Syng Cell Alpha - 7.1 sound with three speakers ?

[eyemgh]

@joentell, it'll be interested to hear about what you think about your perception of the sound field too. Devialet Beosound and Sonos all sound obviously mono to my ear. The sound feels like it's coming out of the device and no wider. The Cell is supposed to have DSP to give a wider perceived field. Curious what you think versus any other non-paired speaker. Nice reaction to the sounds BTW.

 

[Beershaun]

it's a bit of a shame they only sent one to @joentell . I think his in-room measurements would be the most revealing about what 2 and 3 speakers in a room do at the listening position with their full DSP in effect. Looking forward to seeing @hardisj put one of these on the rack too in order to see how these things measure as a speaker as well and see what the "house curve" looks like.

Also since, according to the posted video, these only do stereo and not multi-channel, I have no idea what the point of having 3 would be if the multichannel audio is dropped.

that said, they look cool and techy, and I am supportive of more companies trying to bring active DSP speakers into the fray. I think active room correction and distortion management are innovations that will give a significant leap forward in sound quality that people will actually be able to hear.

 

[eyemgh]

it's a bit of a shame they only sent one to @joentell . I think his in-room measurements would be the most revealing about what 2 and 3 speakers in a room do at the listening position with their full DSP in effect. Looking forward to seeing @hardisj put one of these on the rack too in order to see how these things measure as a speaker as well and see what the "house curve" looks like.

Also since, according to the posted video, these only do stereo and not multi-channel, I have no idea what the point of having 3 would be if the multichannel audio is dropped.

that said, they look cool and techy, and I am supportive of more companies trying to bring active DSP speakers into the fray. I think active room correction and distortion management are innovations that will give a significant leap forward in sound quality that people will actually be able to hear.

I gather from the Wired article that if you have access to tracks, stems, or what ever pieces they were referring to that they could be placed anywhere individually within the listening space if you have three. The article said that it wasn’t ready yet though, and there aren’t many artists that release anything but fully mastered stereo recordings. My guess is that they’re hoping that’s yet.

 

[dduck]

I gather from the Wired article that if you have access to tracks, stems, or what ever pieces they were referring to that they could be placed anywhere individually within the listening space if you have three. The article said that it wasn’t ready yet though, and there aren’t many artists that release anything but fully mastered stereo recordings. My guess is that they’re hoping that’s yet.

My concerns are that

1. They are being very coy about which spatial audio standards they support
2. Their own standard is unlikely to set the world on fire, given that the big players already have stuff in place or coming

But if it sounds good and is easy to use with regular stereo and/or Dolby Atmos for movies I am fine.

If it won't do reasonable surround for movies I am probably not going for it.

As it is, I have taken the plunge and ordered 3 units. Hope to report on it soon-ish, but temper your expectations. I am not an audiophile, and I don't have the equipment and expertise to do proper measurements.

 

[Zvu]

Your subjective impressions with three units will suffice. @hardisj will take care of the measurements.

 

[dduck]

Your subjective impressions with three units will suffice. @hardisj will take care of the measurements.

Just got shipping notification. They are set to arrive Tuesday evening, so it will be a bit after that until I have had time to set them up and play around with them.

Speakers and stands only in the first shipment, HDMI/eARC cable to follow when ready.

 

[eyemgh]

Just got shipping notification. They are set to arrive Tuesday evening, so it will be a bit after that until I have had time to set them up and play around with them.

Speakers and stands only in the first shipment, HDMI/eARC cable to follow when ready.

Oh snap! Did you order during the pre-sale or when the regular sale opened?

 

[dduck]

Oh snap! Did you order during the pre-sale or when the regular sale opened?

I ordered on 6/18, and I think that was right about when the regular sale opened. They predicted 5 week wait for delivery, and that seems to hold largely.

I got the 15% rebate on 3 units, but they still offer that, so...

My criteria for being satisfied is that they sound at least as good (to me) as the Devialet Phantoms did, that they have far fewer software issues, and that surround sound works well with Apple TV. I am willing to wait for the eARC cable for the last bit.

If I am not satisfied, I fully intend to return them on the 100 days return policy.

 

[eyemgh]

I ordered on 6/18, and I think that was right about when the regular sale opened. They predicted 5 week wait for delivery, and that seems to hold largely.

I got the 15% rebate on 3 units, but they still offer that, so...

My criteria for being satisfied is that they sound at least as good (to me) as the Devialet Phantoms did, that they have far fewer software issues, and that surround sound works well with Apple TV. I am willing to wait for the eARC cable for the last bit.

If I am not satisfied, I fully intend to return them on the 100 days return policy.

I ordered a single a month prior and haven’t seen it yet. Time for an email.

 

[dduck]

I ordered a single a month prior and haven’t seen it yet. Time for an email.

It could just be a matter of randomness. Or that I am in California, so fairly nearby.

Give them until EOB Monday perhaps?

 

[eyemgh]

It could just be a matter of randomness. Or that I am in California, so fairly nearby.

Give them until EOB Monday perhaps?

My dad just got confirmation and we placed orders on the same day. I should be high in the queue.

 

[dduck]

My dad just got confirmation and we placed orders on the same day. I should be high in the queue.

I see your point, and I might also send them an email in that case.

But there's always some chaos in logistics, and it's generally not efficient to conform to an actual queue. In most places they just toss all orders in an unordered pile, and get to work at random parts of it. Or use some sort of bucketing.

I guess what I am saying is: If you assume they are well-ordered enough to actually queue the orders by date, why would you assume they had somehow misplaced your order?

I think it's much more likely there's a bit of randomness to it, and that they will get around to yours shortly.

