay stationary). The result really sounds like speakers at a distance in a room. But you have to do a personal measurement in a room with speakers for best results.

What do you mean by a personal measurement in a room with speakers? What does it matter how big or small my room is if the headphones are right on my ears?



Now I have world-class transport, dac, and headphone amplifier. Where would be the best place to place it in my chain; between my PC and transport, or between my transport and dac (both in digital domain) or between my dac and headphone amplifier (analogue domain)?

Also- I once tried a speaker emulating program on my computer which I believe was called OOYH. To my ears it was terrible. It did have a lot of the reverberations and reflections of speakers but it severely altered the frequency response and all the intimacy of headphones was GONE. I assume I can expect better with this product.

 

[rsbrsvp]

Oh. I did some research. It seems I need to make measurements using real speakers. I have no real speakers- only headphones.

Does the company offer presets based on real speakers like Darin Fong OOYH? If not- this will not work for me.

 

[sander99]

Now I have world-class transport, dac, and headphone amplifier. Where would be the best place to place it in my chain; between my PC and transport, or between my transport and dac (both in digital domain) or between my dac and headphone amplifier (analogue domain)?

Not between your DAC and your headphone amplifier, because (of course) the virtualisation is realised by digital signal processing, so the first thing that happens to all analog input signals is conversion to digital!

 

[sander99]

Oh. I did some research. It seems I need to make measurements using real speakers. I have no real speakers- only headphones.

Does the company offer presets based on real speakers like Darin Fong OOYH? If not- this will not work for me.

A personal measurement is key to optimal use of the Realiser, because it takes into account your personal hrtf (head related transfer function). Your brains have learned during your live how to interpret direction dependent colorations of sound caused by bending around your head, bending around your ears, reflecting against your pinna, bending into your ear canals.
If you use someone else's measurement, or a generic measurement made with a dummy head it will often sound horrible indeed because different people's hrtf's can be very different. Some improvement is possible by doing a so called manloud HPEQ routine, a specific manual procedure to EQ your headphone, but success is not guarenteed I think.

The A16 does have presets, and you can find many measurements online. (Darin Fong OOYH presets are based on Realiser A8 measurements).

For a personal measurement you don't need to own speakers, just access to them.
One possibility is to use one (or two) speakers to measure a complete surround setup by measuring the same speakers in different positions in the room or by re-orientig yourself relative to the speaker.

You can also rent a studio to do a measurement in.

One day (if it ever happens) Smyth will offer a service to personalise a non-personal measurement of a high quality system/room with a personal measurement of a low quality system/room (the latter can even be made with only a tweeter). The result should come close to a personal measurement of a high quality system/room.

 

[rsbrsvp]

When technology has advanced to the point that I can get my personal HTRF without having to have a speaker or studio; just that the smyth realizer can make the calculation without this;- then I may jump in.

Until then I will keep with my goodhertz can-opener speaker emulation program.....

Hope the technology comes soon.

 

[GeorgeA]

Today, I’ve received my Realiser A16 unit as you can see it in the attached photo.

The dilettantism and indifference of DHL combined with Smyth Research's willingness to reduce their shipping costs (DHL Economy select) made my Realiser A16 to travel across Europe (from Northern Ireland to Romania, about 2,500 km) for 12 days until delivery.

Given the delivery of the A16, the motto for me is back to school. I hope that my learning curve won’t be a steep one. By reading quite a lot of interesting posts here, I am able to understand much better what Realiser A16 means and how it can be set.

 

[m8o]

Can someone explain to me what this component does?

I assume it recreates a speaker experience in a headphone. Is that correct? Doesn't the raal SR1a already do that? Does this A16 do it better?

Fantastic replies provided. Yes. But if you'll permit me my take on the difference between the two.

A Raal SR1a is -just- a stereo pair of "ear speakers". One that moves speakers sitting many feet away from your ears to direct infront of your ears & ear holes. With a goal of recreating the soundwave and experience you get from a -stereo- pair of speakers. And, there is no "simulation" going on. It is a physical experience of two tiny speakers hanging on your head infront of your ears.

An A16 differs fundamentally in it goal. One that attempts to and succeeds in -simulating- the experience of the -many- speakers of a multichannel sound system that are surrounding you at the listening position where measured. To reproduce a convincing sound wave from a 5.1 to 7.2.4 and higher (up to 16 speakers I guess) hitting -your- "ear holes".

 

[m8o]

dilettantism

"Word of the day".

 

[VandyMan]

Also- I once tried a speaker emulating program on my computer which I believe was called OOYH. To my ears it was terrible. It did have a lot of the reverberations and reflections of speakers but it severely altered the frequency response and all the intimacy of headphones was GONE. I assume I can expect better with this product.

I would not expect the "intimacy of headphones" from a system designed to make it sound like you are not listening to headphones. It will most definitely change the frequency response since the point is to make your headphones sound like the speakers that are being virtualized. That said, I find that A-16 to be far superior to OOYH, but maybe not for the reasons you would want.

