[dsperber]

But,i think, the good news is that we have options to pass the A16 DAC, and amp, and use our own?

Is that correct?

Correct.

The A16 offers optical/coax digital output option for the 2-channel stereo SVS-processed headphone output as well, bypassing the internal built-in DAC and amp. The digital output offers you the option of utilizing your own external DAC/amp.

 

[Rozeqloud]

Correct.

The A16 offers optical/coax digital output option for the 2-channel stereo SVS-processed headphone output as well, bypassing the internal built-in DAC and amp. The digital output offers you the option of utilizing your own external DAC/amp.

Cheers again mate

 

[Richter Di]

With no updates from Smyth,does anybody know where we are in the Kickstarter list? 30 / 40 / 50 ...?

 

[Fox1977]

With no updates from Smyth,does anybody know where we are in the Kickstarter list? 30 / 40 / 50 ...?

Last week i think KS#49 mentioned receiving his unit or the email for address confirmation, so i'd say they have reached somewhere in the 50s...

 

[VandyMan]

Has anyone tried the A16 with closed-back headphones? (I plan to mainly use my STAX SR009, but may use closed-back headphones late at night.)

 

[jgazal]

If you refer to the reduced mute time with the new FW: This affects only the digital input. Analog has no problem with mute time (because it's always "listening").
With the analog stereo in however I encounter relatively high and somewhat strange noise level at higher volumes (with the Audeze LCD2, Gain high and digital volume over 60).

Got an email from James with advise to use the new FW. I think everyone with the A16 got this?

It was actually the first time I used the A16 with a PRIR and HPEQ made with microphones in my ears.
I could not use spdif to run the PRIR and HPEQ apps.
I believe now I can play everything through SPDIF.
The firmware update was only an observation not related to the bugs mentioned in this thread.
I have not encountered any problems so far.
I need to test/use it more frequently though to be sure everything is okay.
I am getting used to it.

 

[sander99]

But,i think, the good news is that we have options to pass the A16 DAC, and amp, and use our own?

Even for both users A and B independently. So you can connect two DAC/amps if you want. Or one and let the second user use the internal DAC and amp of the A16. (The two users can not share one external DAC/amp because for each user a seperate stereo headphone signal is generated.)

 

[bcwang]

Have any of you seen this bug?

Normally when using A16, the power light is green, when the unit is powered off, the light is orange.

However, sometimes when I power off A16 for the night. Next time I look at it the power light is off. The remote cannot turn it on. The buttons cannot turn it on. I have to unplug the unit and then plug it back in to get it to boot up and be operational. I've never had it turn off when it's on, it seems to only happen when it was in the off/standy state where the orange light goes away and it's completely unresponsive.

By the way, anyone know a way to turn off the A16 without using the remote?

I am running firmware 160 now but still see the same bug with the unit going completely off (no lights, no remote response, no button response) if turned off for a while. Unplug-replug is the only way to recover. So I guess this is not the "stall" bug they fixed in 160.

I haven't seen anyone else mention this bug yet, am I the only one seeing it?

 

[audiohobbit]

Pretty quiet here...

Yesterday I also updated the FW to 1.60. First time I used a micro SD card with the A16. Everything was set up correctly. I put it in the slot and powered up with the volume knob and for the first time I got the white splash screen. It had definitely to do with the SD card. SD card out, normal start up, SD card in, white splash screen.
Anyway I decided to start the FW update routine and that worked. After that the white splash screen problem with the SD card was gone.

I tried playing CD and mp3 via HDMI in. The 10s mute is now down to about 0.5 s I'd say. Much better but not perfect. Still misses the beginning of some songs. I also encountered the "stutter" (as dsperber described it "Ta-Ta") after skipping etc. when the stream starts again.
Then I tried SPDIF (optical) and there it seems you don't have that problem. Just 0.5 s mute time and "soft" un-mute, as you expect!

So I recommend for 2ch PCM sources use SPDIF!

With a 5ch SACD converted to PCM by the Oppo and sent via HDMI there isn't this problem either.

So: CDs, mp3s via SPDIF, multichannel PCM stuff via HDMI (anyway only works via HDMI).

After 2h of listening and watching trailers I powered down the unit with the remote but the LED stayed green, only the display went dark. But this was only the background lighting. With a close look you could still see that info is displayes, only backlight off (it's the same when you set up the automatic display off timer: it only shuts off the backlight).
I then pressed the volume knob for 3 seconds and the unit turned off regularly.
Have to check this tonight if it does it again.

The SVS Bass setting is still flawed, still emits some very strange noise in the bass via headphones!

As I understand this it can also act as kind of subsonic filter, and I'd need this (did it externally with the A8, but want to use the internal amp etc. now).

