5.1 Headphone experience *Foobar configuration for all stereo music files* - Page 4

I'm getting a decrease as well. It's from the channel mixer though.

Yea, I have it in that order. However, compared to no before, I need to set the Dolby Headphone amplification at ~120% to get the same volume.

Another separate thing- does anyone experience distortion? I only hear it in certain parts of some songs, and then other songs are fine.

About the volume. I should clarify a statement I made earlier. With my Grados it seemed like I experienced an increase in volume, but more likely what I was experiencing was better detail rather than actual volume. With my darker sounding Senns I do perceive what seems like a decrease in volume, but it seems to be related to separation in channels. eccdbb, you mention something about "DH amplification". Is that an actual setting in the DH component? I'm typing on my Macbook so I can't see it now. I'll have to check it out.

Edit: Nevermind eccdbb, I see what you're talking about now.

Don't happen to have an illustrated guide for that do you

Using mmg.exe (mkv merging tool) also works. Just drag the vob in, check only the audio track, and save as *.ac3

100% seems to solve the problem. Thank you. For others/reference, 200% sounds like dumping sand in the music.

You, sir, are my hero.

This is the single best thing to happen to me other than buying my HD-650's. LOL And it's free to boot.

Let's talk about how applicable this method is. I find that for synthesized music like hardcore and trance, the sound becomes farther and less detailed/charaterized. It also can have too much of a echo at times, and sometimes sounds EQ'd. Perhaps this is because the music has been created to suit headphones better so further processing is overdoing it? or maybe the immediacy is lost? Sometimes, the method makes the sound stuffy and clogged. Maybe squeezed? I feel that most types of sounds loose their character and get changed.

Some tracks sound bad with this method, some sound better, and then there are the neutrals. The better sounding ones sound like you're in a room.

Vocal/acoustic- I think this method helps a lot. However, the singer's voice can loose thickness. Cymbals loose their lower end and tend to sound tinny. Diana Krall - Let It Snow sounds really nice with this. Sounds like you're listening from a seat in the audience rather than in the middle of the stage. Seems like jazz and orchestral stuff like this method a lot too.

In general, I think this method is picky on application. It improves the presentation of some tracks, but can mess others.

I agree that some tracks don't work well with this setting, but the overall presentation is great. Kudos to your efforts!

By the way, my Foobar is outdated and it won't accept the latest ASIO plugin. Any chance you guys have an older version? Updating mine would be a pain, as the interface I like only uses the older versions of Foobar.

Yep, sounds very similar to my own experience so far. Poorly recorded or ripped albums really stand out with this turned on... more so than before that is. Electronic music sounds great though. Course that may be due to artist/styles of electronic music I'm listening to. I'm going to have to grab those Krafwerk remastered albums!

How does a peak meter work?
According to wikipedia, "As a rule, recording levels should be set so that they do not exceed the red area beyond 0 VU or only rarely. If set too high, the sound quality and frequency response is typically poorer at high recording levels, and clipping effects can be especially severe for a digital recording system. If the level is set too low, noise levels will be high relative the the main sound being recorded." This is for a VU meter. What's the difference between a VU meter and peak meter?

When the two small blocks on the right of the peak meter appear, what does it signify? It seems that lowering the DH amp to ~70% prevents the little blocks from appearing for most tracks.

Putting Advanced Limiter under DH as a DSP also prevents the blocks from appearing. What is it doing? From Techspot: "This DSP uses read-ahead on the source and scales down the audio signal when it detects clipping will occur resulting in minimal, if any, distortion during playback." Does this mean the volume is being affected? Like dynamics being squished?

Wow, this is really cool! It works very nicely. Just yesterday I tried another method/program that used the Dolby Headhone dlls but it didn't work nearly as good as this; this is great. Thanks a lot for this.

I found that with the settings you suggested the Center channel was too loud on my headphones and was kind of drowning out all the other channels, so I turned Center down to 0.65.

Thanks for the guide, it works great

Got a few questions though..

x-fi extreme music - Audio Creation Mode
Monster Beats Studio Headphones

On my x-fi does it matter if i have my speaker selection on 5.1 or Headphones?

Also when im using KS in foobar my x-fi says its only using FL/FR channels, when im using ASIO it says its using FL/FR/RL/RR only.. Is this correct? or am i doing something wrong? Should my Front C/Sub channel work with ASIO?

Thanks..