RPGWiZaRD's Dolby Headphone foobar2000 info & tweaks
I'm looking for volunteers to try out this dolby headphone config which is a bit further tweaked than what you'll find in the big thread about dolby headphone, basicly I'm the kind of guy that can't keep my fingers off when it comes to settings and tweaking for the best possible result using my own ears (or eyes when it comes to calibrating TVs etc) and can spend literally months tweaking all sliders one by one, making one or a few step change and listen if I find it better/worse until I'm certain about it etc until I eventually get a really nice (in my opinion obviously) result. I'm pretty much there where I simply can't get it to sound any better on my equipment at least after maybe a half year or so since I started using dolby headphone plugin, I realize different headphones or especially DACs/sources may skew the results or the same setting may not be ideal for every DAC/source but trying it with my different headphones it all sounded pretty much optimal or near it so headphones themselves shouldn't have a large impact, DACs might have though. Also please note it should be a
DAC/source that handles multichannel (5.1) output or else channel mixer dsp plugin won't work and it'll sound just plain bad as this plugin and the settings are required for Dolby Headphone to sound great.
Soundcards should be put in 5.1 speakermode for best possible result.
Here's some examples of a Dolby Headphone recorded video
Preconfigured install
You can download a preconfigured foobar2000 archieve from here if you don't feel like manually setting it up and you only need to extract it somewhere but if you already have foobar2000 installed I'd recommend you try it out first if you like it or not by extracting it somewhere else and then open the foobar2000 exe from that path you extracted the preconfigured foobar2000 config to and then drag the songs to the playlist (or importing your playlists) to be sure you hear this effect as it's supposed to sound like. If you were to double click your songs it'll most likely open your own foobar2000 and it'd need to be replaced to work but possibly that might not still use the correct settings (I know it's something fishy how the settings are loaded/stored if using the portable install method that doesn't write any registry settings versus trying to replace a "normal" foobar2000 install with applied registry settings). The preconfigured configs are portable installs so won't mess with your own foobar2000 settings unless you overwrite them.
I strongly recommend you read through the "Manual install" part even if you decide to try this preconfigured config because it explains the settings so you will have a better understanding of which setting will result in what kind of change.
Portable foobar2000 v1.1.6 configuration: foobar2000.v1.1.6.Dolby.Headphone-RPGWiZaRD
Manual install
Prerequisites
foobar2000 player (obviously):
http://www.foobar2000.org/
Channel Mixer DSP plugin:
http://skipyrich.com/wiki/Foobar2000:Channel_Mixer
Dolby headphone Wrapper:
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dsp_dolbyhp
VST adapter (beta):
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=84947
Electri-Q
Posihfopit edition:
http://www.aixcoustic.com/index.php/Electri-Q-posihfopit/30/0/
DSP chain serialization helper:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=86873
Graphic Equalizer (optional):
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dsp_xgeq
Dolby Headphone dll I won't directly link to as such but it's found in my preconfigured package as well as for example in the trials for the most media players such as PowerDVD and WinDVD etc. Latest version I'm aware of would be
v1.20.0.276, usually named
DolbyHph.dll.
DSP plugin load order
Should be noted that Channel Mixer plugin should be ABOVE the dolby headphone plugin in the active DSP list to work correctly. As far as Electri-Q VST EQ plugin goes, it's not that much of a difference if putting it first or last (I think having it first may lower distortion levels by a very tiny amount though) but advanced limiter should obviously always come at the very last position to get it working like it should, to limit the volume at zero level and thus minimize the distortion.
Equalizer settings
Before you ask why, I feel this is REQUIRED to neglect the frequency response change dolby headphone plugin adds, especially to the significantly boosted lows as well as recessed treblerange, without fixing this, you'll loose fine details in music and it sounds more "muffled". I've compared the EQ settings with dolby headphone enabled on foobar2000 vs stock foobar2000 but also for example Winamp and iTunes and maybe a bit Windows Media player to get a roughly similar frequency balance or just a "good result" (sounding great has slightly higher priority than sounding EXACTLY the same as other players but yea it's roughly the same anyway).
