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Smyth Research Realiser A16
Oct 23, 2021 at 11:59 AM Post #12,543 of 15,989
Oct 23, 2021 at 1:21 PM Post #12,544 of 15,989
GeorgeA said:
In addition to the amount of 3,490.00 EUR to be paid for upgrading to Smyth Realiser A16 Speaker Edition, the customer needs to send his A16 to av-in for hardware changes. I wonder why Audio XD didn’t design a separate device to work in conjunction with Realiser A16 for rendering Dolby Atmos and DTS: X signals on two speakers.
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All true but, most importantly, does it work and how convincing is it? I also wonder if beam forming is involved? 🤔
 
Oct 23, 2021 at 1:30 PM Post #12,545 of 15,989
Jean-Luc Haurais, the gentleman interviewed by Gilles Gerin
https://www.facebook.com/pg/smyth.realiser.fr/posts/?ref=page_internal

is the chief technology officer of AUDIO-3D and co-inventor for some patents, such as Transaural synthesis method for sound spatialization (US Patent no. 10,321,252).

Of course, it remains to be seen how convincing and reliable this new Smyth Realiser A16 Speaker Edition is.
 
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Oct 23, 2021 at 2:42 PM Post #12,546 of 15,989
dsperber said:
First, now that I look at the newly available Section 9.2 information present in the just newly-available version 2.00 User Manual, I can see that your observations are completely valid. This documentation did not exist previously for me to refer to.

My hardware/firmware upgraded A16 was returned to me last week with firmware 2.04 (not 2.05) installed but otherwise with no preliminary 2.04/2.05 Release Notes or 2.00 User Manual also provided. I had asked James to point me to any preliminary documentation that might be available so that I could refer to it for new settings but never heard back. And now within the same week we now have published releases of all that was non-existent to me last week. So in my own defense, what you now see clearly documented where optional "tweaks" for the three rooms of a preset are now described simply did not exist before the new User Manual was made available.

So last week with nothing formal and written in-prnt to guide me I decided to change nothing from whatever was put there by Smyth for every "new" setting, presumably coming from "default" values that must have been present in the 2.04 firmware itself. The only thing I did after getting the A16 back was to re-construct my listening rooms and replacement presets 1-4 (to go with my own presets 5-9 that were still present) as I'd always done previously when no operational DTS-related functionality was present. And I also created brand new presets 10-12 to support listening to DTS:X bitstream audio coming from my Oppo BDP-203 when playing actual shiny disks with DTS:X audio. And all that meant just putting together PRIR with HPEQ and listening room and input source. If there were also these new "DTS: Neural X" and "DTS Direct" items to contemplate their setting, well I had no documentation available to guide me on how to set or change them from what they arrived as. So I left them as-is, at least for the moment.

Now that you've pointed out the new documentation which relates to these new options, I will adjust things as clearly appropriate. But reflecting back on it, I'm not sure that even if Neural X up-mixer is active for PCM Audio Management (as it appears to be by default), that if the target listening room doesn't actually have any additional speakers other than the underlying ear-level 5.1/7.1 real speakers present in the AIX PRIRs I've used, there will not be anything for Neural X up-mixer to do. I think I will still be getting only the true real untouched original 5.1/7/1 channels of audio, same as if I'd specified "Direct".


Second, even in the absence of any understanding about "DTS Direct" the reasoning behind why I specifically created two different discrete DTS rooms (for 5.1 based on DTS:X room #8 and 7.1 based on DTS:X room #26) is because of the two different 5.1 and 7.1 speaker placements implied by the underlying AIX PRIRs that I'm using for the two DTS rooms. Yes, the goal is to absolutely to do what "DTS Direct" would do for me automatically. But I also want to utilize the two different real 5.1 or 7.1 speakers/placement implicit in the two AIX PRIRs as well, and thus had to manually accomplish this since "DTS Direct" could not.

Anticipating that very probably no new movies with DTS:X will not have underlying DTS-HD MA 7.1 sound, that's why my third discrete DTS:X room utilizes AIX 7.1 in a 7.1.4h mode, i.e. DTS:X listening room loudspeaker configuration #41. There likely will never be a DTS:X with underlying DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound, but if so I can deal with that specifically for a given movie if/when that occasion ever arises.
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Have you actually been to AIX to make those PRIRs or are you using something off the common drive?
 
