Smyth Research Realiser A16
Sep 4, 2020 at 4:49 PM Post #10,066 of 15,951
I remember reading somewhere that the hd800s are deliberately designed to have more distortion in the low end to give a subjective impression of having more bass. And what seems logical in that context: I remember a InnerFidelity video where Tyl Hertsens says that if you are going to use eq you may be better off with the hd800.
So for the A16 - that of course does a lot of filtering - the hd800 seems to be a more logical choice to me, especially if you can get it cheaper than the hd800s.
I wasn't aware of that, and it's pretty obvious in the graphs published in https://soundontime.com/sennheiser-hd800-vs-hd800s-review/
 
Sep 4, 2020 at 7:37 PM Post #10,067 of 15,951
HD800 has been sounding fantastic here.

The included HD800 HPEQ on a dummy head wasn't bad at all but creating my own custom HPEQ made the experience just that much better. The autoEQ does a really good job and I've never heard such bass coming out of my HD800.

When the A16 was first announced I was kind of skeptical on how a somewhat bass-light headphone like the HD800 would do with movies, but that skepticism is all gone now.

I have to get around to doing an HPEQ on all my different headphones and comparing them. I briefly used my TH900 which is a bass heavy can (albeit I didn't do an HPEQ for it and just quickly used the HD800 HPEQ) and it sounded TERRIBLE, lol. But I'm thinking it was because the HPEQ was for a different headphone and I should do the custom one and retry it. Also should try out my Utopia on the A16, it would probably do really well.
 
Sep 5, 2020 at 2:17 AM Post #10,068 of 15,951
How from 1,000 euro it cost now 4$ K

Are they insane??
Someone is selling it 2nd hand?

Putting a pricing analyst hat on. Most likely due to the fact they can't ramp up supply. They are obligated to fulfill the pre-orders first. Setting a true market price, while they can't ramp up supply wouldn't be helpful. Anyone that wants to jump can pay the full price - so it's bonus for them. I'd do it as a business. Makes perfect sense.

We'll see a more realistic market price once the pre-orders are filled.

I'm always toying with the idea of a Smyth. The price massively puts me off. But more - so does the lack of automated way to measure a BRIR. You should just be able to press a button and the sweeps should run. Now I'm used to how easy it is with Impulcifer, I can't put up with plugging/unplugging - it's the most frustrating part of the process and so important to get a good simulation.

The full retail price is going to be harder to justify when more commercial companies are coming out with solutions. The tempest engine on the PS5 is the thing on the horizon that makes anything now quite unpalatable. Audeze mentioned that 2021 the customization could be coming.

Whatever the situation, the future's bright for speaker virtualization!
 
Sep 5, 2020 at 5:51 AM Post #10,069 of 15,951
The A8 retail price was around $3,000 and after the KS funding campaign 4 years ago, Smyth Research was mentioning a 2,000$ retail price. I can imagine they were really thinking it was doable at this price.
Later on, with the long development and after they signed a deal with Heavenly Sound, the retail price was doubled.
We'll see what competitors release on the speaker virtualization market, but at some point it may lead Smyth Research to review their price. Even if other products don't match the level of quality of the A16, if virtualization is just good enough to do the trick with a very big price gap, it may make this $4,000 obsolete.
If SR target is rather professionals who need the best quality and features, then price may remain as it is.
 
Sep 5, 2020 at 10:20 AM Post #10,070 of 15,951
I am afraid that Heavenly Sound is exclusively into the pro business. Just to name a few of the businesses of the real head honcho of Heavenly Sound, Mr. Siwei Zou :
- SE-electronics (microphone manufacturer and distributor worldwide)
- Full-Dimension (audio visual studios, cinemas, theater media centers, high-end home theaters, multi media labs, etc…)
- Partner with Barco in China…

But things may change, a partner may leave or taker over?
 
Sep 6, 2020 at 5:04 AM Post #10,071 of 15,951
So I got to messing around with different headphones on the A16 and I must say that the HD800 is still the champ. Bass heavy cans like my TH900 and Campfire Audio Cascade don't do very well at all even with their own custom HPEQ's. That wasn't too much of a surprise though but what did surprise me was that my Focal Utopia's don't seem to hold a candle to the HD800 either! I don't know whether it's because the soundstage is not as wide on the Utopia or what but the HD800 just does surround sound much better. The autoEQ of the Utopia also makes them sound overly energetic and almost fatiguing which was very odd to me... maybe I'll have to re-do the HPEQ and try again because I was initially having fitment issues with the mics (I think I need to step up to the largest size foams). But for the most part I did the custom HPEQ measurement just like I did on the HD800 and the HD800 comes out as the much better sounding option on the A16. I was under the impression that the custom tuning of various headphones on the A16 would make a lot of different headphones viable but I think you still have to be careful in your selection of what you want to use.

Anyone here using some interesting pairings with the A16? Curious to know your thoughts.

On another note, I am loving the flexibility of this device. I have it setup in my bedroom and primarily use it at my desktop setup with my PC for music, media and gaming. But then I got to thinking that I could probably put that secondary optical headphone out to good use. Instead of running a long headphone cable to my bed across the room from my DAC/AMP at my desktop, I ended up running a long optical cable to a smaller DAC/amp combo box that I had lying around collecting dust (Sony UDA-1) which I have placed at my bedside table and now I am comfortably using that for epic surround sound in the comfort of my bed on a 55" TV! Super nice and clean setup where before I was just using a pair of basic stereo bluetooth headphones to watch TV late at night.

