Crossfeed... which is the best?

[SergioRZ]

(My gear: Linn Ikemi - Heed Canamp - AKG K701)

So it seems I might need to get an amp with cross feed capability to get a more realistic "speakers like" sound experience from headphone listening...

I've been reading around, and there seem to exist two or more different approaches to crossfeeding... I've never heard any amp with this feature, and I will never get to hear one unless I buy it. So I need to make the call... blind...

I've read about the Headroom Desktop and the Corda Arietta/Opera... which seem to be fairly safe options.

Some questions for the lucky people who have tried cross feeding amps:

- Is cross feeding really important? Will it really make the sound feel like it is in front of me instead of inside my head?

- Which will put the soundstage more in front of me? A Corda or a Headroom amp? Or another brand maybe?

- Is it possible to simply add a cross feed filter to my current setup? Is there any commercial cross feed filter available? (I'm not very handy to try DIY)

Thanks!

 

[GreatDane]

If you can find a used Meier Corda Cross-1 that would enable you to use crossfeed with your current gear. I use a CC-1 with my tube amp and its great.

The HeadRoom crossfeed is pretty good also. I once owned a Micro Amp and compared to the Meier crossfeed, the HR adds a bit of warmth which was good for some cans, bad for others.

I currently use a portable Meier amp which is very similar to the passive CC-1. Overall I prefer the Meier crossfeed.

If you listen to a lot of late 50's and 60's music, crossfeed will be very valuable because it will eliminate that annoying extreme separation that is often present. Crossfeed can help shift the soundstage to a more "in front" perception regardless of the degree of stereo separation.

 

[IPodPJ]

When I started using Meier crossfeed, I used it 90% of the time, and 10% normal. Now I use crossfeed 20% of the time and 80% normal. It is great for training your ears into that headphone environment and it sounds real good. But over time I found it to lack a lot of details that can only be heard in normal mode.

 

[MaZa]

Meiers crossfeed, atleast one my HA-2 MkII, is superb. Compared to software solutions I have heard this is clearly best, It leaves center image mainly intact (mostly crossfeeds tend to monofy and squeeze center image much smaller) and frequency response is also almost unchanged.

 

[ryanred]

I had a hard time finding a Meier Corda Cross-1 when I last looked. I like the high-easy preset in the Bauer stereophonic-to-binaural plugin, which is said to be similar to Chu Moys passive design (HeadWize - Project: An Acoustic Simulator for Headphone Amplifiers by Chu Moy). Anyone know of someone who could build one or is there a kit provided anywhere? I've had quite a bit of practice soldering in the past but haven't had much experience actually following schematics.

 

[IPodPJ]

Software crossfeed plug-ins are nowhere near the quality of Meier's crossfeed, which still remains the best available.

 

[davidr2287]

Might as well join this thread. I've been wondering , what exactly does crossfeeding do? What are the benefits of it?

 

[SergioRZ]

I'm a little surprised that nobody, in the whole world, seems to be making and selling cross feed filters...

Meier did once, but not now... why did they quit making it?

 

[GreatDane]

Here's my CC-1 during a goofing around setup a couple years ago(left in photo). I've also used Xin's version and tried some plug-ins and others like RockBox but none are quite as good as Meiers version imo.

 

[GreatDane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidr2287 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Might as well join this thread. I've been wondering , what exactly does crossfeeding do? What are the benefits of it?

There are threads here at Head-Fi to find if you search but here is what HeadRoom has to say.

 

[Zorotto]

I like Headstage Lyrix better than MOVE.
I think that Lyrix is more comprehensible of the effect of crossfeed.

 

[ryanred]

I was in the market for a portable amp... saw a meier corda move on ebay and ended up winning it. I haven't done direct comparisons between the move's crossfeed and the plugins I've been using in foobar, but I am very happy with the meier crossfeed. It's less noticeable than some plugins when switching it on/off, yet it does a good job at projecting the soundstage slightly forward. I'll definitely be looking to pick up a Corda Cross-1 for my home setup.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

The SRS Lab's iWOW plug-in for Mac iTunes (by Rogue Amoeba) is fun to play with, and does cross-feed and center channel enhancements, with SRS 3D spacial enhancements and SRS Trubass - but the presets are all too much for headphones. It does make listening to music via the Macbook's internal speakers much more engaging.

For headphones I've created my own custom presets that are helpful at times, usually with quiet listening. I disable this for ANY critical listening. I imaging it would sound similar to the Creative X-fi crystalizer and 3D enhancements, and on of these days I'll open my sealed Creative X-fi "Mod" USB DAC amp and compare the software vs hardware. The X-fi Mod can be used to feed a headphone amp after it converts the USB into analog (with and without the sound enhancements).

I have crossfeed on my Meier HeadFive, Headstage Lyrix, and SuperMacro 3 amps, and don't use it much. Of them, the Headfive is the best at not losing some of the ambience of the venue, the other two are still useful in some program material. I am one of those 20% crossfeed on, 80% crossfeed off people.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

PS: Corda Cross-1 is hard to find. Last month I found and bought the face plates and circuit boards to build my own, but still need to get the BOM and parts. I'm not a big DIY'er so I also have the Headwize modified linkwitz crossfeed circuit kit (Chu Moy?) for my PIMETA that I haven't put together yet either. I was thinking about building it into a seperate case as well.

 

[Thesrot]

I have a couple of the Headroom amps and the crossfeed is great. I use it 100% of the time and I would not consider owning an amp without crossfeed. I listen to 60s/70s stuff. Some have said it's less significant on newer music, but I woulldn't know.