[J.Villain]

Assembling and putting together each unit by hand, testing, measuring, adding the firmware and wherever else it may be needed for the A16 to be ready for shipping is a complicate and slow and expensive process. This is how I see it. Most likely we will get our units , and after that Smyth may look for new partners, to cover the cost of mass production, otherwise the price will increase if they will have to make them as before per customer request.
Still time left in January for another update.

I'm still not convinced. The HDMI board is just a plain off the shelf item available to any one. The main board may be custom but I think I read some where it to was a plain off the shelf arm unit. Either way if the board was designed with any standard CAD software the design should be transferable and low rate board fab is available every where. If I remeber right there is s seperate IO board for the connectors that is attached with a ribbon cable. That looked custom but again nothing terrible to fab. Loading a ROM isn't any thing hard. Assembly of the main components can probably be done by a high school kid. If not get it done in Asia. The only part that is likely to be difficult is the actual testing and they said a good chunk of that was now automated. The real costs are the design, software and certification/licencing. The first three are mostly complete and don't have large outlays ahead. The licensing is likely done on a per unit basis. They may not have the resources to run off a batch of 100 currently. But with the margins as high as they are now if they had 100 preorders with money up front you can bet real money they would pull the trigger.

 

[innocentblood]

I do think it would be strange that since they are now in business with Heavenly Sound, they would be unable to sell the A16 to the general public. I thought the purpose of partnering up with Heavenly Sound was to sell more units of the A16, after fulfilling their obligations to the original backers and those who pre-ordered.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Not unexpected news. From a mass production standpoint, since so much of this is really just software, it does not make a whole bunch of sense to mass produce a super expensive and ultra complex niche piece of hardware when you can simply sell a software license (for still a huge premium) and have other people make their own devices.

Look at what Creative is doing; they are selling very simple, very cheap devices with similar (albeit less effective) personal calibration features, minus a whole bunch of the hardware features and certs the Realizer has/will have, and their plan is to basically get the public aware of the functionality with their own (much cheaper less feature-rich) hardware first and then sell their X-fi calibration and "stamp" to whoever else wants it. I think this is the route to take honestly if you want more market penetration.

This echos everything I've been writing for the past two years.
1. Ramping up from a prototype and/or limited edition to a fully available to the public commercial product is a choke point for all these kick starters.
2. The real value of the product is the software, and it could just as easily and far more economically run on a Mac, Linux, or Windows platform.
3. The other sticking point for a project like this is the customer service including especially in this case the "Realizer Exchange" because the product is no good to anyone without rooms and speakers to emulate.

It looks like maybe Smyth will drop a boat anchor with half finished software on it and tell its investors to figure it out for themselves.

 

[audiohobbit]

I wonder how they did it back then with the A8? There was no KS going on, they invested their own money* and managed to do "mass" (?) production.
The housings, the remote control, the headtracker (sender and receiver) are all proprietary pieces of hardware.

*) Which they do also with the A16, I'm pretty sure about that.

And I think they didn't make much money with the A8, despite the cost of 3000 punds/euros.
Does anyone have a clue how many A8 they sold?

Licensing: They offered licensing of the SVS algorithm for years, but afaik no company wanted to apply it to one of their products. I think the problem that big companies see/saw is the complicated HRTF personalization process.

 

[Anakin1976]

@ Richter Di:
I saw in another forum (about the Super X-Fi) that you already possess the Super X-Fi Amp.
Did you already watch some movies (e.g. Dolby Atmos or 7.1.) with the Super X-Fi Amp using the Sennheiser HD800? What are your first impressions?
I've ordered two devices and hope they allow an enjoyable experience until the Realiser A16 finally arrives......

 

[Richter Di]

@ Richter Di:
I saw in another forum (about the Super X-Fi) that you already possess the Super X-Fi Amp.
Did you already watch some movies (e.g. Dolby Atmos or 7.1.) with the Super X-Fi Amp using the Sennheiser HD800? What are your first impressions?
I've ordered two devices and hope they allow an enjoyable experience until the Realiser A16 finally arrives......

No films so far but a lot of music. As soon as you have started using the Super XFi, there is no going back.
When I hear pur audio books the reverb is a bit much and I prefer the Audeze Mobius.

 

[Sordel]

No films so far but a lot of music. As soon as you have started using the Super XFi, there is no going back.
When I hear pur audio books the reverb is a bit much and I prefer the Audeze Mobius.

You and I seem to have been up & down this road for the last couple of years, what with Ossic and the A16. I'm wondering whether I can possible justify the SXFI Air ... I feel like I'm chasing a dream that keeps getting further away from me.

