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In Reply to: RE: Vinyl Listening On Headphones... posted by Crazy Dave on April 15, 2014 at 14:56:48
Dave: If you don't really like the typical kind of "headphone soundstage", you could always try some little tricks and some technical methods to achieve a more "out of the head"-like presentation. Simplest trick is to experiment with headphone placement - i.e., provided your individual combination of headphone and ears allow for that, it can already help quite a good bit to pull the earcups a bit forward and downward from the "centered over each ear"-position. If that doesn't help (or not yet enough), you could try a headphone amp with crossfeed function - or a crossfeed plug-in on a computer-based setup, which I'd in fact suggest to try first, 'cause that way you could try it for cheap.
However, in my own experience what really works for creating a definitive "out of the head"-like presentation is to apply the impulse response of a room onto the signal with a convolver algorithm. Together with applying an averaged HRTF that's also how the more advanced virtual surround implementations for headphones like Dolby Headphone or Creative's CMSS 3D Headphone work. That's another thing you could try on (one of) your computer(s) without investing much, 'cause there already are quite a few convolver plug-ins for software players and audio creation/editing software.
Personally I'm pretty used to the typical headphone soundstage, though - so for music listening I only do the position trick (in fact I had already done that instinctively for years before I read anything about it...) - while for movies and also for gaming convolver-processed or even virtual surround sound can be pretty nice. Whereas crossfeed really didn't work for me - an neither did Ultrasone's mechanical S-Logic solution. However, to be fair: I've only tried one of their S-Logic equipped models (the old HFI-2000), and that was more than ten years ago - so it's not impossible that one of their newer models could work quite a bit better for me...
Oh, and another cheap trick that works for me, but which might be worth a try for you as well: With closed eyes focus your view about on the spot where your nose meets your forehead, squinting a bit, as if you'd try to see a fly that has landed there. If I do that for a short while and then concentrate on my hearing again, I have the impression that my perceived soundstage becomes more pin-point and three-dimensional. Interestingly enough, while I've first discovered that whilst listening with headphones, it also works for me without.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
Follow Ups:
Thanks for the tips! I will try positioning first. My headphones are Sennheiser HD-555's, which to my ears are quite good. It does not bother me a lot. I can relax and get lost in the music. I just tried to give an accurate description of what it sounds like to me, since the previous inmate said he could not hear an image.
Dave
Dave: Can't comment on the HD555, 'cause I only have a HD595 in my collection - and that's an exemplar from the initial edition, which had 120 Ohm instead of the later 50 Ohm drivers. For my taste quite a nice sounding model, albeit with a bit of (upper) midrange grain - and in my view a bit expensive for its level of performance. To my ears it seemed pretty similar to Beyerdynamic's at that time new DT440 - with the main difference being that the Beyerdynamic seemed to show no graininess, but a bit of an annoying treble instead. Neither of the two was able to dethrone my two favourites in that class, though - which are the Beyerdynamic DT531 and the AKG K240S(tudio).
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
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