[Kelvin Lee]

What I did to create a 9.1.6ch PRIR with just two stereo speakers (as of today with current firmware 1.75):

This will be a VERY long post.....

I copied the 'multiply speakers' approach of my A8 to create virtual side and rear speakers (by looking backwards). For doing this with the A16, I had to swap the rear and side R+L channels in the PRIR sound room of the A16.

In detail:

The speaker label assignments have to be done in Settings -> PRIR Sound Rooms -> PRIR room 1 (or 2) speaker setup. I used PRIR sound room 2 for this measurement and kept PRIR sound room 1 as a reference. I swapped channels 5<->6 and 7<->8 compared to PRIR sound room 1, so my PRIR sound room 2 looks like this:

• channel 1: Spk = L, Size = L
• channel 2: Spk = R, Size = L
• channel 3: Spk = C, Size = L
• channel 4: Spk = SW, Size = L
• channel 5: Spk = Rss, Size = L
• channel 6: Spk = Lss, Size = L
• channel 7: Spk = Rb, Size = L
• channel 8: Spk = Lb, Size = L
• channel 9: Spk = Lw, Size = L
• channel 10: Spk = Rw, Size = L
• channel 11: Spk = Ltf, Size = L
• channel 12: Spk = Rtf, Size = L
• channel 13: Spk = Ltm, Size = L
• channel 14: Spk = Rtm, Size = L
• channel 15: Spk = Ltr, Size = L
• channel 16: Spk = Rtr, Size = L

After creating PRIR sound room 2:

1. connect the 16-ch Line Output connector 1-2 with a 3.5mm to RCA cable to your stereo system (Poweramp/Preamp/active speakers - make sure to power off your amp before connecting) - Red connector goes to the right speaker and white connector goes to the left speaker. Power on your amp.
2. Go to Apps and
   -> "Subject" and select your user
   -> "Room" and select the PRIR sound room 2
   -> "Phones" and select your headphone
3. Connect the blue grounding wrist-strap to the A16 and ground yourself
4. put the microphones in your ears, connect the mics to the A16 and sit in your listening position
5. Go to Apps -> Calibrate speakers (CAL) -> Speaker select and switch channel 1 (L) and 2 (R) on (green), all the other speakers to off (white)
6. press BACK, go to CAL PRIR Gains and press ENTER, press CAL and then speaker level calibration begins (see manual if the bars are never green or are sometimes red to correct the speaker level)

After level calibration has been done:

1. press BACK and go to PRIR measurements (SPK) in the Apps menu
2. go to Speaker select to check if channels 1 and 2 are still selected and all the others are off, press BACK
3. go to Config look angles and configure the required angles (see manual for configuration options, for me Look azi (+/-30 deg x 1) was ok), rest is switched off, Look angles is fixed, press BACK
   (the procedure below is valid if you measure +/-30 degrees as well, otherwise you will have to adapt)
4. Mode is set to All, Sweep type is set to 12sec overlap

Now we are ready to begin with the PRIR measurement:

1. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements (eg: 'look center' -> look center (0 degrees) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (typically face your left front speaker) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (typically face your right front speaker) and keep still
2. After the 1st measurement (channels 1+2 = L+R) has been done, press BACK
   
   
3. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 1+2 and switch on channel 3 and 4 (center and subwoofer), press BACK
4. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 3-4 and switch your amp on again
5. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, but this time at 'look center' -> look 30 degrees to the left (face your left speaker - this will become your virtual center speaker) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 60 degrees and keep still -> 'look right' -> look center 0 degrees (straight ahead) and keep still
   (by doing this, you just created a virtual center speaker which will sounds exactly as your left front speaker, but in front of you; your right front speaker will become the virtual subwoofer).
6. After the 2nd measurement has been done, press BACK
   
   
7. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 3+4 and switch on channel 5 and 6 (Rss and Lss), press BACK
8. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 5-6 and switch your amp on again
9. Take a chair and sit between your front speakers, facing backwards (180 degrees, looking away from your screen/TV)
10. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, this time at 'look center' -> look 180 degrees backwards and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (approx. where a right rear speaker would be) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (approx. where a left rear speaker would be) and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual side speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the side of you. Your left front speaker will become the virtual right side speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual left side speaker)
11. After the 3rd measurement has been done, press BACK
    
