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Head-Fit: Software Crossfeed and EQ
Feb 28, 2010 at 5:59 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 318
Speederlander

Speederlander

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Sorry if this was posted before and I missed it.

Found a nice software crossfeed with EQ, all specifically head-phone oriented.

blogohl: Head-fit
You can use in foobar if you install this: foobar2000 3rd party components

Play around with it, it seems really nice.

more info:
blogohl: Crossfeed and EQ for headphones
blogohl: Tips and FAQs

Quote:

Use this tool to adapt and optimize your headphone to your own ears. Even a perfect headphone will have some frequency response problems when used on your head : ie the distance between the diaphragm and your tympany produces some peaks and notches at high frequencies. Headphone manufacturers cannot avoid this because everyone has different ear characteristics and dimensions.

I propose a setup in two steps.

First use a crossfeed compensation : crossfeed is a process to mimic what happens in real life. Any sound arrives at the two ears but with a small time delay and at a different level between ears, depending on the direction and on the signal frequency.

Second step, use equalisation to compensate for irregular frequency response due to the headphone itself or/and the adaptation between the headphone and you own head and pinna.

I prefer to setup crossfeed before equalisation because crossfeed changes a little bit the frequency response. You can hear this on a correlated pink noise, the effect is subtle. It is the same as the difference between a true sound source in front of you and the same source reproduced with stereo speakers (phantom source instead of real physical source) : there is a small dip just under 2kHz with speakers compared to real source. With well implemented crossfeed, it is nearly the same as with speakers. So you get something nearer of what has been recorded and mastered.

The final and optimal result should be better sound but what does this mean ? I think that for headphones, a great improvement would be to avoid the "in-head" sensation : have less the impression that the sound is coming from inside the head. This can never be optimal because our auditory system is also using small head movements to correctly check sound source position. Without a kind of head tracking system, heaphones cannot be perfect in that sense.


 
Mar 14, 2010 at 11:59 AM Post #2 of 318
paging Leeperry
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Mar 14, 2010 at 6:56 PM Post #4 of 318
Quote:

Originally Posted by Speederlander /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Sorry if this was posted before and I missed it.

Found a nice software crossfeed with EQ, all specifically head-phone oriented.

blogohl: Head-fit
You can use in foobar if you install this: foobar2000 3rd party components

Play around with it, it seems really nice.

more info:


Thanks for the link. I will have to try it out when I get a chance.
 
Mar 16, 2010 at 12:00 AM Post #7 of 318
Leeperry, I like the way the redline monitor is controlled by less technical/more relative to life terms like distance, angle etc...

You should try the headfit too. I just tried it this morning and I actually like its crossfeed. Its very uncolored. It is almost like our agreed setting on Vellocet Vnophones plus the effect is even more pronounced on the crossfeed and less on the coloration. Its a very nice "leave and forget" kind of crossfeed. And it has eq too if ever I want to mess with that its also available. Very Nice plugin indeed. Now my current favorite. I have to confirm with more headphones though to get a handle on its disadvantages because the dt150 is not transparent enough to tell what it does wrong
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Mar 16, 2010 at 12:18 AM Post #8 of 318
I didn't like the redline too much tbh...what are your exact settings on the headfit? 3%/0.25ms actually seems pretty nice in VNP! I like it because it's very subtle
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Mar 16, 2010 at 12:34 AM Post #9 of 318
3% .25 ms on vnp? Isnt that just adding too small of an effect to even bother calling it crossfeed?

As for the headfit settings, I am using the default setting for crossfeed but bumped the level up to 0db. I havent experimented yet but default really already does the job. More transparent than VNP at the amount of crossfeed it gives. With vnp we would have to go higher on the settings to get this effect but at the same time too much coloration would already be added. I notice a gross smearing of transients/ a hall echoey sound with the vnp when going up the settings. I am not sure the degree of "mononess" though that offends you so I am not sure if youll like the headfit. Its definitely nowhere near as speakerlike/monoish as the redline which sims speakers better but ruins the headphone experience more. Headfit is a good everyday listening/leave it on compromise IMO.
 
Mar 16, 2010 at 5:10 AM Post #11 of 318
Us Audiophiles are such a hard to please bunch arent we
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First the CD is invented to get rid of the problems with analog then we spend decades on finding digital that sounds analog. Go Figure hehehe
 
Mar 16, 2010 at 5:34 AM Post #12 of 318
I am actually almost sure that youll like the headfit because even if you want less xfeed, you can still customize. What I love about it is that its tweaked perfect already even at default
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Headfit just does enough of a job that it gets rid of that cardboard box imaging with 3 blobs.
 
Mar 16, 2010 at 7:24 PM Post #13 of 318
indeed, very very impressive! my tiny VNP settings sound thin and lifeless in comparison.

it worked the first time I tried it(I had to check "external source" though, as it was outputting white noise?!), but after I closed and reopened uLilith, all it did was freezing the system
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I've sent an email to its author, maybe he could look into it...but clearly I need to brush up the xfeed side now.

PS: I definitely don't like the 112dB xfeed.
 
Mar 17, 2010 at 12:26 AM Post #15 of 318
I'm gonna double check the headfit crossfeed right now using the hd580s to get a good contrast to the dt150s to see if this is really a winner of a plugin... It will take me only a few minutes so stay tuned
 
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