 

[sander99]

It will most definitely change the frequency response since the point is to make your headphones sound like the speakers that are being virtualized.

That is true also of course. But in addition to that: using someone else's measurement (not matching your personal hrtf, and without any corrections) will change the frequency response to something else entirely [Edit: I should have said it more precise: that sounds like someting else entirely to you], not like the headphones and not like the speakers that were measured! And that something can sometimes sound really bad. If you do it correct then for example neutral speakers will again sound neutral to you in the simulation.

 

[dsperber]

An A16 differs fundamentally in it goal. One that attempts to and succeeds in -simulating- the experience of the -many- speakers of a multichannel sound system that are surrounding you at the listening position where measured. To reproduce a convincing sound wave from a 5.1 to 7.2.4 and higher (up to 16 speakers I guess) hitting -your- "ear holes".

Yes, but the multi-channel multi-speaker simulation you hear through headphones is intended to DUPLICATE the precise sound of A REAL GENUINE LISTENING ENVIRONMENT (may be good, may be ordinary, may be poor... it will be duplicated). That's the objective, to allow you to listen to source audio content through your headphones and experience a "duplicate" of how that same source audio content would actually sound to your ears if you were again back in a specific listening environment and playing the same source audio through the actual real multi-speaker system represented by the corresponding digital PRIR file.

If you have access to multiple sound rooms or studios or listening environments, you can use the A16 (and microphones inserted in your ears) to "capture" the sound of each one which gets individually stored in unique digital files known as a PRIR. So if you have the opportunity you can build a library of muiltiple PRIR's, each of which can be stored inside the A16 and then selected for later use as a "playback filter". Whichever PRIR you select for use at playback time, the sound of any new audio content you play through the A16 and your headphones will duplicate how that audio content would sound in the corresponding original listening environment from which you produced the PRIR. So you can actually pick and choose which of your available collected listening environments (from your library of PRIR's) you care to listen to simulate, whenever you play any particular new audio content.

 

[rsbrsvp]

Thanks everyone for all the explanation.

So it seems that there are two main enhancements.

1. Out of the head- like speakers.
2. Multiple speakers.

Does everyone agree however that multiple speakers is better than two channel stereo- whether being simulated or in real? I always thought that two speakers was the purist method of delivery. Two ears= two speakers.

My hunch based on my experience with OOYH is that it is a totally different method of delivery to our ears and that many will prefer it and many won't just like many prefer two speakers (baseline stereo sound) over sixteen and many prefer sixteen over two. It is just a different experience.

I'm not sure I want home theater based on my experience with OOYH. It shocks and wows at first but long term I felt that it sounded fake. Maybe that would not be so with the smyth- but to much money to risk until I hear it.

 

[elira]

Does everyone agree however that multiple speakers is better than two channel stereo- whether being simulated or in real? I always thought that two speakers was the purist method of delivery. Two ears= two speakers.

It depends on what content you are trying to reproduce. Music is stereo, but movies/games are multichannel.

 

[sander99]

Does everyone agree however that multiple speakers is better than two channel stereo- whether being simulated or in real? I always thought that two speakers was the purist method of delivery. Two ears= two speakers.

First: With the A16 you can also listen to stereo content over one virtual stereo pair of speakers. Because there exist countless stereo recordings of music and other things that will always be important. Of course stereo can also be upmixed to more channels but I think it is primarely a matter of taste whether or not you would do that.

People have only two ears but can localise sound all around them. With a stereo pair of speakers (that should be no more than 60 degrees apart) you create a soundstage in front of you. With more speakers all around you can create a soundstage all around you.
The other way round: two headphone channels (one for each ear) are enough to make you hear sound from every direction around you but that is only because / and under the condition that:
1. Each ear only hears one of the channels, so we can independently control what each ear hears.
2. The two channels are fed with the proper kind of signals that the brain can interpret as 3D sound.
That is something one stereo pair of speakers can not do.

This may be a bit confusing: On the one hand for listening to normal recordings (stereo or multichannel) speakers are more suitable than headphones (because with normal stereo or donwmixed to normal stereo heaphones will make the sound primarely seem to be inside or close to the head, and loudspeakers because of their fysical location make the sound seem to come from a distance). On the other hand: given the proper binauralised input signals only headphones provide full control of spatial aspects of the sound.

 

[VandyMan]

It depends on what content you are trying to reproduce. Music is stereo, but movies/games are multichannel.

Agree. I'd add that two-channel movies/tv often sound pretty good upmixed by the A-16. I don't like two-channel music upmixed, so I bypass my A-16 for that. However, I believe there are plans to let you use the A-16 without a PRIR for two-channel, so you just get the headphone equalization, but not the room effects. I'm looking forward to trying that out.

Edit: Accidentally said "upsampling" when I meant to say "upmixing."