[tom2011]

did you buy titanium hd
 
and what you think about it

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

did you buy titanium hd
 
and what you think about it

I bought it yes but it will be shipped on Monday, I bought them on last Monday and paid on Tuesday but since I had to do an EU bank transfer they didn't get the money until friday and they will ship it first on monday... I'd guess I'll have it next friday. Waiting sux but that's the case when ordering abroad because no finnish retailer currently have them in stock. :s

 

[MusicHolic]

Strange, there's a missing UI elements in your foobar 1.1.6... I can't add Media Library Viewers - Album List... There's only Media Library Viewers - Media Search... Usual foobar have both of them...
 
Btw foobar 1.1.7 and 1.1.8beta3 is also out... But I can't use Electri-Q... It just says <ERROR>
 
EDIT:
nvm, I figured it out... foo_albumlist.dll is missing in your foobar component folder

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I made some small adjustments regarding rear volume on some of the presets.
 
Quote:

RPGWizard, thanks for the guide and settings.  There's not enough center channel information for most of my classical music recordings, as I really want the orchestra out in front of me, rather than playing at my sides, but it is overall a great improvement. I've noticed that Dolby adds some kind of wavering reverberation which kind of breaks the deal for me.  It's very noticeable on a long sine wave sweep or even many pop songs, especially those with male vocals (I first noticed it on She's Leaving Home from Sgt. Pepper's).  Without Dolby, this artifact is gone and the sound is much more accurate to my ears.  So I was wondering if anyone else has tried using the Channel Mixer (upmixed in "Surround") without Dolby.  It eliminates the wavering effect and drastically decreases the amount of rear channel information, too much of which I think compromises musical realism.  When you remove Dolby from the chain, you'll have to make major adjustments to your current Channel Mixer settings to get a full, realistic sound.  I had to increase stereo width, rear volume and some other settings.  Most recordings sound much more realistic to my ears without Dolby: less coloration, greater forward projection, no wavering reverberations.  Not perfect yet, but I'm still experimenting.  Any thoughts?

There's a chance that with your setup/source it may sound different than it does for me depending on what settings etc. is used. For me this config even results in a bit more forward/up-front sound which is to my liking. Did you try listen to the Johnny Cash dolby headphone recorded video example on first page for example, it's a good example of how forward it should sound like (just to compare if it really sounds like that for you or not). I get the best result when my soundcard is set to 5.1 speakermode.
 
Quote:

Strange, there's a missing UI elements in your foobar 1.1.6... I can't add Media Library Viewers - Album List... There's only Media Library Viewers - Media Search... Usual foobar have both of them...
 
Btw foobar 1.1.7 and 1.1.8beta3 is also out... But I can't use Electri-Q... It just says <ERROR>
 
EDIT:
nvm, I figured it out... foo_albumlist.dll is missing in your foobar component folder

Yea I know 1.1.7's been out for a while but it has some streaming issues so haven't bothered using it for now. I don't think I will try beta versions either so I might update to 1.1.8 final when it comes if the old issues have been fixed. Is the foo_albumlist.dll a default component for v1.1.6? I'm pretty sure I selected all the default components when installing foobar2000 1.1.6. If it's not then you'll have to add it on your own.

 

[MusicHolic]

I usually tick all components when installing foobar in portable mode
 
Btw, a review about your Dolby config... I don't know how I say it... The soundstage is bigger and less congested, giving me less claustrophobic experience... The only downside is, if the recording is not in high quality (for example, my 192kbps mp3 collection), it sounds more unforgiving and harsh... Also when there's a clipping (in recording itself), I heard some obvious distortion... When using normal stereo mode, my sound card limiter kicks in and only muffled the sounds a bit without make it sounds distorted...
 
But overall, its a nice improvement and I prefer listening using your dolby config rather than usual stereo mode.. Nice job
 
So then today I decided to do something different... I unloaded dolby headphone from DSP chain list and trying to enable directly from my sound card... There's a difference in sound, but they have the same overall signature so I don't know yet which one I prefer (foobar's dolby vs my sound card's dolby)...
 
Then I disable dolby headphone and enable headphone X-Fi CMSS-3D in my sound card... I noticed even bigger soundstage, clearer instrument separation and each instrument sounds more focused and placed more clearly in my soundstage plane...
 
The only negative is, it sounds unnatural (I don't know how to build/measure eq to counter effect the frequency response changes which has been altered by CMSS-3D) and it introduced more grains to the sound... Especially the cymbals, it sounds so unnatural...
 
While I still prefer X-Fi CMSS-3D for movies and games, I would prefer to use dolby headphone any day for any kind of music listening because of its naturality...

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Did you ever try put your X-Fi card in 5.1 speakermode? Try it with this dolby headphone config. Yes I liked the positioning and instrument separation with CMSS-3D when I tested it with modded Realtek X-Fi drivers BUT only when using 2.1 and especially 5.1 speaker mode, Creative's headphone mode has always sounded like crap to me and CMSS-3D sounds EVEN MORE crap with headphone speaker mode (grainy and also minimizes the bass output) but try it with 5.1 speakermode, almost no hit in sound quality yet the improved positioning and separation. Also I much preferred using the Stereo Surround upmix mode for CMSS-3D.
 
