[m8o]

My gift to them was a $1600 5 year interest free loan.

I'd call it a grant vs. a loan given the situation, for a bit more than that in my case.

 

[VandyMan]

But trying to do some diagnostics first, maybe even solve the problem, before sending his beloved A16 half way across the world without knowing when (and if ever) it will be back seems like a good idea to me.

If he knows another local A-16 user, he might try borrowing their power brick and seeing if that fixes the issue. He could also try temporarily using a plug that lifts the ground to see if it is a ground loop.

 

[sander99]

@Thomasphoenix98: still would like to know what happens at the user A spdif output.
If your friend has any device with an spdif input, doesn't need to be a headphone DAC/amp, it can be a surround receiver or whatever, if he can just listen if there is hum in the digital output signal for user A.
If there isn't hum there, then it is caused in the analog part and then maybe he can look for ground loop or power supply issues.
If there is hum there, then something is going wrong in the digital/dsp part. Then maybe he could experiment with different presets/prirs/hpeqs or do a factory reset or firmware re-intall to see if that helps.

 

[Thomasphoenix98]

@Thomasphoenix98: still would like to know what happens at the user A spdif output.
If your friend has any device with an spdif input, doesn't need to be a headphone DAC/amp, it can be a surround receiver or whatever, if he can just listen if there is hum in the digital output signal for user A.
If there isn't hum there, then it is caused in the analog part and then maybe he can look for ground loop or power supply issues.
If there is hum there, then something is going wrong in the digital/dsp part. Then maybe he could experiment with different presets/prirs/hpeqs or do a factory reset or firmware re-intall to see if that helps.

Thank you @sander99 I will forward him your message. I did ask him to run it off an online ups to check, the result was the same , I don’t know if it’s a sine wave one.

 

[sander99]

If he knows another local A-16 user, he might try borrowing their power brick and seeing if that fixes the issue.

Yes indeed, @Thomasphoenix98 maybe you could let your friend try your power supply?
I think there was someone in the thread here before who had noise issues caused by the power supply(?).

 

[esimms86]

He did pay full price and bought it from realiser.in, I believe Aernoud does address repairs in India, in a different city to mine and my friend Rajeev. We are in Bangalore, Aernoud in Mumbai.
The noise-hum is present even in realiser test playback, only on Hp-A. He is using HDMI-1 with an Apple TV, I am almost certain there is a hardware fault.

I fully agree that your friend should troubleshoot his unit first. I’d start with a call to tech support/repair at realiser.in. It looks like his vendor is set up to take care of him either way, hopefully with no charge for shipping to Ireland if it comes to that.

 

[esimms86]

I had an idle thought. I wonder what Smyth Research did with the boards that they swapped out when people like me sent our units out for upgrades. They didn’t return those boards with the A16s.Currently, these boards are made out of unobtainium since the supplier’s fire. Obviously, these boards are used, nonetheless, I bet that there are people here who are waiting for their units who would gladly accept an otherwise fully new A16 that was thoroughly tested and shipped with a full warranty. I don’t know that that would be kosher from a business/legal standpoint or if they could be viewed as refurbished units. That’s, of course, assuming that those boards still exist.

 

[Eich1eeF]

I had an idle thought. I wonder what Smyth Research did with the boards that they swapped out when people like me sent our units out for upgrades. They didn’t return those boards with the A16s.Currently, these boards are made out of unobtainium since the supplier’s fire. Obviously, these boards are used, nonetheless, I bet that there are people here who are waiting for their units who would gladly accept an otherwise fully new A16 that was thoroughly tested and shipped with a full warranty. I don’t know that that would be kosher from a business/legal standpoint or if they could be viewed as refurbished units. That’s, of course, assuming that those boards still exist.

The boards that were swapped were the DSP and HDMI boards made by MDS. As far as I know, neither the new nor the old version is in short supply. The DAC board (designed and manufactured by/for the Smyths) that has the AKM DACs on it would not have been exchanged unless you ordered the AES upgrade (I did and I still haven't gotten my A16 back), so there are probably very few of those left over at Smyth Research. I suspect they'll keep a few (of all 3 boards) around for repairs.

 

[esimms86]

The boards that were swapped were the DSP and HDMI boards made by MDS. As far as I know, neither the new nor the old version is in short supply. The DAC board (designed and manufactured by/for the Smyths) that has the AKM DACs on it would not have been exchanged unless you ordered the AES upgrade (I did and I still haven't gotten my A16 back), so there are probably very few of those left over at Smyth Research. I suspect they'll keep a few (of all 3 boards) around for repairs.

Thanks for the information. Sorry to hear that your A16 has yet to be returned to you.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Thanks for the information. Sorry to hear that your A16 has yet to be returned to you.

Feel sorry for him as well, but I think I still hold the world's record for longest turnaround on an A16 repair (January 28, 2020-September 19, 2020), Think it's in Guinness.

 

[esimms86]

Feel sorry for him as well, but I think I still hold the world's record for longest turnaround on an A16 repair (January 28, 2020-September 19, 2020), Think it's in Guinness.

A pint or more of Guinness might have had something to do with it.

 

[Eich1eeF]

Feel sorry for him as well, but I think I still hold the world's record for longest turnaround on an A16 repair (January 28, 2020-September 19, 2020), Think it's in Guinness.

You're way off. Your pitiful 234 days are no match to my 479 days with no end in sight.

 

[Fox1977]

You're way off. Your pitiful 234 days are no match to my 479 days with no end in sight.

Your unit has been gone for repair for 479 days and counting ??!!

 

[You Gene]

I cannot create new listening rooms anymore from new PRIRs : (firmware 2.00)
When I import new PRIRs via my SD card the PRIRs go straight on as usual to my PRIR files…but when I use the new PRIR to populate “all speakers”, nothing happens. The speakers stay empty in the listening room. I tried 3 different SD cards + a brand new one without success and also imported several different PRIRs to make sure. SD cards were reformatted multiple times as well.

The A16 accepts the new PRIRs copied from the SD card and saves the new files under their own name with all the other existing PRIR files. So far so good.

But when I create a new Atmos listening room and go to the new PRIR file to populate “all speakers”…it does not populate anything. My speakers remain empty as before. Same if I choose “one speaker” only. Same thing happens when I choose another listening room number.

I thought it was the SD card and looked at the contents of the svs file through word ; it is not an empty file, there is contents in Ko.

I tried downloading from the google dropbox directly to my SD card from my wive’s PC to make sure it had nothing to do with my pc : no change, no functional PRIR.

At last I reverted to the former firmware rev. 1.98 rev : sent a new PRIR via SD card…it doesn’t work…no “all speakers” change…

Strange that the A16 is accepting my new PRIR from the SD card.

Fortunately I can still watch DVDs with all existing PRIRs.

Edit : please read my wife's PC (and not my wive's PC)

 

[You Gene]

Yours truly is at fault...I am sorry...I had reached the forbidden number of 64 PRIR files...which is a tad over the limit !!!

All this work for...I will revert to firmware 2.00...happy not to send it back to Bangor.