[Ticky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hirsch I've found that as amp quality goes up, the need (or desire) for crossfeed goes down. I suspect that those of us that have had good stereo speaker setups, where we're used to combining the sonic input from two transducers into a three-dimensional image, are likely to want crossfeed less. It seems to me to be an artificial way of doing what should be happening naturally in the listening experience. I have yet to hear a crossfeed device that does not have some negative impact as well. On the best of them, the negative effect is negligible, though.

Agreed. When I had the Supreme, I used the crossfeed function all the time. But when I was auditioning a bunch of amps for my upgrade, I had to do without crossfeed inorder to get a "fair" comparison between amps. After a few weeks without crossfeed, I've come to prefer listening to my headphones in straight stereo. Regardless of whether I'm using the HR-2 or the TBH, I now prefer listening without crossfeed.

Perhaps this might be analogous to the situation of quality speakers. I've noted that lower quality speakers often need "help" from sound processing to make them sound half-way decent. Think "bass boost," "sen-surround," and all that stuff that comes with regular boomboxes or mass-market components. On the other hand, on a high quality pair of speakers, no sonic manipulation is necessary to bring out the tight bass, broad soundstage and crystal clear trebles.

A note on the Meier crossfeed. In the brief time I spent with the Corda HA-2, I've found that the Meier crossfeed doesn't alter the tonal characteristics of music as much as the Headroom. However, I still prefer the Headroom's crossfeed over Meier's. The Headroom might mess up the mid-range a bit, but it is more fun to listen to. The Meier crossfeed is abit clinical. Also the Meier crossfeed is very subtle. Half the time I couldn't even tell if I have it off or on the low/medium setting.

 

[sleepkyng]

wow this is a lot of great info on crossfeed

cool guys! thanks!

 

[gpalmer]

/Crossfeeds, we don't need no stinkin' crossfeeds!

Seriously, I've avoided them since I find the ones I have heard degraded the sound and I've spent too much money upgrading my sound to want to degrade it! I found when i started listening to headphones I wanted it more than I do now. At some point my brain started adjusting to the straight stereo sound and performing processing tricks in it's software and those are the best ones!

 

[waffenschmidt]

I have to say this is the best crossfeed thread I've seen, and I've read most of the ones that have been posted in the past two years. I've jumped in many times to straighten out misconceptions or add some balance when people have trashed crossfeed outright, sometimes without having ever heard it.

I don't have much to add to the discussion, other than to support the idea that the better the amp, the less crossfeed seems to be needed. Still, I like having the option to flip on the crossfeed when I feel it adds more than it takes away.

 

[Tuberoller]

I'm a crossfeed Junkie. Ray"I don't believe in crossfeed" Samuels is probably cringing at the very thought of this thread but I gotta have it.

 

[taoster]

crossfeed is awesome. There's nothing more annoying than an unbalanced headphone listening experience.

 

[Distroyed]

Crossfeeding isnt just good for older recordings with stereo separation but for newer recordings that use binaural techniques as well. A lot of electronic music (from ambient to psychedellic) benefits tremendously from crossfeeding; the difference is immediately noticeable, and in my opinion, much more relaxing on the ears.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

I'm finding the cross-feed function on my PPA amp is growing on me..

Initially, I didn't like how it put the sound in the background a bit.. Made it less bright (in the good sense)..

But it does help with listening fatigue.. Bright sound gets hard too listen to fairly quickly..

If I just want to listen for a while I'll turn it off, though..

But for gaming, or long-term music listening I find it helps alot..

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpalmer /Crossfeeds, we don't need no stinkin' crossfeeds! Seriously, I've avoided them since I find the ones I have heard degraded the sound and I've spent too much money upgrading my sound to want to degrade it! I found when i started listening to headphones I wanted it more than I do now. At some point my brain started adjusting to the straight stereo sound and performing processing tricks in it's software and those are the best ones!

I have no need for crossfeed since I've upgraded.

-Ed