Oct 23, 2021 at 3:06 PM Post #12,548 of 15,989
esimms86 said:
All true but, most importantly, does it work and how convincing is it? I also wonder if beam forming is involved? 🤔
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That can't really involve beam forming, since one can freely choose the speakers to use with this. I'm wondering if the Realiser's PRIR bits are involved at all while the speaker mode is on (and if some form of personalisation with or without in ear microphones is possible or even required), or if it runs only the AudioXD processing in that mode.
 
Oct 23, 2021 at 3:42 PM Post #12,549 of 15,989
phoenixdogfan said:
Have you actually been to AIX to make those PRIRs or are you using something off the common drive?
Click to expand...

Yes. My PRIRs are from a real in-person visit to AIX back in early June 2009, which you can read about (including photos) in this post #871 of mine over in the original "Long awaited Smyth SVS Realiser A8 now available for purchase" thread. That's a still-active thread dedicated to the A8 that I originally started back in April 2009, when I physically received #0001 of the A8 (hand-delivered to me by Stephen Smyth at their Camarillo location).

YRJCwT.jpg


Back at that time Smyth had a development lab up in Camarillo CA, which I had been to in the mid-2000's when they invited me up for a pre-demo of the A8 when it was first physically available for a demonstration. I'd been communicating with them ever since 2004 when I first saw an interview with Stephen Smyth in Widescreen Review describing SVS, pestering them annually as to when it might be available to actually buy. Then the Smyths were actually going to be in the US for an LA CanJam show held May 30-31 2009 at the LAX Airport Hilton to finally demonstrate the A8 to the public.

Having just visited the Smyth booth I then was walking around CanJam when I happened to stumble past a booth being manned by Dr. Mark Waldrep of AIX, who was presenting is own special brand of HD audio discs. On the table was an A8, as part of a headphone-based hardware setup to demonstrate his CD's! Clearly he was somehow connected to Smyth, since I had gotten #0001. So for him to have one of his own on his table he, too, must have somehow been involved with Smyth.

Turns out he was offering a special promo deal offer: if you bought at least $100 worth of his special CDs he would throw in a free PRIR calibration session at AIX studios!!! Well, of course I took it. Bought my $100+ of his CD's and arranged for a visit to AIX the following week.

Turns out the Smyths were still going to be in LA that next week, so we all coordinated to be at AIX for my calibration session. Hence the actual "engineer" handling all of the cable connections and A8 setup/configuration was Stephen Smyth himself. I was given two separate measurements, one with 5.1 speakers positioned as appropriate and a second with two more speakers added and the side/surround speakers repositioned for 7.1. Front L/R/C speakers positioned the same for both 5.1 and 7.1.

2yXdS4.jpg


Anyway, although I have over the years had a few other opportunities to get some other in-person PRIR measurement sessions around LA, they all turn out to be "novelty" experiences. I NEVER listen to anything for real except through these two very same original 2009 A8-based AIX 5.1/7.1 PRIR's mastered by Stephen Smyth, with only ear-level speakers. They were migrated to the A16, and serve as the ear-level speaker base combined with additional speakers from the A16 BBC room as needed, to support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Heard through the magic sound and unbelievable physical comfort of my Stax SR-009 (powered by Stax SRM-007tII fed XLR from my external Audio-GD NFB9 DAC fed optically previously from the A8 and now from the A16) it's just like I'm sitting at that same chair at the console as shown in that picture. Sounds just the same.
 
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Oct 23, 2021 at 8:46 PM Post #12,551 of 15,989
dsperber said:
Yes. My PRIRs are from a real in-person visit to AIX back in early June 2009, which you can read about (including photos) in this post #871 of mine over in the original "Long awaited Smyth SVS Realiser A8 now available for purchase" thread. That's a still-active thread dedicated to the A8 that I originally started back in April 2009, when I physically received #0001 of the A8 (hand-delivered to me by Stephen Smyth at their Camarillo location).

