5.1 Headphone experience *Foobar configuration for all stereo music files*

[Graphicism]

Quote:

I used to have this for my Sony MDR-V6 and I really liked it. Now with the Ultrasone Pro 900 it's much much worse. Soundstage doesn't seem to get much better, and a lot of detail is lost. I guess this is good for headphones with a relatively small soundstage.

Play around with the settings... I conjured this up with my Ultrasone HFI-780 and actually found it to work better with S-logic than regular headphones.

 

[mvmv]

Wasn't very good at playing around with the settings myself so i just spent a bit of time saving a load of people's settings as separate profiles so now i can switch between all of them and see what i like best. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I've updated my custom config and I'm VERY pleased how it sounds like. I've spent so much time with tweaking this dolby headphone it's funny, probably a course over a year fiddled around with EQ and channel mixer settings etc and took a break every now and then when I thought I had gotten to a very good result. Well this setting is probably my best so far.
 


 
 
If you want to try it out you can download it here, I kinda need to provide the whole foobar2000 package as it contains the Electri-Q EQ settings (which only balances out the Dolby Headphone frequency balance change). It's preconfigured so only need to be extracted somewhere and start up the exe.
 
I suggest you extract it somewhere else, load up two foobar2000, this and another foobar2000 that is completely stock settings and compare with the same song. I know some people are allergic against additional reverb though and I use the DH-1 Reference room which adds a tiny bit reverb which I personally find welcome as it sounds more like listening with speakers in a room with it. If you don't like it you can always switch to DH-2 Living room mode in the settings which doesn't add any additional reverb.
 
In this config I just have a dilemma, can't decide if stereoimage width 0.88 or 0.89 sounds better in Channel Mixer lol. Yea I keep going back n forth between 1 increments even... Too much separation sounds unnatural, these settings sounds about the closest to being as wide as possible and still sounding natural to me.
 
Are you using speaker config 5.1 in windows btw? sounds a whole lot better then.

 

[JackeShan]

This is ridiculous. I love this! This is so much better than my own config. My config made the sound very unnatural and distant sounding, so I preferred the normal sound.
Your config is awesome though. Better soundstage without the loss of clarity and detail! Just what I was looking for with these plugins. I'm currently a/b-ing this versus normal, and so far I enjoy this more. But bass quantity appears to be  a bit less with this config so I think I'll play around with the equalizer to squeeze out more bass without ruining the sound. Should I leave the Electri-Q as it is and adjust the eq with my sound card (which I usually do), what's your suggestion?
 
Thanks a lot!
Quote:

I've updated my custom config and I'm VERY pleased how it sounds like. I've spent so much time with tweaking this dolby headphone it's funny, probably a course over a year fiddled around with EQ and channel mixer settings etc and took a break every now and then when I thought I had gotten to a very good result. Well this setting is probably my best so far.
 


 
 
If you want to try it out you can download it here, I kinda need to provide the whole foobar2000 package as it contains the Electri-Q EQ settings (which only balances out the Dolby Headphone frequency balance change). It's preconfigured so only need to be extracted somewhere and start up the exe.
 
I suggest you extract it somewhere else, load up two foobar2000, this and another foobar2000 that is completely stock settings and compare with the same song. I know some people are allergic against additional reverb though and I use the DH-1 Reference room which adds a tiny bit reverb which I personally find welcome as it sounds more like listening with speakers in a room with it. If you don't like it you can always switch to DH-2 Living room mode in the settings which doesn't add any additional reverb.
 
In this config I just have a dilemma, can't decide if stereoimage width 0.88 or 0.89 sounds better in Channel Mixer lol. Yea I keep going back n forth between 1 increments even... Too much separation sounds unnatural, these settings sounds about the closest to being as wide as possible and still sounding natural to me.
 
Are you using speaker config 5.1 in windows btw? sounds a whole lot better then.

