[sander99]

My repaired and upgraded A-16 is supposed to ship back to me today.

You mean that you got a recent message about that from Smyth, like today or yesterday?
That would be good news as it could mean that they will soon restart shipping other units.

 

[sander99]

About atmos top speakers:
I have seen contradicting information about where exactly they should be positioned.
The A16 manual mentions 60 degrees elevation, at azimuth 45, 90, and 135 degrees left and right.
But the dolby guidelines I think suggest that for example the middle top speakers are at 45 degrees elevation, and that the three top speakers on each side are in one straight line (so the front and rear top speakers would be at an even shallower elevation angle).
So, what should we do?

 

[Got the Shakes]

My repaired and upgraded A-16 is supposed to ship back to me today.

@jazzfan - Thanks for creating that PRIR. I'm hoping to audition the Dutch & Dutch speakers once things fully reopen here in NYC, so I'm especially interested.

Great to hear! Hopefully this means that units sent for upgrades as well as Kickstarter units start being shipped out soon as well.

 

[sahmen]

These are PA stands, as I already linked earlier. PA speakers usually have a "hole" (in the ground, like the Hobbit ...) at the bottom to fit onto the pole of the stand.
Look here for example, picture no. 8: https://www.thomann.de/intl/the_box_pa502_fullrangesystem.htm

Your normal speakers don't have this. And still you'd need a tilting adapter.

Okay, I sort of get much of that, however, I have the option to use a set of speakers for height/Atmos that are particularly flexible and versatile in their mounting options, and I would be interested in finding out whether I cannot find some way for them to play nice with these stands, just for taking the PRIR measurements for Height/Atmos Speakers: My actual HT is going to be either 7.1.4 or 9.1.6, and in each case, they're made up of a combination of Polk Audio LSIM series speakers, and Polk 900 LS ceiling speakers.

I currently live in an apartment temporarily, and cannot, therefore, install any ceiling speakers (the 900 LS's), although I do have at least one 7.1 speaker system already in place, to which I am trying to add some provisional Atmos/height speaker functionality, and that is what makes these Polk Owm5 speakers interesting, as provisional solutions.

They are also conveniently timbre-matched with the LSIM speakers that are already in place, which is an added bonus, The owm 5s look like this:

They also come with mounting brackets that enable them to be placed in very diverse height, surround and angled positions, such as those shown in these diagrams:

If I can find me a couple of 8ft stands that would play nice with two of these speakers, I could easily rig them up for the height/Atmos PRIR measurements of my 7.1.4 and 9.1.6 configurations right here in my apartment.

That is what has got me thinking of those cheap Pyle Tripod Stands, although I need to get them in my hands before I can find out what I can make them do

 

[VandyMan]

You mean that you got a recent message about that from Smyth, like today or yesterday?
That would be good news as it could mean that they will soon restart shipping other units.

Yes. My unit was sent back for repair in February, so I imagine I was near the top of the list.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Yes. My unit was sent back for repair in February, so I imagine I was near the top of the list.

Mine was sent in January. I hope to be hearing from James Smyth any day now, if you are hearing from them. (I hope!)

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I really don't want to kill myself while doing similar things as @jazzfan - does anyone know what height-adjustable stands the Smyth's are using?

I guess you can see them here: http://imagizer.imageshack.com/a/img921/5577/rSVKwI.jpg

EDIT: Sure I could ask them via email but I don't really want to bother them at the moment.

Pair of those would be real nice. Note how they aim the ceiling speakers so as to correct their directivity (which would be horrific if they were just pointed straight ahead), which, to my mind, is one of the biggest drawbacks of using ATMOS.

 

[Eich1eeF]

Haha, dammit. Looks like it's back to the drawing board for me then, because I was trying to decide which inane way to approach this myself, which included ladders, shelves, a custom suspension arm etc. It would be a whole lot easier if I could simply find a single speaker stand that would go up as high as I need it to (similar to those being used in the Smyth demo videos), although I don't really feel like paying $1,000 for one either. Guess I'll just have to email them and hope they can supply the info I need.

You're off by an order of magnitude. You can buy tripods with 50kg max load for less than a tenth of that https://www.musicstore.com/en_IE/EU...-max-50-kg-Aluminium-Black/art-PAH0000556-000 or with a winch: https://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR...-50kg-belastbar-mit-Kurbel/art-PAH0000553-000

If your speakers are so "small" that you even consider using a tripod, 50kg max should be enough. You may have to budget for a table-like attachment to go on top of the tripod to place your speakers on, but I can't find one of those at the moment. Alternatively, rent the whole kit for a day or two at a place that rents PAs, they have even more robust tripods.

 

[Eich1eeF]

What's everyone doing for room correction when performing those 1 or 2 speaker PRIR recording sessions? Do you just pipe the test signal through your regular AV-processor, cobble together something else, or skip it entirely, because either you're leaving low frequencies to your sub anyway, or plan to use direct bass, or something else entirely?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

What's everyone doing for room correction when performing those 1 or 2 speaker PRIR recording sessions? Do you just pipe the test signal through your regular AV-processor, cobble together something else, or skip it entirely, because either you're leaving low frequencies to your sub anyway, or plan to use direct bass, or something else entirely?

I have not done a PRIR yet b/c my A16 is with the Smyth's, but I own a mini-DSP 2 X HD which has analog inputs and Dirac Live, so I plan to go with measuring signal from my A16's analog outs to my mini-DSP analog ins, do whatever I need to in terms of Xover, EQ, and DSP, and do it inside the mini-dsp, from there it's out to the amp and sub for my LS 50's and my SB2000 sub. I will undoubtedly do custom Dirac Live corrections depending on where I place the speakers, for example, ceiling elevations, etc, to get the very best 16 channel room I can piece together from what will, no doubt, be multiple Prirs.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

You're off by an order of magnitude. You can buy tripods with 50kg max load for less than a tenth of that https://www.musicstore.com/en_IE/EU...-max-50-kg-Aluminium-Black/art-PAH0000556-000 or with a winch: https://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR...-50kg-belastbar-mit-Kurbel/art-PAH0000553-000

If your speakers are so "small" that you even consider using a tripod, 50kg max should be enough. You may have to budget for a table-like attachment to go on top of the tripod to place your speakers on, but I can't find one of those at the moment. Alternatively, rent the whole kit for a day or two at a place that rents PAs, they have even more robust tripods.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
This!

 

[Dixter]

there's not much difference between a speaker on a tripod and a ladder with your girl friend holding a speaker for a minute or two...

 

[Janska]

What's everyone doing for room correction when performing those 1 or 2 speaker PRIR recording sessions? Do you just pipe the test signal through your regular AV-processor, cobble together something else, or skip it entirely, because either you're leaving low frequencies to your sub anyway, or plan to use direct bass, or something else entirely?

My main speakers (LCR) have a built in room correction / dsp, but as they weigh 60kg (132lbs) each, I've kept them in place and moved myself in the spot for the measurements. Sounds great. IMO room correction is a must to have been done, before doing the measurements.
I did measure my subs, but eventually just went with the Surrey room's subs and/or direct bass options on the A16, as they work so well and sound good.

 

[1m1a]

Is one of the capabilities of the A16 the ability to receive an HDMI signal input with an ATMOS stream embedded, and distribute it to the 16 analog outputs? and if so, does it have a volume knob that will control the level to those 16 outputs?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

there's not much difference between a speaker on a tripod and a ladder with your girl friend holding a speaker for a minute or two...

Takes six ladders and six girl friends.