    
12. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 5+6 and switch on channel 7 and 8 (Rb and Lb), press BACK
13. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 7-8 and switch your amp on again
14. sit on your primary seating postion, but facing backwards (180 degrees, looking away from your screen/TV; I have a couch and was just kneeling on it looking backwards)
15. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, at 'look center' -> look 180 degrees backwards and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (approx. where a right rear speaker would be) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (approx. where a left rear speaker would be) and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual rear speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the rear position. Your left front speaker will become the virtual right rear speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual left rear speaker)
16. After the 4th measurement has been done, press BACK
    
    
17. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 7+8 and switch on channel 9 and 10 (Lw and Rw), press BACK
18. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 9-10 and switch your amp on again
19. Starting from your primary listening position, move somewhat closer to the screen/TV, so that your front speakers will be at approx. +/- 60 degrees from you (and will become wide speakers - take a chair again)
20. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, at 'look center' -> look center (0 degrees) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual wide speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the wide position. Your left front speaker will become the virtual left wide speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual right wide speaker)
21. After the 5th measurement has been done, press BACK
    
    
22. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 9+10 and switch on channel 11 and 12 (Ltf and Rtf), press BACK
23. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 11-12 and switch your amp on again
24. Sit on your primary listening position and lower your head (tilt it downwards looking towards the floor) so that your front speakers will be at approx. 45 degrees "above" your head (and will become top front speakers)
25. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, at 'look center' -> look center (still looking downwards to the floor, 0 degrees) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (still towards the floor) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (still towards the floor) and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual top front speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the top front position approx. 45 degrees upwards. Your left front speaker will become the virtual left top front speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual right top front speaker)
26. After the 6th measurement has been done, press BACK
    
    
27. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 11+12 and switch on channel 13 and 14 (Ltm and Rtm), press BACK
28. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 13-14 and switch your amp on again
29. Sit on your primary listening position and lower your head even more (tilt it downwards 90 degrees, looking to the floor) so that your front speakers will be at approx. 90 degrees "above" you (and will become top middle speakers)
30. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, at 'look center' -> look center (but still down to the floor, 0 degrees) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (still to the floor) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (still to the floor) and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual top middle speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the top middle position approx. 90 degrees above you. Your left front speaker will become the virtual left top middle speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual right top middle speaker)
31. After the 7th measurement has been done, press BACK
    
    
32. go to Speaker select, deselect channel 13+14 and switch on channel 15 and 16 (Ltr and Rtr), press BACK
33. Power off your amp, connect the 3.5mm plug to the 16-ch Line Output connector 15-16 and switch your amp on again
34. Sit on your primary listening position and lower your head even more (tilt it further downwards, looking to the floor below and behind of you) so that your front speakers will be at approx. 45 degrees "above and behind" of you and will become top rear speakers (I have to say this is a quite uncomfortable position - lucky nobody else sees you when you are doing this....)
35. go to SPK and press SPK button -> follow the announcements, at 'look center' -> look center (but still down to the floor behind of you, 0 degrees) and keep still -> 'look left' -> look left 30 degrees (still to the floor) and keep still -> 'look right' -> look right 30 degrees (still to the floor) and keep still
    (by doing this, you just created virtual top rear speakers which will sounds exactly as your front speakers, but on the top rear position approx. 45 degrees behind and above you. Your left front speaker will become the virtual left top rear speaker and the right front speaker will become the virtual right top rear speaker)
36. After the 8th measurement has been done, press ENTER to save your 9.1.6ch PRIR !

• With the microphones still in the ear canal, do a proper HPEQ (autoEQ)
• Do not forget to copy the PRIR and HPEQ files from the circular recycle buffers to the permanent storage and/or SD card
• Remove the microphones and - if you can - do a HPEQ (manSPK) and compare the L+R speakers with the virtual L+R speakers

With this procedure, your head movement will be always the same - looking center and then 30 degrees to the left and 30 degrees to the right (30 degrees being relative to the position you where looking at the 'look center' position - be it backwards or towards the floor).

Enjoy !!!!!!!!