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

This is ridiculous. I love this! This is so much better than my own config. My config made the sound very unnatural and distant sounding, so I preferred the normal sound.
Your config is awesome though. Better soundstage without the loss of clarity and detail! Just what I was looking for with these plugins. I'm currently a/b-ing this versus normal, and so far I enjoy this more. But bass quantity appears to be  a bit less with this config so I think I'll play around with the equalizer to squeeze out more bass without ruining the sound. Should I leave the Electri-Q as it is and adjust the eq with my sound card (which I usually do), what's your suggestion?
 
Thanks a lot!

I would say fiddle around with the EQ on your soundcard, that's what I do if unhappy with the sound with your headphones, I never adjust the Electri-Q EQ settings to keep it same with any headphones I use. I don't think this config lowers the bass quantity at all, if anything it adds a touch more very deep bass. I think Sony made exactly 1.5dB boost in bass as my config is about 1.5dB reduction, well mostly around -1.45dB reduction, it could be the slightly more "forward" sound that's tricking you. I really tried getting as close as possible to the stock foobar2000 bass quantity and switching on/off here really my ears can't tell if there's any difference in bass quantity. But besides that I simply try to listen if it just sounds good with the rest of the frequency range than simply going for EXACT same balance everywhere as stock, as sounding great has obviously highest priority but yea it should be very close to the original frequency balance anyway.
 
You can switch on/off the config easily by loading the "DSP chain presets" in the DSP manager page, I have a "Custom: Stock foobar2000" preset for completely stock settings and then "Genre: Balanced (Default)" is the interesting one that should have roughly the same balance as the stock foobar2000 settings and is this config I posted above. The other presets haven't been updated for a long time and would need bunch of EQ adjustments (in general less bass quantity & more forward mids to become usable) as well as the revamped channel mixer settings. Besides it also crashes if you load 2-3 times a preset that has Electri-Q activated so you'd need to switch between the stock foobar2000 config everytime you try loading one of the presets to avoid crashing.

 

[OPrwtos]

Im gona see how it compares to my free surround settings and tell you about it! brb
 
 
 
- ok well....i tried out your settings and i still prefer mine.
 
Firstly i have to half the volume from my amp from 20 to 10 when i go to your settings to be around the same loudness even though i use dolby at 120% but i think thats just channel mixer is generally louder than free surround. 
 
Also your settings make the music much more upfront than mine and more music going on in the center. Mine has waaayyy more instrument separation, and most of the instruments are placed around the sides. Mine seems to have more empty space and also gives a darker background with less noise. 
 
However! the funny thing is that even though i decided to keep my settings i decided to tweak them a bit a change very slightly the instrument placement so i have more music in the center.
 
Im not sure you will like my settings btw.

 

[JackeShan]

I have compared it a bit more to stock foobar and I think you're right. The bass is definitely there with this config. I like this more and more 

Quote:

I would say fiddle around with the EQ on your soundcard, that's what I do if unhappy with the sound with your headphones, I never adjust the Electri-Q EQ settings to keep it same with any headphones I use. I don't think this config lowers the bass quantity at all, if anything it adds a touch more very deep bass. I think Sony made exactly 1.5dB boost in bass as my config is about 1.5dB reduction, well mostly around -1.45dB reduction, it could be the slightly more "forward" sound that's tricking you. I really tried getting as close as possible to the stock foobar2000 bass quantity and switching on/off here really my ears can't tell if there's any difference in bass quantity.

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Im gona see how it compares to my free surround settings and tell you about it! brb
 
 
 
- ok well....i tried out your settings and i still prefer mine.
 
Firstly i have to half the volume from my amp from 20 to 10 when i go to your settings to be around the same loudness even though i use dolby at 120% but i think thats just channel mixer is generally louder than free surround. 
 
Also your settings make the music much more upfront than mine and more music going on in the center. Mine has waaayyy more instrument separation, and most of the instruments are placed around the sides. Mine seems to have more empty space and also gives a darker background with less noise. 
 
However! the funny thing is that even though i decided to keep my settings i decided to tweak them a bit a change very slightly the instrument placement so i have more music in the center.
 
Im not sure you will like my settings btw.

