Do you like crossfeed?
Jul 29, 2007 at 1:52 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 34

rumatt

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Do you like crossfeed?

I don't. I prefer the strong center image rather than a blurred, spread out sound to the vocals.

I've tried the crossfeed on the Meier Corda Move, and on the Headroom Desktop amp, and these are supposed to be the best. I prefer both amps with the crossfeed off.

I have a feeling I'm in the minority.. we'll see.

.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 1:58 AM Post #2 of 34
Quote:

Originally Posted by rumatt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I do not like crossfeed. I prefer the strong center image rather than a blurred, spread out sound to the vocals.


I've only heard Corda crossfeed. Normally I leave it off and only turn it on for real old recordings like the Beatles, etc. Dead space on one channel really bothers me waiting for the rest of the instruments to kick in. I consider it a personal problem
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Jul 29, 2007 at 2:56 AM Post #3 of 34
This, of course, is strictly a matter of personal preference. I happen not to like crossfeed at all. But then again, I don't understand the oft-expressed objection to the image generated by most headphones. In particular, I don't get the "three blobs of sound" complaint.

Headphones don't image like speakers, but that doesn't mean (again, in my opinion) that the presentation is as annoying as some listeners seem to find it. I find that good phones give me pretty precise, realistic left-to-right placement of instruments, with not much front-to-back depth, and that's acceptable to me. The better cans that I've tried do offer some "out-of-head" width, with some of the sound appearing to come from outside the earcups.

I am generally dubious of the notion that faults in a recording can be electronically "fixed." I don't use bass boost, and I think that surround-sound simulators make absolute hash out of a good stereo recording. In the same way, I don't find that crossfeed materially improves on recordings with excessive left-right separation, and whatever improvement is gained is cancelled out by loss of detail. The early American mixes of Beatles recordings are just bizarre -- intruments in one channel and vox in the other. I don't think there is any help for that, other than tracking down the mono mixes that were released in England.

There is also the consideration that crossfeed places additional components in the signal path, and that can't possibly do anything good for the accuracy of the sound.

As I said, just my opinion. I've heard people (most of them on this forum) swear by crossfeed.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 3:51 AM Post #4 of 34
I have the crossfeed at the low setting on my Corda HA-2 MKII SE and pretty much listen to all my music (mostly metal and hard rock) with it. I simply prefer the sound. I don't notice any loss of detail when I have it on vs. off, but that could be a limitation of my headphones and/or source.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 5:21 AM Post #5 of 34
I always use crossfeed on my Aria.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 9:45 AM Post #7 of 34
I use crossfeed all the type with both Corda Move and Aria. All my records sounds the same or better with crossfeed on (in my ears). I have never experienced something negative with having crossfeed on. The sound stage is sometimes smaller, but I find that more realistic/natural.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 9:48 AM Post #8 of 34
Afaik none of my amplifiers have crossfeed.
So I don't use it, and really don't miss it either.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 2:36 PM Post #11 of 34
I've found its use to be recording dependent, Early Elton John for instance where its use then makes the recording mixed properly for headphone listening. Otherwise I'll likely have it switched off... But I do initially test its use with newly bought older recordings for its possible positive effects.

On the Opera, I've found its use while without any noted drop in volume (as with my prior Meier, the HeadFive), there is a very slightly diminished sense of dynamics when A/B 'ing. Ever so slight which may go unnoticed but for careful critical listening for it. This is NOT volume change related!!!

Therefore, my rule is to save its use for those recordings which call out for its needed usage!
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 2:58 PM Post #12 of 34
With the CD3K I use it all the time, but right now with the Edition 9, honestly I have no real use for it...But sometimes I still use it...

Please cast your vote only if you actually have tried them, or have them in your amps...To say I do not like it, or that you do not miss it, if you have never tried it before, or have tried it once in a meeting for 5 minutes with an unknown recording, or with a recording that do not requires it as it was mixed for headphones and period, will not help anybody, you need to have some experience with it, trying it with different recordings, from different times, specially with the early stereo recordings, etc...Also to try them with a Grado or a IEM which sound stage is really narrow, will not help neither...

Here with all due respect, and i hope Tyll don't mind, I will add some comments, in a discussion with Tyll some time ago we had here you can read more info, and the more you read the more you will likely want to try the crossfeed...

You can have more info about the Cross-1 as well here and here...
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 11:22 PM Post #13 of 34
Crossfeed if implemented correctly (I love Meier, Xin, and HeadRoom) can be a very effective with older recordings. However with today's recordings I hardly use it. I will say that Meier's implementation is so subtle that you can almost leave it on all the time.
 
Jul 29, 2007 at 11:38 PM Post #14 of 34
Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Crossfeed if implemented correctly (I love Meier, Xin, and HeadRoom) can be a very effective with older recordings. However with today's recordings I hardly use it. I will say that Meier's implementation is so subtle that you can almost leave it on all the time.


I agree with that 100%, and that was the main reason why I sold mine, I was not it lately. I realized that nowadays recordings and mixings, are done more with headphones in mind, given the huge amount of portables released, and they do have the proper bleeding for that purpose, and to give them the proper realism, now with old stereo recordigns it is a must IMO, if the bleeding is not done in the mixing there is no physical way of getting it later on as there will be no physical connection between the two ears...
 

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