Smyth Research A16 REALISER Review

[pscreed]

Hi... since you are using Roon and HDMI... You request is very doable.

I'm happy to help. But I have some questions for you first. What type of 2 channel upmixing do you prefer? Does your machine have Auro-3D activated?

John

Thanks for the reply John. The only upmixing I have tried is dolby surround... however I do have Auro if that's recommended, I should probably try it

Thanks again for your time, appreciate it.

 

[3DSoundShop]

Cool... Have you upgraded to the newest firmware 2.15?

With 2.15... You could create a separate presets that upmixes 2.0 using any of the three decoders... Atmos, DTS,
or Auro-3D... As well as a preset that has no up mixing enabled... Which will allow for native multi-channel playback... With no upmixing.

PS... I would definitely recommend upmixing 2.0 or any of the other multi channel formats with Auro-3D. You can modify the sound and stage to your heart's content using both the Auro preset and strength.

Hope that helps.
John

 

[pscreed]

Cool... Have you upgraded to the newest firmware 2.15?

With 2.15... You could create a separate presets that upmixes 2.0 using any of the three decoders... Atmos, DTS,
or Auro-3D... As well as a preset that has no up mixing enabled... Which will allow for native multi-channel playback... With no upmixing.

PS... I would definitely recommend upmixing 2.0 or any of the other multi channel formats with Auro-3D. You can modify the sound and stage to your heart's content using both the Auro preset and strength.

Hope that helps.
John

Super helpful, thank you. I’ll be able to dive into this next weekend, looking forward to it!

 

[pscreed]

Cool... Have you upgraded to the newest firmware 2.15?

With 2.15... You could create a separate presets that upmixes 2.0 using any of the three decoders... Atmos, DTS,
or Auro-3D... As well as a preset that has no up mixing enabled... Which will allow for native multi-channel playback... With no upmixing.

PS... I would definitely recommend upmixing 2.0 or any of the other multi channel formats with Auro-3D. You can modify the sound and stage to your heart's content using both the Auro preset and strength.

Hope that helps.
John

Hi John - first thanks for all your help. I did the firmware upgrade to 2.15 and that all worked fine. I do see all the Auro-3d settings options, however I assume I need to buy a license to use it. There is a reference to a doc with instructions on how to do that in the firmware instructions doc… however I’ll be darned if I can find the doc on how to buy Auro-3d anywhere on the Smyth site… do you by any chance have that doc or know where it is? TIA (again).

BTW both you and HFM here suggested using presets to accomplish my first ask, and that works great!

Man I wish there was a comprehensive, readable manual for this incredible device. It would really help someone like me.

 

[3DSoundShop]

Hi...

All you need to do is email James a copy of your log file and tell him you'd like to upgrade to Auro-3D. After payment... He will send you a permission file to install. That's it.

But first to make sure you actually have the DTS permission installed on your machine... The quickest way to do so is to check your about section on your machine.

Settings>Updates/About and click the down arrow until you see this screen.

If you see DTS:X... You're all set to upgrade to Auro-3D.



As always... I'm glad to help you in any way I can.

John

 

[pscreed]

Been getting a lot of milage out of my A16, hope you guys are enjoying listening to yours just as much. Posting this hint here in case it helps anyone, this just occurred to me:

On Mac computers with Apple silicon, like the Mac mini M2 I am typing this on, the Smyth Realiser A16 iOS "Centro Control" app runs great. I'm also running the Oppo "Remote Control" iOS app on this Mac with no issues. This thing stopped working a long time ago for me on iOS, but runs great also on the Mac.

So a couple of on-screen remotes for A16 listening that I have found helpful.

Have a nice holiday USA peeps!

 

[90sNintendoKid]

Does anyone know if/how speakers connected to an A16 Realiser can be Eq’d? I would connect my TV to the A16 via eARC and use an Apple TV for movies and Dolby Atmos. The A16 would decode the Atmos but I can’t see how I could apply a parametric or convolution EQ. I could connect it to a pc via usb but I would lose Atmos.

 

[zdjh22]

Does anyone know if/how speakers connected to an A16 Realiser can be Eq’d? I would connect my TV to the A16 via eARC and use an Apple TV for movies and Dolby Atmos. The A16 would decode the Atmos but I can’t see how I could apply a parametric or convolution EQ. I could connect it to a pc via usb but I would lose Atmos.

You could connect the analog (line level) outputs, whatever subset of the 16 is relevant to your listening, to a preamp or amp and do the EQ there. IIRC the analog outs are only active in 16-channel mode, if you have a 24-channel capable A16.

You are right the USB to PC route is limited to 2 channels. Input is 16 channels, output only 2.

The Monoprice HTP-1 has essentially the same decoding guts as an A16 plus it has Dirac Live.

 

[zeerround]

"You are right the USB to PC route is limited to 2 channels. Input is 16 channels, output only 2."

From the PC side that is backwards. Input from the A16 to audio programs on the PC is 2 channels, output to the A16, from audio programs, is 16 channels.

ASIO driver:

via HDMI I don't think you could decode in the a16 and do anything but line out, as in practice (despite the 32 channel spec) consumer HDMI gear doesn't go past 8 channels for LPCM (please if somebody knows of PC audio drivers and consumer gear that does now, let me know!).

 

[zdjh22]

"You are right the USB to PC route is limited to 2 channels. Input is 16 channels, output only 2."

From the PC side that is backwards. Input from the A16 to audio programs on the PC is 2 channels, output to the A16, from audio programs, is 16 channels.

ASIO driver:

View attachment 112760

via HDMI I don't think you could decode in the a16 and do anything but line out, as in practice (despite the 32 channel spec) consumer HDMI gear doesn't go past 8 channels for LPCM (please if somebody knows of PC audio drivers and consumer gear that does now, let me know!).

Yes, according to the A16 manual, from the PC 16 channels can be sent to the A16, 2 channels can be input from the A16. USB 2.0 has 480 Mbps signaling rate so no issue carrying 16 x 24 bit x 96 kHz as specified in the Smyth manual. I’ve only ever used the USB interface to measure response curves via REW on my A16 - 1 channel in and 1 out - so can’t testify to successfully sending 16.

Likewise as you noted I don’t know of any HDMI transport to the A16, or other gear such as AVRs, that allow more than 8 channels of LPCM. All of the other higher channel counts, such as Atmos (both lossy and lossless) and DTS:x rely on Dolby MAT encoding/transport/decoding over HDMI, using the 8 channels of 16 bit 192 kHz audio carrier lanes in the HDMI standard (1.3 forward).

The one exception that I am aware of to the above paragraph is that Auro-3D uses the bottom 4 bits of the channels of a 24 bit multichannel LPCM stream to encode extra channels beyond 8. From my Oppo I can send Auro-3D successfully to my A16 using either bitstream (via Dolby MAT) or LPCM output. I’ve manipulated those bottom 4 bits in data files and verified that I can turn on and off Auro-3D detection in the A16, for example, taking a track and having it play 20 seconds with Auro-3D detectable and 20 seconds with no Auro-3D, repeating over the length of the track.