[GeorgeA]

Just for clarity: I think @GeorgeA was quoting someone else, he is not talking about his own realiser.

I would like to know which firmware they use, and which hardware version they have.

Those broken units belong to two French owners. One of them got his unit as part of the kickstarter campaign and the other one bought his unit from av-in.com. Neither of them gave information about firmware and hardware versions. Actually, they asked for help in the French forum. One wrote that he had sent a message to James Smyth and the other one would contact Gilles Gerin.

 

[VandyMan]

Probably it was a coincidence. Another thought though, maybe they live near each other and there was a power surge.

 

[esimms86]

Every electrical device has a failure rate. I would wonder how many A16’s have ever been sent back for repairs. (And what the numerator and denominator happen to be)

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Multi channel surround sound sources aside... anyone ever just sit there and jam out to some simple 2.1 music in the surround room?

Cheap $25 KSC75 ear clip headphones have no business sounding this good...

It's really nice sitting here at midnight and blasting some music and feeling like you are actually listening to a speaker system on full blast but without bothering a soul.

I find that either my D & D 8C 2.0 preset or my LS 50 Meta+SVS SB 2000+ Dirac Live 2.0 preset rendering Qobuz that I stream to an NVidia shield is really, really some superb two channel sound. Actually, some of the best I've ever heard.

 

[Nicholas Seltzer]

Hello,
I'm having trouble getting eARC to work on my unit. I got mine used and in fact can't seem to tell if it even has it. There is no HDMI port labeled eARC. The manual says (if HDMI board is present), but I have no idea what that means.

I'm pretty sure my cable is up to date. Big honking thing from Blue Jeans.

Thanks.

 

[shmau]

Hello,
I'm having trouble getting eARC to work on my unit. I got mine used and in fact can't seem to tell if it even has it. There is no HDMI port labeled eARC. The manual says (if HDMI board is present), but I have no idea what that means.

I'm pretty sure my cable is up to date. Big honking thing from Blue Jeans.

Thanks.

Might be helpful to post a photo of the system info section where the board revision and such can be seen. I don't remember the exact location but it should be obvious enough.

 

[CaptainFunk]

Hello,
I'm having trouble getting eARC to work on my unit. I got mine used and in fact can't seem to tell if it even has it. There is no HDMI port labeled eARC. The manual says (if HDMI board is present), but I have no idea what that means.

I'm pretty sure my cable is up to date. Big honking thing from Blue Jeans.

Thanks.

Try setting the Audio Source to eARC via the +/- ADJ buttons on the remote. The HDMI1 HDMI Out port on the back is the one with eARC input, I am not sure if mine has a label actually.

 

[GeorgeA]

Try setting the Audio Source to eARC via the +/- ADJ buttons on the remote. The HDMI1 port on the back is the one with eARC input, I am not sure if mine has a label actually.

There’re labels for the HDMI ports at the back of the Realiser A16 unit.

 

[Litlgi74]

There’re labels for the HDMI ports at the back of the Realiser A16 unit.

I thought the eARC port on the A16 was the HDMI out.

 

[CaptainFunk]

I thought the eARC port on the A16 was the HDMI out.

Whoops, you are correct, HDMI Out is the eARC port, not HDMI 1... apologies!

 

[sander99]

manual says (if HDMI board is present), but I have no idea what that means.

There are different hardware versions of the A16. The first version could handle 16 channels max, and had no eARC.
The old versions had serial numbers
starting with A162U1901 or A16HS1901. The new version has serial numbers with 2001 instead of 1901. But...

James said : ...Realisers incorporating the new HSR41T/APM110 hardware will use the serial number format A16HS2001#xxxxxx.
They didn't update the serial numbers on the Modded units... so if you go for a second hand unit you will need to verify the 24ch hardware via the screen showing 24ch...

In theory there could also be units out there with 24 channels and no eARC, or with eARC but no 24 channels, because it was possible to do a partial upgrade.

 

[esimms86]

There are different hardware versions of the A16. The first version could handle 16 channels max, and had no eARC.
The old versions had serial numbers
starting with A162U1901 or A16HS1901. The new version has serial numbers with 2001 instead of 1901. But...

In theory there could also be units out there with 24 channels and no eARC, or with eARC but no 24 channels, because it was possible to do a partial upgrade.

Theoretically, yes. However, I can’t imagine anyone going through the hassle of sending their A16 back to Ireland for only a partial upgrade.

Anyway, a quick check of the “About” screen should tell you all you need to know to identify a particular unit’s hardware configuration.

 

[Nicholas Seltzer]

Might be helpful to post a photo of the system info section where the board revision and such can be seen. I don't remember the exact location but it should be obvious enough.

Good idea. Here is the image of the system info. It's obviously one of the 1901 models. I don't believe it's been upgraded because I bought it "new-in-box". Pretty sure it was never opened.

If I don't have eARC, what's the upgrade process look like? So far my experience with Smyth is that they are MIA.

 

[blubliss]

I did not want to take the risk of sending my unit anywhere for upgrade so I use the Sharc unit here which works great for me.

https://www.thenaudio.com/

Another option...

 

[Nicholas Seltzer]

Hmm. Well, it doesn't sound good. Looks like I got a very early model. Fortunately I don't think I need 24 channels and there are workarounds for eARC. Still trying to decide if I want to keep it. Any idea how reliable these things are? I'm not getting good feels from Smyth and would hate to have a problem with the machine and they're MIA.

Also, has anyone here experimented with upgraded PSUs? E.g. an iFi iPower Elite or SBooster, etc?