Foobar2000 Dolby Headphone config - Comment & discuss!

[RPGWiZaRD]

I love listening to both the current presets now. Sounds very good to me to a wide variety of music on both forward and laid-back config and both have no audible sound quality impact to my ears, doubt there's much that can be tweaked to make it sound better now based on these plugins at least, perhaps there will be some newer channel mixing plugins or ones that I've not tested yet that may work even better but with these plugins I don't think I'll be able to tweak better results with.
 
Only on the "forward" config with some music may work better if using the "DH2 - live room" dolby headphone mode and raising Dolby headphone amplification slider from 104 to 106% for example for bassy hardstyle tracks that may lose some bass impact as it can't keep up with the bassheavy passages in DH1 - Reference room mode and if switching to DH2 mode it can keep up with the bass but other music such as ballads, acoustic, pop etc sounds better with DH1 mode for a wider sounding stage thanks to the very slight reverb.

 

[danny93]

Cant seem to change the windows to 5.1, i go to the speaker setup and the only option is sterio...any ideas (i have the Titanium HD soundcard BTW)
 
Thanks allot 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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Cant seem to change the windows to 5.1, i go to the speaker setup and the only option is sterio...any ideas (i have the Titanium HD soundcard BTW)
 
Thanks allot 

If you're choosing the right output device it should be possible, I've had Titanium HD card myself. You have the drivers properly installed? Not Windows suggested but downloaded from Creative right?
 

 

[danny93]

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If you're choosing the right output device it should be possible, I've had Titanium HD card myself. You have the drivers properly installed? Not Windows suggested but downloaded from Creative right?
 

I have [size=14pt]Robert McClelland[/size] PAX custom drivers, shall i enable 5.1 on the creative drivers not on windows...i thoughs this 5.1 was nothing to do with my creative drivers?
 
Edit i have windows 7

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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I have [size=14pt]Robert McClelland[/size] PAX custom drivers, shall i enable 5.1 on the creative drivers not on windows...i thoughs this 5.1 was nothing to do with my creative drivers?

5.1 speakers should be enabled through Windows control panel by right clicking on that default output device and then configure speakers and set headphones/stereo in the X-Fi driver software.
 
Ofc you can use this config with stereo speakers too but it sounds best like this from my testing AND with Titanium HD above mentioned config is also the recommended configuration for best possible gaming positional sound too.
 

 

[danny93]

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5.1 speakers should be enabled through Windows control panel by right clicking on that default output device and then configure speakers and set headphones/stereo in the X-Fi driver software.
 
Ofc you can use this config with stereo speakers too but it sounds best like this from my testing AND with Titanium HD above mentioned config is also the recommended configuration for best possible gaming positional sound too.
 

Thats the thing theres no 5.1 option there...only 2.1 and thats it!
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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Thats the thing theres no 5.1 option there...only 2.1 and thats it!

Did you check all the output devices, in case you're using a different one than I did, I think there were 2 different ones and only one pf them had multichannel output.
 
I'm also heavily concidering updating the Forward config to use DH-2 live room mode and amplification set to 106% as it works better for so many tracks, the reverb masks some fine details here and there in DH1.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well I updated the download link and the settings on the first page for the "Forward" config to use "DH2 - Live room" mode and Amplification slider to 106% and Electri-Q gain to -2,140. Sounds fantastic! I wish I had realized it earlier exactly how great of an advantage there is in hearing microdetails using DH2 mode instead of DH1 mode sooner. I'm pretty shocked at the difference switching on/off this config now as it sounds to my ears on my setup like I'd get better fine detail retrieval too which should be pretty impossible by theory, the positioning sounds so realistic like I'd be in the same room with the band.
 
I will really need to make some new demo samples now.

 

[JackeShan]

It's always nice with updates! I'll compare it to the DH1 mode and see what I like better on my setup.
I have also tried the laid-back config and it's better than what it was earlier. However, I get this weird "fade in" sound, especially when a snare drum hits. It's hard to explain, but something is really off. Is it just me?
 
Edit:
The DH2 mode is the winner for me. The differences aren't big to DH1 in my opinion, but positioning is a bit better, and slightly more detailed, and overall a better sound. I like it! And wow, I'm actually scared of how much better everything sounds compared to stock foobar 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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It's always nice with updates! I'll compare it to the DH1 mode and see what I like better on my setup.
I have also tried the laid-back config and it's better than what it was earlier. However, I get this weird "fade in" sound, especially when a snare drum hits. It's hard to explain, but something is really off. Is it just me?
 
Edit:
The DH2 mode is the winner for me. The differences aren't big to DH1 in my opinion, but positioning is a bit better, and slightly more detailed, and overall a better sound. I like it! And wow, I'm actually scared of how much better everything sounds compared to stock foobar 

Yea well it's always a combination of both the DH mode + the amplification value, certain values just give a lot better positioning, even one value lower or higher might ruin it! DH2 and amplification 106% works like magic together, if it had stayed at 104% it hadn't sounded so awesome.
 

 

[Hailin]

I am now using the forward one on the front page and for acoustic material it makes my DT990 soar.Bass guitar on Jake Johnson it over bearing at times but that is the nature of the headphones more then the nature of your eqing.
For my nature recordings when something loud hits it seems like the panning is off or very direct. Doesn't sound full or surrounding. Those are the only clips really where it seems odd.  I am using WASAPI output in foobar.

 

[wayward91]

hi, iv had dolby headphone in foobar for a while now but have not been able to get it to work. I have got the plug ins and the multi channel mixer but can’t get anything to seem like its in surround sound. In dolby headphone the status for the dolbyhpl.dll is “invalid” could this be why? Im a little stuck. I have a 5.1copy (from sacd) of the dark side of the moon that id like to give a go. i have listened to this with speakers but haven’t got Dolby headphone to work.
Any suggestions ??
 
Cheers all

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

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hi, iv had dolby headphone in foobar for a while now but have not been able to get it to work. I have got the plug ins and the multi channel mixer but can’t get anything to seem like its in surround sound. In dolby headphone the status for the dolbyhpl.dll is “invalid” could this be why? Im a little stuck. I have a 5.1copy (from sacd) of the dark side of the moon that id like to give a go. i have listened to this with speakers but haven’t got Dolby headphone to work.
Any suggestions ??
 
Cheers all

 
Don't know what to suggest but sounds like it's not using the dolby headphone plugin for you if it says "invalid", don't ask me why though, probably something computer related, depending how you got yours set up etc.

 

[bluzeboy]

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hi, iv had dolby headphone in foobar for a while now but have not been able to get it to work. I have got the plug ins and the multi channel mixer but can’t get anything to seem like its in surround sound. In dolby headphone the status for the dolbyhpl.dll is “invalid” could this be why? Im a little stuck. I have a 5.1copy (from sacd) of the dark side of the moon that id like to give a go. i have listened to this with speakers but haven’t got Dolby headphone to work.
Any suggestions ??

 
Search for the file dollbyhpl.dll &link it to the plugin

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

It's included in the preconfigured package but it's found also bundled with several programs but I guess you just have to point to it manually despite the box "remember the path relatively to foobar2000 installation" is ticked.