[travis-bickle]

personalized rendering of Dolby atmos went public beta.
Time is ticking for Smyth.

 

[jk6661]

I just compared the A16 HP out vs spdif out connected to the Chord Mojo 1. The sound from Mojo is cleaner, a bit warmer, but lack the space effect. I sounds like the background noise is "muted", whereas in the A16 you can "hear" it as a room space. I don't know how to explain this. It's like the mojo kills the "room" sound like an anechoic chamber, whereas the A16 retain the room effect.

So the Mojo retains the speaker localization of your PRIR but not the sound of the room?

 

[shmau]

I just compared the A16 HP out vs spdif out connected to the Chord Mojo 1. The sound from Mojo is cleaner, a bit warmer, but lack the space effect. I sounds like the background noise is "muted", whereas in the A16 you can "hear" it as a room space. I don't know how to explain this. It's like the mojo kills the "room" sound like an anechoic chamber, whereas the A16 retain the room effect.

I may be suggesting something incredibly obvious but did you create a new HPEQ for the Mojo? Though the differences may be small, I would expect the same HPEQ to be invalid for the Mojo route even if the headphones are the same.

 

[frank2908]

Thanks for pointing that out, I will try later.

 

[GeorgeA]

I used to connect my Realiser A16 to a Topping D90 DAC via coaxial cable. The Topping D90 worked in conjunction with a Topping A90 headphone amp. I was reluctant to connect a pair of HIFIMAN Arya headphones to the Realiser A16 directly, as those headphones were quite demanding for power. Another reason for using an external amp was that usually I prefer going with low gain and high volume so that there is lower THD at amplifier level.

At present, I’m using Sennheiser HD 800S headphones and no external DAC and amp. Looking back, I can’t say that sounds were more convincing with the Topping combo and Arya as compared to no external DAC and HD 800S. I’m aware that my finding might be irrelevant to other ears.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I think you can try to make a case for it. However they are famously inflexible here, and this is indeed what I had to go through when I got my unit repaired. I sent the package, clearly labeled as for repair, but the next day they called me and said I'd have to take it back and submit it to customs first if I want it to come back for free. I chose not to do so as commuting to the location and the time spent on it would have outweighed the cost. The unit eventually came back (IIRC marked as a repair) and I had to pay tax again.

YMMV depending on country.

Regardless I am not sure if contacting Smyth is going to be of any use in cases like these.

So far, crickets from them. I will remember.

On second thought maybe I'm being a little to harsh here. Just got the message and he may well have a lot of irons in the fire. He has always been very responsive, and I know he's overburdened. So patience...

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Just received an invoice from James. He sent both commercial invoices to the auditor. So definitely responsive to my urgent need. Should clear it right up, hopefully.

Good on Smyth for this one. Came through when I really needed them to. So yeah definitely shot up in my esteem.

 

[esimms86]

Just received an invoice from James. He sent both commercial invoices to the auditor. So definitely responsive to my urgent need. Should clear it right up, hopefully.

Good on Smyth for this one. Came through when I really needed them to. So yeah definitely shot up in my esteem.

Great to hear. James was also responsive when I had my issues with UK Customs.

 

[sander99]

Question: Is there anyone living in or close to Eindhoven the Netherlands who has an A16?
You can answer by PM if you prefer.

 

[frank2908]

I created HPEQ for my mojo with 2 headphones I have. On both case, HPEQ measured with mojo in the chain improves a bit, but still not as good as connect headphones directly. The sound is still like above, where the imaging is more real, like I'm in the room. With the mojo (with HPEQ measured with mojo and without) the soundstage size is collapsed a bit, still much wider and deeper than without using the A16, and height is massively reduced. Also the mids becomes warmer.
So far I'm happy with the room with quad speaker, with added virtual subs. It sounds like I still have the signature of my heapdhones, with similar detail, but I'm in a room.
Now I don't know if I should keep the A16 or sell it and save for the real quad esl57

 

[pervysage]

For what it's worth, I also got the impression that the headphones I tried were sounding better coming directly out of the headphone out on the A16 rather than through an external DAC/AMP via optical out. But it's not something I thoroughly tested for hours on end, and was a long time ago. Since then I've just been using the front headphone out as it's also just been convenient for gaming at my PC desktop.

I'm bad at describing sound but I guess I would say the surround effect just sounded a whole lot more realistic and clearer?

 

[audiohobbit]

I may be suggesting something incredibly obvious but did you create a new HPEQ for the Mojo?

I created HPEQ for my mojo with 2 headphones I have

I really wonder how you did that.

Manual v2.0 p. 83 section 13.2.3: "Connect Headphone to the User A HP Jack"
"The HPEQ is only measured at the Headphone A output"

I haven't tried it yet with the A16 but it is my experience with the A8 that there also a HPEQ can only be measured if the Headphone is connected to the front HP out (using the internal amp), the HPEQ measurement sweeps are not sent out via Line out or digital out.

 

[GeorgeA]

........ it is my experience with the A8 that there also a HPEQ can only be measured if the Headphone is connected to the front HP out (using the internal amp), the HPEQ measurement sweeps are not sent out via Line out or digital out.

To the best of my knowledge, initially, Realiser A8 worked in conjunction with a Stax SRS-2170 headphone set, so those headphones were connected to the external Stax amp. How was HPEQ measured within that setup?

 

[MichaelJames99]

While many of us wait for their A16.. has anyone compared the JVC XP-EXT1 vs. the AirpodsMax for Atmos movies only? I have Firestick 4K and AppleTV4k. I know the APMs dont support Atmos with Firestick.

​

 

[blubliss]

I've done HPEQs with the A8 and A16 on several external amps and have always heard the sweeps on the analog line out.