You can improve accuracy of the head tracking when switching on head tracking during measurements and watch the actual angle of your head position. On the A16 display in the right top corner there are small head tracking angles updated whenever you move your head. To be able to watch those tiny HT numbers at the same time you move your head, a "remote display" of the A16 display will come in handy. For doing so I tested the following: point the camera of an iPad towards the A16 display and use FaceTime (video call) to call an iPhone. Use the iPhone as remote display of the A16 display. This works - but with all those cables, head tracker on your head, lowering your head looking center, left and right and watching your iPhone at the same time you will look like a complete freak to others..... But what the heck - the final result will rock you !

One additional remark: The A8 has a 'multiply speakers' routine for creating a virtual speaker system (eg: 7.0) with a pair of stereo speakers. The A8 creates a virtual center channel by combining the R and L measured front speakers (as if you would listen to a mono source over your stereo speakers). This A8 virtual center speaker sounded well. After creating my first A16 PRIR and (just out of curiosity) using my left front speaker and measure it as a real center speaker as I described above, I have to say that this virtual speaker sounds better compared to the virtual center speaker the A8 created virtually.

Final remark:
Thank you to Smyth Research for allowing me to create a virtual system in my headphone I could never ever built in real live !! It sounds fantastic !!

Just watched some movies and it's brilliant - never heard a T-Rex like this.

I Guys I try this mehtod end up with 8 PRIR file, but when I play movie totaly no sound, in the diagram can see a16 receive atmos signal . BTW after the measurement the progress bar full and complete need to press back to exit right?

 

[sander99]

I Guys I try this mehtod end up with 8 PRIR file, but when I play movie totaly no sound, in the diagram can see a16 receive atmos signal . BTW after the measurement the progress bar full and complete need to press back to exit right?

I don't have my A16 yet and didn't try myself, but I hope this is helpful:
It seems to me like you are confusing 2 different methods. Rene Lou describes a method to create one 9.1.6 PRIR, not 8 PRIRs. And of course in both cases, 1 or 8 PRIRs, you have to create an (I assume Atmos-) room in a preset using the PRIR(s) you measured, and load that preset.
Note, to create 1 complete 9.1.6 PRIR:
After the first 7 measurement steps you press BACK, like in:

2. After the 1st measurement (channels 1+2 = L+R) has been done, press BACK
...
31. After the 7th measurement has been done, press BACK

But after the 8th measurement you press ENTER:

36. After the 8th measurement has been done, press ENTER to save your 9.1.6ch PRIR !

If you make 8 different PRIRs then you have to press ENTER after each measurement step.
If you only used BACK and never pressed ENTER nothing was saved!

 

[Kelvin Lee]

I don't have my A16 yet and didn't try myself, but I hope this is helpful:
It seems to me like you are confusing 2 different methods. Rene Lou describes a method to create one 9.1.6 PRIR, not 8 PRIRs. And of course in both cases, 1 or 8 PRIRs, you have to create an (I assume Atmos-) room in a preset using the PRIR(s) you measured, and load that preset.
Note, to create 1 complete 9.1.6 PRIR:
After the first 7 measurement steps you press BACK, like in:

But after the 8th measurement you press ENTER:


If you make 8 different PRIRs then you have to press ENTER after each measurement step.
If you only used BACK and never pressed ENTER nothing was saved!

When I press back, is will go to the page where you can select cal or spk etc. And nth is saved, and end up with only 2 speaker saved ( last 2)

 

[sander99]

When I press back, is will go to the page where you can select cal or spk etc. And nth is saved, and end up with only 2 speaker saved ( last 2)

I don't think I can help you any further. Without an A16 I can not check if Rene Lou's 'recipe' is correct to the last letter and detail. Sorry.

 

[PROTIEUS]

Hi all first post got my unit. Did blue strap. Mic tones. Ect. And got too say
Not impressed Much. Do get effect about
4 inch from head on . Need to learn more tho
Will be my settings. This us not an plug and play toy for sure..

Just wait and watch on this forum for tutorials..

 

[Richter Di]

Hi all first post got my unit. Did blue strap. Mic tones. Ect. And got too say
Not impressed Much. Do get effect about
4 inch from head on . Need to learn more tho
Will be my settings. This us not an plug and play toy for sure..

Just wait and watch on this forum for tutorials..