 

[Anakin1976]

As soon as I'll receive my 2 Super X-Fi Amps I'll test them in my home cinema room.
Unfortunately I couldn't attend any demos of the Realiser A16. Therefore I won't be able to compare them.
Bute I'm sure there are members in this forum who can!
Please report your impressions in case you already compared the A16 and the Super X-Fi Amp regarding the experience of listening to movies (7.1 oder Atmos).
It's definitely time for some virtual / holographic sound..... (I didn't buy any speakers > 1y ago because I wanted to use exclusively the Realiser A16 right from the start (now I'm using bluetooth speakers and the HD800s wait for better times)). Because of this I'll be probably happy also with an inferior system like the Super X-Fi...).

 

[illram]

Re: Super X-Fi, I can't remember if I posted this here or not (I think I did) but I'll repost it anyway:

I can only attest to Super X-Fi in games not movies. In games its front and rear cues are very good, if you calibrate it and use headphones on its list (I am using HD800S). It is rare for a VSS DSP to actually achieve real front cues, but the X-Fi does it and it is very convincing.

It is better than Out of Your Head, to my ears, which is the second best I have ever tried compared to all the other consumer generic HRTF's out there. (SBX, Sennheiser, etc.) That is as close to an A16 (OOYH uses A8 PRIR's if I remember correctly) as I have ever gotten, so I cannot compare the two. Obviously when it comes to other features, like what it decodes and its inputs (X-Fi is PCM, USB-C only!) the X-Fi is not even in the same universe as the A16. (They are apparently releasing an X-Fi TV product with HDMI inputs, and of course knowing our luck that will probably be released before the A16, so we will see what that can do!)

Audio quality is where opinions differ. It's definitely sounding like it is in a large room, and I would not use it for music listening. You're missing the A16's speaker simulation abilities and really this product should solely be seen as an accurate surround sound virtualizer first, with audio fidelity coming second. I mean it doesn't sound bad, but it is just sort of overdoing the "speakers in a big room" virtualization part, to me. That's why I recommend people use this for games and maybe movies only, not music.

If you're waiting for an A16, it's $150, so it's a reasonably priced toy to hold you over until the big daddy arrives...

 

[musicday]

I am positive that once A16 is released they will improve it via the software updates.
I need the A16, and a Dave and I am done for a long time with the audio gear.

 

[Richter Di]

You and I seem to have been up & down this road for the last couple of years, what with Ossic and the A16. I'm wondering whether I can possible justify the SXFI Air ... I feel like I'm chasing a dream that keeps getting further away from me.

Oh yes, a long and winding road. I even bought the AKG K-1000 with the BAP 1000. Did not work for me.

Audio quality is where opinions differ. It's definitely sounding like it is in a large room, and I would not use it for music listening. You're missing the A16's speaker simulation abilities and really this product should solely be seen as an accurate surround sound virtualizer first, with audio fidelity coming second. I mean it doesn't sound bad, but it is just sort of overdoing the "speakers in a big room" virtualization part, to me. That's why I recommend people use this for games and maybe movies only, not music.

I use it only for music and it is clearly not an A16 as it has too much reverb. But the out of head effect is worth the price and it is a lot of fun.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Oh yes, a long and winding road. I even bought the AKG K-1000 with the BAP 1000. Did not work for me.



I use it only for music and it is clearly not an A16 as it has too much reverb. But the out of head effect is worth the price and it is a lot of fun.

Remember this is an initial product offering. Once it's out there, there's no reason Creative can't improve and refine it. And the fact that they'll have customers, and be generating cash from sales may make them a better bet than Smyth to produce realistic sound virtualization through headphones in any number of commercially available products. After all, it's not where you start, it's where you end up.

 

[Richter Di]

Remember this is an initial product offering. Once it's out there, there's no reason Creative can't improve and refine it. And the fact that they'll have customers, and be generating cash from sales may make them a better bet than Smyth to produce realistic sound virtualization through headphones in any number of commercially available products. After all, it's not where you start, it's where you end up.

I guess you are right.

 

[Got the Shakes]

Remember this is an initial product offering. Once it's out there, there's no reason Creative can't improve and refine it. And the fact that they'll have customers, and be generating cash from sales may make them a better bet than Smyth to produce realistic sound virtualization through headphones in any number of commercially available products. After all, it's not where you start, it's where you end up.

I imagine that is exactly what they’re going to do. What they are selling now is besically a low end proof of concept. If I remember correctly, when they first demoed the Super Xfi stuff they actually did a demo where they took measurements using sweeps and in ear mics which the reporters on hand said was nearly indistinguishable from an Atmos speaker setup so it sounds like they’re already experimenting with different products and different routes to getting ear measurements.

 

[336881]

Any chance this thread could be closed till there is a few A16's out in the wild?