I have also attacked the issue of having to have a "phantom" display appear in Windows due to using HDMI for audio. I hated the idea of putting extra load on my GPU to render an extra imaginary display so I ended up putting the integrated Intel GPU on my motherboard to good use and just plugged the A16 into that instead. Works just fine and no longer bothers me as much. Also as far as the issue of your mouse sometimes getting lost on the imaginary display, I realized that the program that I was already using (it is a pay-to-use program though I am sure their might be free alternatives out there) called Ultramon has a "Ignore Monitor" feature where I was able to just make it "forget" the phantom display created by the A16. This makes it so the mouse will never go onto that monitor and it is essentially like that monitor does not exist (though it will still be there if you were to look in Windows display settings). Of course, going this far to solve the issue might not be worth it to some considering you can go the easier route of just moving the monitor up and out of the way to lessen the chance of your mouse getting lost :p But I already had the program so it was nice to ake advantage of that nifty feature.
 
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Sep 6, 2020 at 6:23 AM Post #10,072 of 15,951
Thanks for sharing your findings so far. I’m going to test two different headphones on my Realiser A16:
- Hifiman Arya, which uses planar-magnetic technology and has an open-back design. Arya is pretty close to Sennheiser HD 800 S when it comes to open wide soundstage
- Meze 99 Classics, which is a dynamic model, are incredibly open-wide stage for a closed design and provide good holography and pin-point imaging.

My audio trials with Realiser A16 and the above-mentioned headphones have to wait a while because the package containing my A16 only left Belfast on Friday night as shown by the DHL tracking system.
 
Sep 6, 2020 at 8:54 AM Post #10,073 of 15,951
So I got to messing around with different headphones on the A16 and I must say that the HD800 is still the champ. Bass heavy cans like my TH900 and Campfire Audio Cascade don't do very well at all even with their own custom HPEQ's. That wasn't too much of a surprise though but what did surprise me was that my Focal Utopia's don't seem to hold a candle to the HD800 either! I don't know whether it's because the soundstage is not as wide on the Utopia or what but the HD800 just does surround sound much better. The autoEQ of the Utopia also makes them sound overly energetic and almost fatiguing which was very odd to me... maybe I'll have to re-do the HPEQ and try again because I was initially having fitment issues with the mics (I think I need to step up to the largest size foams). But for the most part I did the custom HPEQ measurement just like I did on the HD800 and the HD800 comes out as the much better sounding option on the A16. I was under the impression that the custom tuning of various headphones on the A16 would make a lot of different headphones viable but I think you still have to be careful in your selection of what you want to use.

Anyone here using some interesting pairings with the A16? Curious to know your thoughts.

On another note, I am loving the flexibility of this device. I have it setup in my bedroom and primarily use it at my desktop setup with my PC for music, media and gaming. But then I got to thinking that I could probably put that secondary optical headphone out to good use. Instead of running a long headphone cable to my bed across the room from my DAC/AMP at my desktop, I ended up running a long optical cable to a smaller DAC/amp combo box that I had lying around collecting dust (Sony UDA-1) which I have placed at my bedside table and now I am comfortably using that for epic surround sound in the comfort of my bed on a 55" TV! Super nice and clean setup where before I was just using a pair of basic stereo bluetooth headphones to watch TV late at night.

I have also attacked the issue of having to have a "phantom" display appear in Windows due to using HDMI for audio. I hated the idea of putting extra load on my GPU to render an extra imaginary display so I ended up putting the integrated Intel GPU on my motherboard to good use and just plugged the A16 into that instead. Works just fine and no longer bothers me as much. Also as far as the issue of your mouse sometimes getting lost on the imaginary display, I realized that the program that I was already using (it is a pay-to-use program though I am sure their might be free alternatives out there) called Ultramon has a "Ignore Monitor" feature where I was able to just make it "forget" the phantom display created by the A16. This makes it so the mouse will never go onto that monitor and it is essentially like that monitor does not exist (though it will still be there if you were to look in Windows display settings). Of course, going this far to solve the issue might not be worth it to some considering you can go the easier route of just moving the monitor up and out of the way to lessen the chance of your mouse getting lost :p But I already had the program so it was nice to ake advantage of that nifty feature.
I'm interested in trying my LCD X's in addition to my HD800SD Mods. Are your HD800's stock of SD Modded?
 
Sep 6, 2020 at 4:09 PM Post #10,074 of 15,951
Sep 7, 2020 at 11:44 AM Post #10,076 of 15,951
I hope you're a bit luckier than me. I also received a shipment notification from DHL on Friday, September 4, 2020, and since then nothing new appears at the DHL Express tracking system page. I asked DHL Express why the delivery estimate is for Monday, September 14, 2020 for a parcel shipped from Northern Ireland to Europe (Romania), when other parcels sent from China to Europe arrive in no more than three days. The answer I received left me flabbergasted. My parcel is being transported by lorry and not by plane. I think DHL Express would be better to change its name to DHL Snail.

Good luck reading the manual and a few more important posts in this thread.
 
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Sep 7, 2020 at 12:45 PM Post #10,077 of 15,951
Update #63
Shipping Status

James SmythCollaborator
September 7, 2020
Happy Monday everyone,
We have now shipped A16 units to KickStarter backers #1-278. This week we will ship to backers #279-289. If you are a backer from #1-289 and haven't received an email, please contact us right away.
Warm Regards
Smyth Research
 

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