Welcome!
Just with measuring the headphones with the inEars will not help a lot.
You either have to measure real loudspeakers and then in the same go the headphones,
Or, you do a flatEQ first for your headphone (no measurement needed) and then the manLoud for the Left, Center, Right in one go.
You combine this with one of the rooms (BBC, Surrey) and you have something pretty convincing for movies.

 

[Fox1977]

Hi all first post got my unit. Did blue strap. Mic tones. Ect. And got too say
Not impressed Much. Do get effect about
4 inch from head on . Need to learn more tho
Will be my settings. This us not an plug and play toy for sure..

Just wait and watch on this forum for tutorials..

Hi ! Congrats for receiving the A16 !
With a generic room, it's a bit like flipping a coin... if you are lucky, it works great straight away. If not, it needs some tweaking to improve the result...
You were a Kickstarter backer ? If so, which number were you ? Thanks !

 

[sander99]

Did blue strap. Mic tones. Ect. And got too say
Not impressed Much.

What did you do? Only measure the headphones (HPEQ measurement) or also speakers (PRIR measurement)?
And did you carefully check the position of the in-ear microphones, check that they didn't move out of the correct position? Best is to have another person with you to do that.

 

[PROTIEUS]

Thanks for your help. Thank you.
Very I'll atm. Will do a full set up again. Soon.

I just followed the videos. On
Of youtube.
No out put to any speakers yet.
Got a samsung soundbar q90r coming soon. Will that help
Thanks for all your help.

 

[sander99]

Got a samsung soundbar q90r coming soon. Will that help

Apart from the fact that a soundbar is not the ideal perfect sounding system (although for practising measurements - and to at least have something fully personalised - it could have been nice if there hadn't been the following problem):
I am afraid not. It is hopeless because there is no way you can get multi channel measurement sweeps into the soundbar! (I looked in the manual).
At best maybe you can get 2 channel measurements sweeps in it (I don't even see an analog stereo input, so this would already require the use of some additional equipment, I won't even go into the possibilities to do this because I don't think it is worth the trouble).

A simple old fashioned stereo amp plus 2 speakers (or even just 1 speaker) would be more suitable already!

 

[PROTIEUS]

Wow thank you all for the great tips.
I've got an amp for transducers. I will buy a speaker. Does quality matter ?
Good speaker or very good speaker...
Any speaker. ? Would live to get the best sound from this a16

And video on how too do sweep with speaker ?

Thanks

 

[PROTIEUS]

Next question. The head tracking unit. Says must go above my tv..
But I live in bed tv on wall high slanting down. My head height is at the bottom of the TV.
So can the HTC live under the TV.
Thoughts.
Thank you

 

[sander99]

I've got an amp for transducers. I will buy a speaker. Does quality matter ?

You should think carefully what you want to achieve with it in relation to the cost. The room acoustics are also very important for getting a very good result.
Not all properties of the speaker are important for the measurement. But neutral frequency response is important. (Frequency range in the low end not.)
Maybe an idea is to buy an old used speaker (or pair) of reasonable quality to practise the measurement process.
And with the result you can try - I also am planning to do this - how much the virtual system can be improved with a few tricks like reducing reverberation time and using a generic virtual subwoofer (because for the sub it is less or maybe even not at all critical to be personalised to you), or direct bass (but I think that is not yet working properly?).

If you have mastered the measurement process you could try to find another system to measure (in a studio, in a friends house, ...).

 

[audiohobbit]

direct bass (but I think that is not yet working properly?).

Why do you think that?
I haven't tried it yet with the A16 but used it extensively with the A8 and it worked very good so far. I can't see a reason why it shouldn't work with the A16. Do you know s.th. i do not?
Direct bass is very dry though, you have to get used to it. I think I prefer, as you mentioned, a sub of the factory PRIRs, BBC or Surrey.

 

[sander99]

Why do you think that?
I haven't tried it yet with the A16 but used it extensively with the A8 and it worked very good so far. I can't see a reason why it shouldn't work with the A16. Do you know s.th. i do not?
Direct bass is very dry though, you have to get used to it. I think I prefer, as you mentioned, a sub of the factory PRIRs, BBC or Surrey.

Oh, that probably has been a misunderstanding then. When I visited Richter Di I mentioned direct bass and he said that there were problems with it, but now I suspect he confused direct bass with the SVS bass function (issue 5 in your list?).