Is there a hole in Headroom's line or is the Bithead all that?

[Cecala]

Originally Posted by noseallinit

is it that bad?

I'm into 2 channel and I never plan on having a home theater setup. yet, I find it difficult sometimes listening to these surround sound recordings through me headphones. I was hoping this is where Dolby Headphone would help by what little I have heard. I have had a couple of movies that allowed me to choose Dolby Headphone and a few more 2 channel. listening always seemed better with these two choices than when not having the choice at all.

what is it about these surround sound recordings listened through 2 channel that makes them sound like they are loosing out?

what is the answer to making these surround sound recordings sound best cominig out of me 2 channel headphones? sure was hopinig it was Dolby Headphone..

I really wouldn't worry about it, as long as you have a good headphone matched up to an excellent amp and Dac. You will be blown away by the results. Connect the digital out from the DVD player and off you go. You will be surprised to know that in the majority of films there is little surround information. It's only in those blockbuster nonsense that relies on surround sound and special effects to cover up the fact that the story is a disaster. The more I listen to Dolby Headphone the more I know that it's wrong and I'll go one further and say deceptive.

[mikeg88]

Originally Posted by Cecala

Dolby Headphone is a gimmick, I have listened to it at length and the end result is that the sound has been modified to the point of sounding artificial.

The thing is, Dolby Headphone is a young program that has lots of development ahead of it. Yes Binaural recordings are better, but let's wait and see where they go with it, because thier 5.1 and 7.1 surrounds work pretty well...

[Cecala]

Originally Posted by mikeg88

The thing is, Dolby Headphone is a young program that has lots of development ahead of it. Yes Binaural recordings are better...

To my knowledge there are only 3 or 4 films which contain a Dolby headphone track, yes I know but with Dolby headphones you don't need a specified Dolby track, true. Although because no more than 3 or 4 films have the honor of containing a Dolby headphone track shows how little interest there is in this format. No more development is going to be done here, I can assure you.

[badmonkey]

Dolby Headphone is excellent for conversion of 5.1 or higher to stereo format. Play with the settings, I generally prefer the more conservative "room" setting rather than "theater", but I find it excellent and very realistic with good surround tracks.
I don't believe it works so well with Dolby Surround (stereo encoding) or just regular stereo tracks.
(A few good examples that spring to mind are the Bourne films - try any fast moving scene in crowds or traffic, make sure you are using the surround sound track. Another is Saving Private Ryan).

As for music, i.e. stereo source, I use the binaural simulator, aka crossfeed, for Foobar, and also find it excellent.

Stereo to headphones unprocessed is too artificial. If you going to leave it raw, left channel to left speaker and right channel to right speaker, it should have been recorded binaurally, and of course nothing is.