Smyth Research Realiser A16

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The Realiser-A16 audio processor re-creates immersive 3D audio over stereo headphones, rendering up to sixteen virtual loudspeakers in any location, with head-tracking.

Personalisation allows the virtual sound room to sound identical to the real room.

• Professional grade accuracy
• Built in measurement routines and hardware
• Measure any loudspeaker format
• Low-latency high-speed head tracking
• Personalised headphone equalisation

The SVS technology that drives the Realiser A16 3D sound processing was developed specifically to allow owners to conveniently capture personalised sound room measurements. These measurements are undertaken by inserting the supplied binaural microphones in each ear canal, and then sitting in the sound room sweet spot while test sweeps are played from each of the loudspeakers. The entire process takes only a few minutes and the resulting measurement data is used to create, what we call, a personalised room impulse response (PRIR) file. This PRIR file exactly describes how each loudspeaker sounds to you when sitting in the sweet-spot and, when it is loaded into the SVS processor, it allows the A16 to reproduce the very same loudspeaker sound using only your headphones. We describe loudspeakers generated over headphones as virtual loudspeakers since they are not real but just an illusion, albeit a highly accurate one. Throughout our discussion of the A16 we refer to PRIR files as virtual sound rooms since PRIR files are really just a collection of virtual loudspeakers playing in a virtual room.

Your HRTF allows you to hear sounds correctly

Your ability to locate (or localise) the direction and distance of sound sources, such as loudspeakers, is highly dependent on the shape of your head and ears. This shape is unique to you, like your fingerprints, and is referred to in research as the head related transfer function (HRTF). Your shape is very important because if you were to listen to sounds using someone else’s head or ear shape you would almost definitely experience some difficulty in localising sounds. Certain positions would be wrong, and also the whole tonality of the sound. The reason is that the hearing perception within your brain is conditioned to expect sound to be filtered using your unique ear and head shape (HRTF), not someone else’s.

PRIRs contain your HRTF data

To create a highly realistic illusion of loudspeakers using just headphones, it is therefore necessary that the loudspeaker sound have already been filtered by your HRTF, before being sent to the headphones. Since your PRIR files are measured at your ear canals, your HRTF data is inherently contained within the PRIR loudspeaker measurement data, ie they have been personalised to you. This is why the loudspeakers generated using the Realiser A16 are so convincing – they were filtered by your HRTF. No other 3D headphone system allows you to insert your own PRIR data into their filtering engine. When you are forced to listen to 3D sound generated by statistically averaged HRTF data, it cannot sound correct over headphones.

Precisely emulates up to 16 speakers in asound room over stereo headphones
Full suite of personalisation routines
Internal audio bitstream decoding: Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, DTS-X and all legacy Dolby and DTS formats
Employs state-of-the-art SVS virtualisation with integrated headtracking for realistic rendering
Azimuth + elevation head-tracking
Audio source inputs / outputs: USB 2.0 : 16ch in / 2ch out HDMI 2.0 : 8ch PCM i/o + bitstream in Analogue : 16ch in + 16ch out Optical : 2ch PCM i/o + bitstream in
User interface and configuration via web browser
Illusonic N:M channel upmixer
Supports two simultaneous listeners with fully independent personalisation and head-tracking
Low-delay live music rendering modes
Dedicated audio i/o for video gaming


US$1950 + taxes + shipping
Pre-sale Offer: US$1450 + shipping + taxes

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