[mikemav]

Thanks, corrected above, re: brain fart...

 

[sxr71]

Sadly, that's a moving target, and Smyth seems too small to always catch up. I still have a 1080p TV, and will at least wait for HDMI 2.1 support before upgrading (I look forward to not needing a display refresh rate that is a clean multiple of the material's frame rate just to get smooth playback).

For me the problem is 4:4:4 32 bit HDR. That won’t come until hdmi 2.1. I think all this new tech needs about 3 years to settle down.

 

[jgazal]

Thanks, corrected above, re: brain fart...

Not a brain fart at all. Actually, is a fact of life to everyone of us. And it reminds me how trademarks are important.

In that aspect, although I strongly admire Mike and Stephen Smyth (to me they are both geniuses), there always room for constructive criticism.

A trademark need to catch your custumer attention in a world of a overload of information. I know Dolby is a family name, but I believe that Smyth Research is not a catchy trademark neither SVS. I believe Realiser is not as bad, but I would brainstorm words related not only to real, but to sphere (atmosphere), soundfield and maybe, in a worst degree, holophony. One would need to invest in focus groups with to discover what word suit best the concept you are trying to describe.

I think Oculus, Utopia, Atmos, Subpac, SecondLife, Simcity are, to name a few, catchy trademarks. And their are all related to some aspect of “virtual life” that try to emulate real life (vision, sound, tactile/tactics, social interaction or the development of a city...).

Yarra (the reverse of array, from phased array of transducers...) is not a catchy word. And you might have changed Yarra by Ossic because the first is also in the last stage of software development and you remembered Ossic because of its failure.

Conversely, to “go belly up”, to “bite the dust” and “Smyth Unrealized” are dissonant catchy words like the ones we see in hate web sites, allowed by freedom of speech.

IMHO, that illustrates that Smyth Research does not have the scale to spend money in that kind of intellectual property neither in specialists in marketing communication.

I believe they will only have the scale and revenues to invest in sophisticated tools to deal with their custumer cognitive dissonances if they come with a seamlessly way to acquire personalized HRTF. Genelec and Ida Audio were going to make their HRTF modeling technology available to professional users in early 2018, but no news/reviews yet. That is something that Stephen Smyth predicts to be mature (equal in precision with all users to in-ear microphone measurements in a room or in anechoic chambers) only decades from now (see innerfidelity video about the A16 at LA Canjam).

Companies’ lack of communication or the build up of negative feelings in their custumer base might harm their potential to increase sales.

In my opinion Smyth Research is aware of that, but their best bet is to keep demonstrating the unit at consumer shows (the wow factor was always their best selling argument in the b2c segment) and to assure they launch from the very beginning an user friendly UI (that was always their major weak point in both b2b and b2c segments).

On the one hand, to be user friendly does not mean to lack features, but to keep the unit operating at a basic level while giving the user the opportunity to easy navigate into the more advanced features as their get acquainted to the standard modes. On the other hand, a hard to navigate UI will increase cognitive dissonance and their current base of costumers will be crucial/vital/key to spread the word about the product particularly in the b2c segment.

And a user friendly UI is not something easy to program. It not only depends on technical knowledge, but on several rounds of iterations with beta custumers and the design team. You need to know how the average custumer reacts to an actual version of an UI. They mentioned that they were working with the feedback from the French and Chinese distributors. It just takes time, unfortunately.

To sum up, although somewhat disappointed with the current state of affairs, I like @musicday reasonable and elegant approach. I will wait one more update.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

For me the problem is 4:4:4 32 bit HDR. That won’t come until hdmi 2.1. I think all this new tech needs about 3 years to settle down.

No idea why you'd ever need 32bpc video.

 

[Richter Di]

I think it’s interesting how many people bought the Smyth A16 also bought a Mobius. Are you guys (and gals?) all surround addicts like me? Or is the A16 one of your first surround DSP products?

Addicted to speakers in a headphone. I have the discontinued stationary Philips and portable Panasonic Dolby solutions, a very bad French head tracking solution, I owned the AKG K-1000 with the BAP 1000 (one of the first HRTF based consumer products) and I own software solutions like Out of your head etc.

 

[Fox1977]

I used to own a decent home-theater setup that I had to resell when my son was born (loud movies and babies in an apartment are not fitting fine together), then for a few months I had the Sony 9.1 headphones (that were eventually not that convincing to me) and now I’m using Out Of Your Head that is working really fine for my ears.
With the A16, I’ll step up to the next level of quality and accuracy...

 

[SergioPOE]

I wrote a friendly email to James, who replied that "I must reiterate that the lack of updates is solely down to the hard work of the team getting the A16 ready" and that there will be an update this week.

 

[HairyHook]

I wrote a friendly email to James, who replied that "I must reiterate that the lack of updates is solely down to the hard work of the team getting the A16 ready" and that there will be an update this week.

Fantastic news, gracias. I also sent him a friendly email and he never replied. Looking forward to this update.

 

[musicday]

I wrote a friendly email to James, who replied that "I must reiterate that the lack of updates is solely down to the hard work of the team getting the A16 ready" and that there will be an update this week.