 
I think we all have our personal "optimal" settings, I prefer this "up-front" sound while still giving better positioning/soundstage than stock config, it's a very engaging/immersive experience for me. One that it feels like I have to start dancing to the music and can't sit still in the chair, that's the kind of sound I like. ^^ Compare Grados vs Sennheiser HD800 sound. Grado's are meant for headbanging to your metal with while HD800 is more like leaning back in a comfortable chair or couch with a nice cup of tea enjoying a relaxed listen to classical music. I want to feel engaged by the music not relaxed. xD
 
BTW the advanced limiter isn't really that important, you can try switching it off, what it does (besides limiting the signal so it doesn't clip) for some songs is to bring especially vocals/mids a bit more forward why I like keeping it enabled for most songs but for very complex passages in music it could possibly make it more crowdy/messy sounding (worsen the transparency), so try also removing that one. Another setting which I know would fit you better is to lower the "front in rear" slider in channel mixer, then you will get more closer to freesurround sound, volume is decreased and will give you more airy soundstage/better transparency sound. And then you probably want your Dolby Headphone amplification slider set a lot higher for increase sense of depth/positioning by DH like you have set yours to 120% (I know it has this kind of effect as I used to use around 120% in the past with different channel mixer settings)
 
 

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
 I want to feel engaged by the music not relaxed. xD
 
 
 

i want to feel relaxed not engaged
 
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

i want to feel relaxed not engaged

Yea we prefer the opposite kind of sound signatures. I could even easily tweak a config that I know would sound a whole lot better for you but that I'd personally dislike. Maybe we should start offering several different configs to cover different people's taste but yea if we want a laid-back/relaxed sounding config yours would probably fit nicely. I can give it a try if you post the config/settings or preconfigured foobar2000.
 
 

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

Yea we prefer the opposite kind of sound signatures. I could even easily tweak a config that I know would sound a whole lot better for you but that I'd personally dislike. Maybe we should start offering several different configs to cover different people's taste but yea if we want a laid-back/relaxed sounding config yours would probably fit nicely. I can give it a try if you post the config/settings or preconfigured foobar2000.
 
 

i think posted it like 50 places but here u go (haha) - 


 
just before your post i had front and rear separation on +2 and panorama on 115 and depth on 2.00. I also reduced dolby to 115%
 
 
Edit - old redundant post. 

 
 
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I take it those EQ settings are for your headphones though? I only used Electri-Q for sake of EQing out the change Dolby Headphone brings (boosted bass and reduced treble) and then use my soundcard's EQ if needed to EQ the headphones individually but my M-Audio Q40 headphones need no EQing at all though.

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

I take it those EQ settings are for your headphones though? I only used Electri-Q for sake of EQing out the change Dolby Headphone brings (boosted bass and reduced treble) and then use my soundcard's EQ if needed to EQ the headphones individually but my M-Audio Q40 headphones need no EQing at all though.

yh this is the eq i use for my 701's
 
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well I tried with the free surround settings and yea it sounded quite a lot like I expected, not quite my sound (I dislike the K701 sound signature, probably the last headphone I'd buy and this is like going from a Grado signature to K701 signature) but it does sound more laid-back but I'm noticing some strange "metallic" sounding highs in some songs with those settings. Freesurround also seems to sound a lot better with stereo speaker config than 5.1 in the windows control panel for the output device I use while keeping free surround plugin set to 5.1 surround. With channel mixer it sounds even better with speaker config set to 5.1 in windows control panel than stereo.

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

Well I tried with the free surround settings and yea it sounded quite a lot like I expected, not quite my sound (I dislike the K701 sound signature and this is like going from a Grado signature to K701 signature) but it does sound more laid-back but I'm noticing some strange "metallic" sounding highs in some songs with those settings. Freesurround also seems to sound a lot better with stereo speaker config than 5.1 in the windows control panel for the output device I use while keeping free surround plugin set to 5.1 surround. With channel mixer it sounds even better with speaker config set to 5.1 in windows control panel than stereo.

you dont use wasapi? also the "metallic highs" might be to do with your eq settings with ur particular headphones, i dont think i get this with mine.