[bpinnell]

First post!  I spend a lot of time on headfi (same user name) now that I no longer have a dedicated listening room.  I currently use the Smyth Realiser with a custom preset of the Acoustic Zen Maestro speakers that I had done at their facility outside San Diego.  I would love to make more custom presets with some of the nice systems in the DC metro area (preferably in a nicely treated room with room correction), while at the same time giving the owner a demo of the Realiser by making a custom preset for them (a 5.1 or 7.1 setup can also be done using just two speakers without having to move them).  It would be a great way for someone to test the Realiser and also the preset could be used with Darin Fong Audio's Out of Your Head software subject to his price to convert the preset for use with his software ($149 I believe).  Even if you are a pure stereo speaker person, it sounds awesome to hear multichannel hi-res titles as if you had 5 or 7 of the same speaker.  I have found that custom measurements are essential. Please PM if interested. Thanks.

[Letitroll98]

Are you selling something here, or giving away a free service?

[bpinnell]

More like a trade where hopefully somebody that has a nice setup will let me do a quick measurement of their system for my own ears (so I can expand my collection) and I can do a measurement of their ears as well.  It only takes about 5-10 minutes to do the actual measurement.  Perhaps somebody has always wanted to test the Realiser to see if it is worth purchasing.  At the very least they would have a custom measurement that can be used with Out of Your Head software (if you buy the software and custom measurement conversion from the developer).  The preset can be up to 7.1, which can be made using just two speakers without needing to move them.  I am in no way affiliated with Smyth Research (maker of the Realiser) or Darin Fong Audio (developer of Out of Your Head software).

[Letitroll98]

I got it now, at least I got it after going on the Smyth website.  You need a blueprint to calibrate the unit to, beyond the factory settings.  I don't know if what you have to "trade" is all that valuable to anyone not wanting to purchase a Realizer.  But there's a great bunch of guys here that would probably volunteer their systems for measurement.  Additionally we have meets regularly with some pretty nice systems on display, everyone is invited and the next one is in September, I'll bet these equipment heads will love checking out the Realizer.  You can ask the host about his system(s) on the relevant thread.

[bpinnell]

Thanks!  The Realiser itself is rather expensive, but the custom measurement can be used with Out Of Your Head Software which does the same effect. I believe the software and custom measurement conversion are $149 each.

[grsimmon]

If I was near you I would take this up with you in 2 seconds flat.    I've been wanting to hear the Realiser for awhile now,  and have imagined making your exact request if I ever get a Realiser setup.    Good luck,  and may I suggest trying to find someone with any of the Linkwitz Labs speakers,  those would be awesome to have calibrated/saved for headphone use. 

[Robin Hood]

I got it now, at least I got it after going on the Smyth website.  You need a blueprint to calibrate the unit to, beyond the factory settings.  I don't know if what you have to "trade" is all that valuable to anyone not wanting to purchase a Realizer.  But there's a great bunch of guys here that would probably volunteer their systems for measurement.  Additionally we have meets regularly with some pretty nice systems on display, everyone is invited and the next one is in September, I'll bet these equipment heads will love checking out the Realizer.  You can ask the host about his system(s) on the relevant thread.

Well I remain confused.  The Smyth website states that the emulation is essentially perfect, meaning that in immediate A/B comparison between the actual speakers and the headphones, listeners say the two are indistinguishable.

Does this mean that if I tell you my favorite speakers are the Maggie 20.7 and Joseph Audio Pulsar that the Smyth Realizer can be calibrated such that the good quality headphones can sound indistinguishable from the 20.7s on one setting and indistinguishable from the Pulsars on another setting?  Neat trick if you can pull it off.  While we're at it, why not calibrate the Genesis Audio 1.2 speakers.  I would be willing to pay $1,000 to any Genesis 1.2 dealer that would test this premise if you or the Smyth manufacturer would guarantee that I could not distinguish the music from the headphones versus the Genesis 1.2.

[bpinnell]

I would say it is about 95% with a good calibration.  I have found that electrostatic headphones like Stax are needed to get the best illusion.  A Stax set is what Smyth recommends.  Headphones can't replicate sound waves hitting your body of course, but the Realiser does allow use of subs and tactile transducers to help make up for that (i have never needed that). 

If i still had a dedicated room, i wouldn't abandon speakers. But unless i had a really nice setup, i would likely use the Realiser more (the Acoustic Zen Maestros i measured are almost 50K) and definitely for surround as i can now properly listen to all the multichannel discs i have collected. I tried years ago to have a quality surround setup but gave up to focus on two channel. 

All that said, the Realiser to me is the best purchase i have ever made in this hobby not only because it is technically amazing but also because it does away with the need to deal with the room, treatments, speakers, components, etc. which has proven difficult with kids and moving.  Plus i can capture the output digitally and play back on my iPhone using IEMs to walk around with speakers in front of me (and around because surround is captured as two channel file). 

[dwk]

Something that may not be obvious to people not familiar with the Realizer unit is that it's not really an emulation - it's based on measuring the actual speaker response with YOU sitting listening to the actual system via a set of in-ear binaural microphones. The resulting set of impulse responses will be very specific to the listener, and generally can't be shared among listeners due to differences in HRTF and pinnae response.
 There is a fair bit of discussion/feedback on this unit on Head-fi, and generally the feedback is consistent with the 90-95% of the way there value. The big thing that you miss is the tactile response of low bass, which is why (I think) the units come with the ability to feed the low bass to a sub or butt-kicker style setup.