I can't understand why it seems that no one else ever ran into bass overload problems with the headphones with bass heavy movie sound tracks and at higher volume.
Yesterday I ran the well known Dolby Atmos trailer Amaze (YT link: but I downloaded it, don't know if YT works on my player with Atmos)

When the "Powerful Bass" played, it overloaded my Audeze LCD2! Had heavy distortions, not good for the headphones (Gain set high, digital volume over 70, maybe near 80). I know that a subsonic filter helps to avoid this (with the external DSP I had it set at about 30 Hz, don't know the filter slope, maybe just 12dB/oct).
Didn't try the Amaze trailer with that setup but the THX Amazing Life. This also very bass heavy. and some movies I have also (one scene for example X Men 3, at the end when the Juggernaut runs throgh the walls).

I would be happy if someone else would test the SVS Bass function, but as I advised with cheap headphones.

At least for me it would be an important function if it does what I expect (when seto minus x dB). I still have to measure the ouput FR.


After the FW update unfortunately I still have the problem that my presets don't get loaded correctly and the headphones remain silent! Also changing the input is often not recognized.
I wildly change inputs, users and presets back and forth that somehow I'll get sound on the headphones.
When in the preset menu and it says reload, and I press enter, it still again says reload. I have no idea what I do wrong.
My presets are totally straightforward 9.1.6, 7.1 and 5.1 from the Surrey room, always chose Select all speakers. Very simple.
My HPEQ is manLOUD based on an autoHPEQ I made for the LCD2.
The 9.1.6 and 7.1 exist each with and without upmixer, so it's 5 presets I set up and use (or at least try to...) depending on the content.


By the way concerning preset selection: Yes it's cumbersome as it is now, but pressing PA+number key I don't find much better.
My suggestion would be: When in speaker map display press enter (because the enter key doesn't do anything in speaker map display I assume) and you get a menu with a list of presets, you navigate to the preset you want, press enter, and it gets loaded.
The list of presets should have the number on the left (with blue or green background depending on user A or B) and the name (or better a name you can assign by yourself!) on the right.
And I would say display max. 4 presets per menu page in bigger letter so that you still can read this from a distance!
Because the Smyths didn't think of operating the unit as many of us do: unit in the shelve and sitting 2-3 metres away. I'm glad that at least they implemented the big numbers when changing the volume, as I proposed to them few years ago!

And a similar type of selection menu I wish to have for input selection.

 

[audiohobbit]

PS: Forgot some sources for trailer downloads.

I put them into a post in my thread from my signature: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/smy...equests-tips-and-tricks.915293/#post-15213267

 

[Eich1eeF]

Because the Smyths didn't think of operating the unit as many of us do: unit in the shelve and sitting 2-3 metres away.

I hope this will become a non-issue when then A16 can be controlled via its web server. For those basic functions, any old smartphone or tablet should be an improvement over the IR remote control, despite the lack of tactile feedback.

 

[dsperber]

My continuing usage of the A16 has triggered another thought for an "improvement" suggestion, to perhaps be added to the list we pass on to Smyth periodically if others agree.

Both the A8 and A16 have in-memory "currently active" configurations for all presets. The A8 has 4 presets while the A16 has 16, but each in-memory preset is always initially populated with the full set of preset configuration values at power-on. Thereafter you can make changes dynamically, to any configuration value unique by preset while in any preset, and the in-memory value cells for that preset will be changed accordingly. They are not lost when changing to another preset, so navigating to another preset simply now "loads" whatever the current in-memory configuration values are for that new preset. And navigating back to the original preset will once again restore whatever in-memory configuration values were last in effect for that preset.

So with the A8 the in-memory set of preset configuration values is always populated at power-on from the NVRAM stored initial preset-specific values (only overwritten via "save preset"), after which they are eligible for change. And the stored NVRAM values for each preset are not changed unless overwritten by a manual "save preset" operation. With the A16 the NVRAM stored preset-specific values are also always loaded at power-on and used to populate the in-memory preset configuration values. But with the A16 these NVRAM stored preset-specific values are ALWAYS SAVED AT POWER-OFF. So power-off/on simply "continues" the state of each preset to whatever its last set of values was across the power-off/on state toggle.

Given this design difference between A8 and A16 across power-off/on, the behavior of each device is at least understandable and consistent. However we've already talked about the desirability of altering the A16 behavior to match that of the A8 at least for VOLUME. In other words, with the A8 no matter how much you change any preset dynamically during a power-on session, when you power the A8 off and then power it back on, the initial VOLUME levels are always reset back to the stored NVRAM value for that preset. Of course with the A8 so are ALL of the preset values initialized from the NVRAM set, but in particular this VOLUME one is really important just because how we might normally adjust volume during listening to assorted content, and then power off, and then power on later not remembering how low or high we might have last left the volume. It's a good thing to have a pre-defined initial power-on VOLUME level. So we've previously suggested the idea of modifying the A16 to also have a special preset-specific manually stored NVRAM initial default user-set VOLUME level, that is always used to populate AT POWER-ON the in-memory volume value for that preset.