YRJCwT.jpg


Back at that time Smyth had a development lab up in Camarillo CA, which I had been to in the mid-2000's when they invited me up for a pre-demo of the A8 when it was first physically available for a demonstration. I'd been communicating with them ever since 2004 when I first saw an interview with Stephen Smyth in Widescreen Review describing SVS, pestering them annually as to when it might be available to actually buy. Then the Smyths were actually going to be in the US for an LA CanJam show held May 30-31 2009 at the LAX Airport Hilton to finally demonstrate the A8 to the public.

Having just visited the Smyth booth I then was walking around CanJam when I happened to stumble past a booth being manned by Dr. Mark Waldrep of AIX, who was presenting is own special brand of HD audio discs. On the table was an A8, as part of a headphone-based hardware setup to demonstrate his CD's! Clearly he was somehow connected to Smyth, since I had gotten #0001. So for him to have one of his own on his table he, too, must have somehow been involved with Smyth.

Turns out he was offering a special promo deal offer: if you bought at least $100 worth of his special CDs he would throw in a free PRIR calibration session at AIX studios!!! Well, of course I took it. Bought my $100+ of his CD's and arranged for a visit to AIX the following week.

Turns out the Smyths were still going to be in LA that next week, so we all coordinated to be at AIX for my calibration session. Hence the actual "engineer" handling all of the cable connections and A8 setup/configuration was Stephen Smyth himself. I was given two separate measurements, one with 5.1 speakers positioned as appropriate and a second with two more speakers added and the side/surround speakers repositioned for 7.1. Front L/R/C speakers positioned the same for both 5.1 and 7.1.

2yXdS4.jpg


Anyway, although I have over the years had a few other opportunities to get some other in-person PRIR measurement sessions around LA, they all turn out to be "novelty" experiences. I NEVER listen to anything for real except through these two very same original 2009 A8-based AIX 5.1/7.1 PRIR's mastered by Stephen Smyth, with only ear-level speakers. They were migrated to the A16, and serve as the ear-level speaker base combined with additional speakers from the A16 BBC room as needed, to support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Heard through the magic sound and unbelievable physical comfort of my Stax SR-009 (powered by Stax SRM-007tII fed XLR from my external Audio-GD NFB9 DAC fed optically previously from the A8 and now from the A16) it's just like I'm sitting at that same chair at the console as shown in that picture. Sounds just the same.
Click to expand...
$100 for an AIX PRIR, personally made for you by Stephen Smyth. Hmm, what's that adjusted for inflation? Whatever the answer, you most definitely got a steal(and that's before even counting the fact that the AIX studio is no longer an option)!
 
Oct 23, 2021 at 8:52 PM Post #12,552 of 15,989
GeorgeA said:
The following announcement can be read at Smyth Research site:

“dts-X now available for the A16 priced USD 199 + taxes click here for more information”

There are also downloadable dts-X installation instructions, which specify:

“DTS-X certification has recently been granted for the operation of 12-channel DTS-X decoding in the Realiser A16 (APM89L and APM110 variants). DTS-X decoding is a cost option, details of which can be found on our website, and requires the purchase of the relevant firmware files that support this new mode of operation. This will be a one-time purchase and any future 12-channel DTS-X updates/fixes will be issued free of charge.”

Moreover, the manual specifies at page no. 9:

“Virtualisation sources:
HDMI inputs (1-4): Dolby Atmos, DD+, DD, DTS*, DTS-X*, 8ch LPCM (24bit@48/96/192kHz)
…………………….
*Where the user has purchased the DTS-X decoding upgrade.”
Click to expand...

This is really crappy. Having to pay an addtional $200 just to get a standard format that's been around for decades. Good thing my A8 still works I guess.
 
Oct 24, 2021 at 12:20 AM Post #12,553 of 15,989
kh36267 said:
i don't think i remember anyone mentioning this earlier..........did the Dolby logo change with this latest firmware update? or is just me :wink:
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Not just you. It did definitely change in 2.05.
 
Oct 24, 2021 at 12:45 AM Post #12,554 of 15,989
Not that it's critical, but the ABOUT screenshot from the 2.05 Release Notes for the APM110 variant has the wrong value showing for the APM firmware revision. It is not 111 v245, Fe as shown. The actual version included with 2.05 (and also present in the 2.04 which arrived last week in my repaired/upgraded A16) is 113 v251, Au.

QoFEVU.png
 
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