Holla Sergio, you are the man. Suerte

 

[sahmen]

I wrote a friendly email to James, who replied that "I must reiterate that the lack of updates is solely down to the hard work of the team getting the A16 ready" and that there will be an update this week.

Don't get me wrong ; I like this idea of an upcoming update, and the fact that they are working hard to get the A16 ready. if that is true, then more power to them.

I must call total BS, however, on the implication that when one is "working hard," it provides an excuse for ignoring to provide timely updates to clients. For other manufacturers who are more engaged with their customers, it seems the harder they work at a problem, the harder they work to keep their clientele informed. For me, that is called respect (CF. Audeze Mobius, Yarra 3dX, and countless others). "I am working very hard, too hard to have the time to provide updates" would seem to suggest that those who care about providing updates are not working hard enough, or something to that effect... Another name for total BS, whether one is actually aware of it or not.

I really do not enjoy being a fly in the ointment here... However, I am long past my threshold of BS tolerance in this game, and something has got to give.,. Hell, the politicians of our time alone provide enough doses of that BS everyday, more than enough to last me an entire lifetime... I thought one paid for expensive hobbies in order to escape that kind of swamp, hopefully, not to relive it all over again.

Okay, end of rant...

 

[sxr71]

No idea why you'd ever need 32bpc video.

Sorry I meant either 10 or 12 bit per channel. At least 10 is needed for true HDR. So the compromise is 8 and the HDR is messed up or set it to 4:2:2 and the PC text is bad.

 

[TedTimmis]

Don't get me wrong ; I like this idea of an upcoming update, and the fact that they are working hard to get the A16 ready. if that is true, then more power to them.

I must call total BS, however, on the implication that when one is "working hard," it provides an excuse for ignoring to provide timely updates to clients. For other manufacturers who are more engaged with their customers, it seems the harder they work at a problem, the harder they work to keep their clientele informed. For me, that is called respect (CF. Audeze Mobius, Yarra 3dX, and countless others). "I am working very hard, too hard to have the time to provide updates" would seem to suggest that those who care about providing updates are not working hard enough, or something to that effect... Another name for total BS, whether one is actually aware of it or not.

I really do not enjoy being a fly in the ointment here... However, I am long past my threshold of BS tolerance in this game, and something has got to give.,. Hell, the politicians of our time alone provide enough doses of that BS everyday, more than enough to last me an entire lifetime... I thought one paid for expensive hobbies in order to escape that kind of swamp, hopefully, not to relive it all over again.

Okay, end of rant...

I agree 100%! It was particularly galling when one poster said that those who complained were acting “self-entitled.” Smith Unrealized has been abdominal in its misrepresentations, lack of communications and missed deadlines. How can anyone defend this?

 

[teacher1000]

. .

I wrote a friendly email to James, who replied that "I must reiterate that the lack of updates is solely down to the hard work of the team getting the A16 ready" and that there will be an update this week.

That is encouraging, of course. I'm excited to hear what news will be in the update. (Believe me, my wife is sick of hearing me tell her how amazing the A16 is going to be, and me having to explain that we can't get a refund as a kickstarter backer. I want something new to say).

But wait... what amount of hard work would prevent me from spending 15 minutes telling someone else about it? If I had been making excellent progress on a project I'd be bursting with enthusiasm to tell everyone.

If what James says is true then this had better be a tremendous update.
I'm expecting to hear how the software hurdles have been overcome, they have finally applied for dolby licensing, and we now have an expected shipping date (ie not just 4-6 weeks, as we have heard for over a year now)

I know the Smyths are fantastic engineers, and amazing enthusiasts - I've met them and heard the A8 and A16 - but seriously, just keep us updated on progress and get going, instead of pottering along while competitors make strides into the market.

 

[L8MDL]

You set the bar pretty low if you're saying that Comhear with the Yarra3dx communicates well. Last update was in June, product is currently 4 months late with no idea of when it will ship.

 

[musicday]

Don't get me wrong ; I like this idea of an upcoming update, and the fact that they are working hard to get the A16 ready. if that is true, then more power to them.

I must call total BS, however, on the implication that when one is "working hard," it provides an excuse for ignoring to provide timely updates to clients. For other manufacturers who are more engaged with their customers, it seems the harder they work at a problem, the harder they work to keep their clientele informed. For me, that is called respect (CF. Audeze Mobius, Yarra 3dX, and countless others). "I am working very hard, too hard to have the time to provide updates" would seem to suggest that those who care about providing updates are not working hard enough, or something to that effect... Another name for total BS, whether one is actually aware of it or not.

I really do not enjoy being a fly in the ointment here... However, I am long past my threshold of BS tolerance in this game, and something has got to give.,. Hell, the politicians of our time alone provide enough doses of that BS everyday, more than enough to last me an entire lifetime... I thought one paid for expensive hobbies in order to escape that kind of swamp, hopefully, not to relive it all over again.

Okay, end of rant...

Please wait for the update this week and see what they have to say before any comments can be made.
Is all about being optimistic until September