==> ADD "POWER-ON INITIAL VOLUME" TO BE A NEW STORED NVRAM CONFIGURATION VALUE FOR EACH PRESET (this has already been noted in previous discussions)

I would like to newly suggest that the INPUT configuration parameter, which is currently not even preset-specific but is actually a "global" system setting, be reengineered to in fact BE PRESET-SPECIFIC!

And furthermore, I would like to suggest that INPUT (as newly designed to be preset-specific) also be stored in NVRAM (like VOLUME) for each preset as the power-on initial state of INPUT for that preset.

==> MAKE "INPUT" PRESET-SPECIFIC, AND ADD "POWER-ON INITIAL INPUT" TO BE A NEW STORED NVRAM CONFIGURATION VALUE FOR EACH PRESET (my new suggestion)

Obviously the A16 will have to be enhanced to support a new "write preset to NVRAM" function, if/whenever the user wants to update the stored "power-on initial" values for VOLUME and INPUT.

And these new NVRAM storage locations for preset-specific initial power-on VOLUME and INPUT can be used at power-on to simply auto-populate the very same existing "saved at power-off" values which are used today to restore the initial values at power-on to supposedly be what they were at last power-off. By simply substituting at power-on the NVRAM values for VOLUME and INPUT (thus erasing whatever might have been automatically saved at last power-off) very little has to be changed in the software. it doesn't really matter if current VOLUME and INPUT for a given preset get saved or not at power-off in order to be reloaded at next power-on. Doesn't matter, because the preset-specific NVRAM "initial power-on" values for VOLUME and INPUT will ALWAYS be used at power-on to fill the in-memory VOLUME and INPUT values for each preset at power-on which will then be used to reload the in-memory presets Doesn't matter what VOLUME and INPUT value was last in effect in-memory for any preset at power-off, because the NVRAM values for VOLUME and INPUT will always be used at power-on.

But again, the A16 will need to be enhanced to support a new "write power-on initial VOLUME and INPUT to NVRAM" function.


For example, my own preset 01 is a 5.1 room normally fed by my BDP-103 (output audio set to LPCM, video 1080p to my Panny 65VT50 through HDMI1-in of my AVR). I normally watch either standard HD BluRay/DVD discs or DD5.1 HDTV through this source. The BDP-103 HDMI2-out (audio only) is connected to HDMI1-in of the A16. So I'd like preset 01 to specify HDMI1 as its "power-on initial input".

In contrast, my own preset 05 is a 9.1.6 room normally fed by my UDP-203 (output audio set to BITSTREAM, video capable of 2160p if I ever upgrade to a 4K TV and 4K/Atmos AVR through HDMI2-in of my AVR). I normally watch Roku Ultra internet streaming and 4K/Atmos discs through this source. The UDP-203 HDMI2-out (audio only) is connected to HDMI2-in of the A16. So I'd like preset 05 to specify HDMI2 as its "power-on initial input".

I might (and surely will) want another preset allocated to listen to 2-channel stereo CD audio. Given the current issues regarding CD via HDMI (improved but not 100% fixed with 1.60 firmware), I might want to configure this preset for analog line input as the "power-on initial input". Furthermore, I would probably want the VOLUME much lower for this input, as CD audio is generally at a pretty level.

By having fixed preset-specific initial power-on defaults not only for VOLUME but also for INPUT. That way navigating from one preset to another carries not only the room characteristics with it but also the initial VOLUME and INPUT (source) for that room. It's one less thing otherwise involving pretty much mandatory every-time clumsy multiple remote navigations and button presses to perform each and every time you ever use that preset.

And if we figure out a workable way to "randomly DIRECT-SELECT a preset" with minimal/intuitive button presses (given the absence of hard-wired preset buttons on the A16 remote as there are on the A8 remote), we we will be inventing a more user-friendly notion of what a "preset" carries with it and how to select it.

 

[hadron70]

the A16 will need to be enhanced to support a new "write power-on initial VOLUME and INPUT to NVRAM" function
...
randomly DIRECT-SELECT a preset

Along with the elaborated SOLO scheme, for my priorities such functions belong at the very bottom of Smyth's ToDo list.

 

[Eich1eeF]

Along with the elaborated SOLO scheme, for my priorities such functions belong at the very bottom of Smyth's ToDo list.

I would consider a default power-on volume and input a rather useful feature. As for the direct access to arbitrary presets, I hope that'll come with the web control.

 

[jazzfan]

Not a high priority, but as a future enhancement request, it should be possible to replace the current head-tracking system with a small front-facing camera combined with facial recognition and motion detection software. I believe such a system would not only be more aesthetically pleasing than the current head-tracking system but also could have the potential to accommodate an unlimited range of three-dimensional look-angles. Is this idea worthy enough to add to the feature request list?