This is how I had it set up when I tried these modded drivers on the onboard realtek chip which provided me the best results. Even makes the small AKG K518 DJ on ears which is a headphone with really poor soundstage out of box have very impressive soundstage.
 
EDIT: Also when using CMSS-3D I suggest "center" volume set to around 1.00 in channel mixer plugin for foobar2000 and lower Dolby headphone amplification slider to perhaps around 85% to avoid distortion/clipping. CMSS-3D brings a wider soundstage and center channels gets a bit less focus so it's good to counter with a bit stronger center volume.

 
I have a Creative X-Fi Titanium HD soundcard incoming I can't wait to try how it sounds like with this config.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Did some tweaking to some presets.

 

[tbritton]

Thanks for the tweaks - this thing just keeps getting better and better! Which did you tweak?
 
Terry

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Thanks for the tweaks - this thing just keeps getting better and better! Which did you tweak?
 
Terry

 
I don't quite remember but I do some small adjustments every now and then to the other presets. I only use the "Balanced (Default)" preset myself as it sounds best to my ears but then again I EQ my headphones with my soundcard's EQ too so.
 
 

 

[Zaek]

Hi RPGWiZaRD, 
 
very impressed with your tweaking, music do sound better than stereo for certain  track. But I have a few questions (sorry, still a newbie in foobar): 
1) how do i use foobar2000.EQ.Balanced.(Default)-RPGWiZaRD.fbcp? where do i load this?
2) everytime i go VIEW -> DSP -> Channel Mixer, Foobar crashes
 
I am using Window 7 32 bit.
 
 
Quote:

It's nice to hear you're enjoying it! Thanks for the kind words.
 
I added a new just slightly tweaked preset of the default: Genre: Balanced (More Bass) which has about 1dB stronger bass response compared to the default preset as well as some minor adjustments in the treblerange and it sounds nice with my hardstyle music and may be a better "balanced" setting to use for some headphones and electronica especially. The new dsp chain preset as well as the usual full package and all presets etc can be downloaded from 
 
https://skydrive.live.com/#!/?cid=87ed83e2c9fd453c&sc=documents&uc=1&id=87ED83E2C9FD453C%21272
 
I also added two examples of dolby headphone recorded tracks to OP.

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well it's the already loaded if you download the preconfigured foobar2000 pack, no need to change anything with that.
 
To configure Channel Mixer you'll have to go file -> preferences -> playback -> DSP manager -> click on channel mixer and configure selected

 

[Zaek]

Big thanks! got it..   the preconfigured foobar2000 is really nice for newbie like me.
 
By the way, I am using an external DAC, Lavry DA11. Didnt know this surround thing works with it! Really amazing. 

 
Quote:

Well it's the already loaded if you download the preconfigured foobar2000 pack, no need to change anything with that.
 
To configure Channel Mixer you'll have to go file -> preferences -> playback -> DSP manager -> click on channel mixer and configure selected

 

 

[shoenberg3]

I am really liking with my headphones.
What do you think it will be like with speakers?
I can't quite decide what to think of it.

 

[shoenberg3]

Also, in general, I am finding I am not liking it as much for classical music. Whearas the forward projection and wider soundstage generally help recordings sound more exciting, I feel that I am too sensitive to the tonal/resolution changes that it brings in classical recordings. Of course, YMMV
 
 
I just read that you recommend a 5.1 setting on the sound card. I own Keces Dac and use asio4all. Perhaps that would not be recommended with these settings?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I don't know, just try it and see how it works. I evaluate all changes I try with my ears only but with the sources I've tried so far it usually works either best or there's no noticable difference, tested with Audigy 2 ZS, Titanium HD, ASUS D2 and Realtek HD onboard. On Realtek HD onboard chips it actually makes the biggest difference with 5.1 speakers, it's like a huge improvement, on ASUS D2 not that big difference at all.
 
Also regarding classical, what kind of tonal change are you hearing, is it perhaps slightly less bright sound/ less upper end treble presence? If so the default balanced EQ setting may have slightly warmer sound still and I've tried tweaking around in the upper end of treble range a few times but haven't come to any more satisfying results because other genres like acoustic, pop and such sounds usually great like this and there's barely any audible change in tonal balance when switching on/off my dolby headphone settings for this genre. Also out of interest, did you try the "classical" preset? I've listened to classical or orchestra music while tweaking that preset and IMO it gives a better sense of like sitting in a classical concert hall, it's less forward (in-your-face sounding) with even greater soundstage and more upper-end treble presence as well as very deep bass. But should always be noticed the EQ settings are tweaked for a balanced headphone with as flat response as possible so if they already have a very V-shaped frequency response then for example using the "classical" preset the upper highs might get too hot for example but the EQ settings I made are not very exaggerated and usually doesn't have that much of a derivation from that "balanced" EQ setting for dolby headphone so should still work reasonably well with most headphones. But yea try out that Classical preset if you haven't, I'm really satisfied how classical music sounds with it on my end at least.