They WANT to ship it, we know that because they are shipping some...

 

[dduck]

@eyemgh

To be clear, I totally understand your point of view. You paid a lot of good money for an expensive item, and of course you want it... and in a fair manner. I am not trying to tell you that's somehow wrong to feel that way. I usually feel the same, and I bet most other people do.

All I am doing is to try and share some of the mental tricks I use myself to calm my mind and let things be for a day or two, which in my experience often lets things resolve themselves without me having to expend any effort.

 

[eyemgh]

@eyemgh

To be clear, I totally understand your point of view. You paid a lot of good money for an expensive item, and of course you want it... and in a fair manner. I am not trying to tell you that's somehow wrong to feel that way. I usually feel the same, and I bet most other people do.

All I am doing is to try and share some of the mental tricks I use myself to calm my mind and let things be for a day or two, which in my experience often lets things resolve themselves without me having to expend any effort.

Didn’t take it that way at all.

Looking forward to your feedback!

 

[Brianc]

Well, imho it works quite well if you have relatively symmetric and not too far side walls as well don't sit too close on the rear wall. I had listened an earlier model in an audio show approximately 10 years ago and was really impressed, unfortunately my old living room was open to the left side so it wasn't an option but got (a used) one with my new place this year. It has fully automatic microphone based beam angle and EQ setup or you can do everything manually or any combination of both. At the manual beam angle setup its quite impressive to hear the virtual sound sources move depending on the wall reflections. It has also a subwoofer output which I combine with a cheap 10" sub for nice movie rumble.

Tonally I like the new Sennheiser AMBEO soundbar which has less drivers even more (had listened to it at a Neumann monitor workshop one year ago) but its too expensive for me.

I can't do a proper home theater setup so have been using a second-hand Yamaha YSP-900 for around 8 years. It works quite well for what it is, though I don't have the ideal placement, i.e. the walls are not an equal distance from the speaker. So I use the Stereo+3 setting, which only "beams" the two surround channels off the walls instead of the five beam setting which bounces everything but the center channel. You can manually dial in the beam direction and volume level and I've got it set for a more diffuse sound that masks the asymmetrical surround sound projection for the most part. It provides a sense of ambience more so than directional surround sound, but it's good enough for our tastes which rarely run to action movies, etc. with showy sound effects.

 

[dduck]

OK, I'm just gonna paste my first impressions from r/Syng

TL;DR: Setup was easy. Had to reposition one of the units to get placement and experience working. So far sound good and work well with Apple TV for music, but bass is a bit overpowering when coming straight off an OG HomePod setup.

Unboxing and assembly was pretty simple and took about a half hour for three units.

App + setup experience was great!

Take the statement that "you can place them anywhere" with a pinch of salt. During setup the units emit sound pulses and use that both for room correction AND to establish where the units are relative to each other. First time around they got it wrong, and so of course the sound experience wasn't at all great. Once I repositioned them in a more triangular fashion (two front, one in rear right corner) around my listening couch, things were as expected.

When switching to new equipment, it's very hard to trust your first impressions. Doubly so when the experience is so different.
The spatial audio DEFINITELY works. The listening experience most definitely puts you in the middle of the music, rather than having your brain try to place it based on two distinct sources. The experience is much like wearing a pair of headphones with a wide soundstage (like, say, Sennheiser HD 650)...

...a pair of VERY WARM headphones, sound-wise.

Sticking with the headphone analogies, to me it sounds like the soundstage of HD 650s with the sound signature of Fostex TH-900. Not unpleasant, but definitely not neutral.

My initial guess at what's going on is roughly what I experienced with my Devialet Phantoms and the aforementioned TH-900 headphones: There are lots of material out there that is actually mastered in a very bass-heavy manner, but it doesn't show on lots of setups, either due to lack of ability to render it - the usual case - or due to the tuning being either neutral or bright. When you put a recording like that on a warm system with lots of bass power, it feels overpowering, at least at first.

A few examples of that so far: Massive Attack/Mezzanine (no surprise), Fiona Apple/Criminal (also no surprise, really)

However, a few pieces that sounded normal (tonality-wise) to me: Roxy Music/More than This, The Stones/Sympathy for the Devil, Pink Floyd/Comfortably Numb.

I am working today, so there won't be much chance to get deeper into this until perhaps in the evening.

 

[Zvu]

I've found a review on YT that says about that warmth. When designing Syng, they made it flat in an anechoic chamber, and then they applied some curve derived from their experience. That curve is, supposedly, boosted lows for a couple of dB. That in itself shouldn't be a problem since they've promised to enable choice of flat response in their app in the near future.

Oh and that design is growing on me pretty fast.

 

[eyemgh]

I've found a review on YT that says about that warmth. When designing Syng, they made it flat in an anechoic chamber, and then they applied some curve derived from their experience. That curve is, supposedly, boosted lows for a couple of dB. That in itself shouldn't be a problem since they've promised to enable choice of flat response in their app in the near future.

Oh and that design is growing on me pretty fast.

According to one of their engineers in the TechHive review, that correction is to compensate for the fact that humans' perception of the loudness of frequencies is volume dependent. What might sound flat at one volume in a "flat" speaker, won't sound flat at a lower volume.

 

[Zvu]

Nothing wrong with that. But the least they could do is enable those presets so everybody can choose. Some of us live in a brick houses and apartments with rigid walls.

 

[abdo123]

According to one of their engineers in the TechHive review, that correction is to compensate for the fact that humans' perception of the loudness of frequencies is volume dependent. What might sound flat at one volume in a "flat" speaker, won't sound flat at a lower volume.

this is not a low volume portable device this approach doesn't make sense.