[VandyMan]

There is no best amp/dac *for* the A-16. The A-16 has no special requirements. So use the one that you find best for your headphones when doing stereo listening and it will work great with the A-16. Or, as others said, drive them directly from the A-16 headphone out. Remember to set the gain switch on the front panel as needed for your headphones.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I’d say it depends on your headphones and how much the need to drive them fully. As it’s been said the A16 is ok for easier to drive headphones. It even has a balanced mode to increase power.

As been discussed above. If you want to listen at high levels, a separate amp is a good idea. Heaps of good once from topping the that have all the power…

If you are not adverse to spending a little more, I have the Toppin D 70 Pro which retails on Amazon for around $500. It will output a whopping 16 WPC into a 20 ohm load. It will give you all the power you could ever need to drive your Audeze's, Hifiman's, and Senns. It's distortion and noise (THD+N) is 123 DB below its signal. In other words completely transparent under all circumstances..

 

[castleofargh]

I think getting extra gear comes maybe later. There is so much potential impact from the room, speaker placement, some calibration solution, some absorbing material on the walls and floor, microphones placement, manloud or however you end up EQing the last little FR issues you notice... I don't think it's worth the investment before you have handled all that and felt confident you will not improve much more with more efforts.
Then I'd maybe try a few headphones, be it for how they impact the sound or just how comfy, heavy, "clampy" they are, if the cable is super noisy when you turn your head(I clip it onto my shirt to avoid/mitigate that).
Getting plenty of multichannel records and movies might also be tempting. I initially thought I wouldn't care and be happy with stereo stuff all my life. I was wrong ^_^.

And only then, if you still have money burning your pockets, go have some fun with extra gears. That's how I set my priorities.

 

[GeorgeA]

There is no best amp/dac *for* the A-16. The A-16 has no special requirements. So use the one that you find best for your headphones when doing stereo listening and it will work great with the A-16. Or, as others said, drive them directly from the A-16 headphone out. Remember to set the gain switch on the front panel as needed for your headphones.

I think that maybe @AudioVice needs to know a cautionary advice: don’t move that gain switch on the front panel while the headphones are on your head, because then you will hear a rather strong sound.

 

[zdjh22]

What is the best budget amp / dac to use with the A16?

If you are using an AVR, you might want to check if the headphone output there is an option. Free is always good before deciding what to spend on.

I have a Denon AVR-X3600h and sometimes feed it with the optical out from the A16. That AVR has a very good DAC as measured and reported at ASR. It also disconnects the Audyssey room equalization when you plug in the headphones (which is what you want) and it provides an 8-band graphic equalizer for the headphones as opposed to just bass/treble adjustments. I have read that some AVRs (and some Denons) simply insert a resistor inline between the back RCA L/R outputs and the headphone jack, with a resulting fairly high impedance (100 to 500 ohms). I haven't measured my Denon's headphone output impedance so I can't say. Higher impedance leads to less energy efficiency in coupling to low impedance headphones. I have plenty of amplification range on that AVR when using my selection of headphones, however. Also, it's nice to not have to change the gain switch on the A16, which I end up doing for some of my rips that have low levels.

 

[GeorgeA]

This morning (in Europe), I’ve seen a video report about using a Realiser A16 unit in a professional recording studio, I think from Danmark. Unfortunately, all the comments are not in English.


Translated by google: “Smyth Audio Realiser A16 - ABSOLUTELY MENTAL!
Imagine that you could visit the coolest studios in the world, sit down in the sweet spot, record the room with all its monitor systems - from stereo to full Atmos - the way it sounds in YOUR ears, and then take it home and put it into your own headphones, so you can now mix completely as if you were sitting in one studio one moment, and in another the next. And, yes, we're also talking full surround on your steaks - not just binaural fold-down, as is the case with all other systems.
The time of miracles is upon us!”

As part of the video report, there’s a scene of a PRIR measurement. I’ve noticed that no head tracker was used, however, the antistatic wrist strap was worn by the person for whom the measurements were made. At roughly 11:14, I was quite confused by the announcement “Look left 180 degrees”. If someone understands Danish, maybe he/she posts some comments here.

 

[Litlgi74]

Thanks @GeorgeA ... I love watching and learning from the PRIR procedures of others. But this one is a little odd.

Like you said...

At roughly 11:14, I was quite confused by the announcement “Look left 180 degrees”. If someone understands Danish, maybe he/she posts some comments here.

The 180° turn doesn't make much sense to me... Unless he's duplicating the front channels as rears... Such as 30° for 150°...Or vice versa.

It does look and sound like he's capturing a PRIR with the capability of head tracking... Although I am not surprised to see the lack of the head tracker use during the PRIR creation... I'm guessing they're just relying on turning to the left and right channels or a general 30° position. And while this may be acceptable for a demo situation... Or a quick and dirty PRIR... I think the overall quality of balance and proper speaker localization may suffer If they are using this method for the final capture. If the look angles are not precise... They may later call into question there microphone placement/balance, level calibration, and or HPEQ capture

I'm not even going to comment on the handling of the microphones...

 

[musicreo]

Where is the headphone measurement in the video?

 

[Litlgi74]

Where is the headphone measurement in the video?

Starts at 9:51

 

[castleofargh]

Halp! Is there a way go lower for the volume knob(stuck at 27 minimum for some super arbitrary reason)? Or a way to lower the gain by some value somewhere else? I get moments at light when pass through stuff are too loud for my taste. Yes I'm already on low gain.
I vaguely remember setting some headroom values for this and that at one point long ago and that probably could do what I want, but I thought it would be best to ask you guys for advice.

 

[GeorgeA]

Starts at 9:51

I think @musicreo asked about HPEQ measurements. Maybe, they chose only a brief presentation and didn’t include the part with the HPEQ measurements.

 

[musicreo]

I think @musicreo asked about HPEQ measurements. Maybe, they chose only a brief presentation and didn’t include the part with the HPEQ measurements.

Correct. I was surprised that he removed the mics after the measurement without measuring the headphones.

 

[Litlgi74]

I think @musicreo asked about HPEQ measurements. Maybe, they chose only a brief presentation and didn’t include the part with the HPEQ measurements.

Oops sorry... Lots missing from the video presentation.

 

[GeorgeA]

Oops sorry... Lots missing from the video presentation.

No problem. I think that brief video report somehow brings to mind those demonstrations carried out by Stephen and Mike Smyth and also by Gilles Gerin.

 

[audiohobbit]

I'm not even going to comment on the handling of the microphones...

What do you think is wrong here?
Except they didn't show the check of the proper fit of the mics, but it is a demo video, they won't show things to bore the viewer.
Also, HPEQ measurements can be done independently. I tested this, and I couldn't hear any difference.

I know of a studio that doesn't use headtracking at all, and I think many of them do not intend to (even lots of non-pro users don't even use the headtracker and are fine with it).

This is sold as pro-gear and therefore the pros expect this to be rugged and durable.