To load the VST EQ plugin Electri-Q (poihfopit edition) I recommend using the new VST host adapter by Yegor Petrov. After having placed the foo_vst.dll file in the components folder as usual, go to File -> Preferences -> Components -> VST plug-ins and add the Electri-Q plugin. Now press "apply" and it should ask if you want to restart foobar2000 and let it do so. Now go to DSP manager and add the Electri-Q (posihfopit edition) to the active DSPs list and you should be now able to bring up the EQ window.
A DSP chain preset with the EQ setting above (as well as rest of the plugin settings) can be downloaded from here:
foobar2000.EQ.Balanced.(Default)-RPGWiZaRD - Use
DSP chain serialization helper plugin to load the .fbcp file by holding down shift while accessing playback dropdown menu -> DSP chain serializer -> load.
Additional EQ presets customized by me are also available:
foobar2000.EQ.Presets-RPGWiZaRD -
Replace your current Core.cfg file in the configuration folder, if using a foobar2000 portable install can be found under foobar2000\configuration\ and if using a standard install then it's found under C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\foobar2000\configuration\ (
Warning! backup your existing Core.cfg file in the foobar2000 configuration folder)
NOTE: Due to the VST adapter plugin being in a very early beta stage (correction, Electri-Q plugin being very buggy coded) some crashing may occur while loading different EQ presets. As a compromise for now to the problem whenever you want to load another EQ preset, load first the "Custom: Stock foobar2000" config or one of the bottom 3 "Hph" (=headphone) presets as it's configured to not use the VST adapter/Electri-Q plugin and then load the desired EQ preset as this seems to avoid the crashing if you don't load a preset that uses the Electri-Q plugin in-between.
Channel Mixer settings
The rest of the settings that isn't seen in the pictures are remain unchanged. You can if you prefer a wider soundstage play around with Stereoimage width but I feel in my ears 0.87 brings the most natural sounding width and above that the vocals/mids are starting to sound off-centered, too far to the sides, this value is the last one in my ears which has the mids positioned where they should be in my ears. "Rear in front" and "Front in rear" settings affect laid-back or forwardness characteristics, the higher values the more forward sounding or vice versa while the rear volume setting seems to impact width/depth of the soundstage.
NOTE: The Rear volume setting is very DAC/source dependant on what works best and should be adjusted according to your own ears for optimal result. The provided default value 1.31 should work reasonably well and sounds optimal on my Audigy 2 ZS while on my Realtek onboard chip (ALC889A) I think 1.39 sounds best.
Dolby Headphone settings
The amplification slider works mostly as a volume control but may also add some audible reverb depending on how high it's set. 93% should bring roughly similar volume levels compared to other players so that probably makes most sense to start out with. However if it was the case that you're experienced either distorted sound or too much reverb, try lowering this slider. Avoid using anything else than DH1 - Reference room because it gets overall too reverby and alters the signal too much from the original one. The Dynamic compression ruins the sound quality more than it helps so stay away from that one too.
You can add whatever plugins you want to use, for example WASAPI is heavily recommended to bypass the Windows own built-in mixer/EQ to get a cleaner output! I decided to not enable this output as default as it usually requires the correct bitrate and sampling rate applied and may be a hazzle to newbies which haven't used foobar2000 to figure out how to fix it. Comments are highly appriciated.
FAQ
Q: What's the goal of this foobar2000 Dolby Headphone config?
A:
The goal is to enhance the "out-of-box" experience, make recordings sound more "live"-like with as realistic and clear positioning as possible while maintaining sound quality as close to the original signal as possible. Also it makes the sound a bit more "forward" sounding for more engaging experience that makes you wanna tap to the rythm or dance along with the music as well as having vocalist standing almost within reach to you while background instruments may sound like they'd be coming far from the background or to the sides for a more dynamic and wider listening feeling like you would forget you're wearing any headphones!
Q: Why share this config here on Head-Fi?
A:
Because I realize everyone doesn't like tweaking but I do and find that if people like grasping the settings just like that and enjoys them then I'm also happy they are enjoying it, it's a win-win situation.
Q: How do you know how to adjust the settings?
A:
I only go by ear really. I've been EQing my headphones for many years and tried out different VST plugins or standalone apps that try to modify the sound in different ways so I've gotten used to hear the tiny differences in sound. You can train your ears as well! EQing is one good way to start which can be suprisingly educative.
). I like what Dolby Headphone does to soundstage but I don't want much change in tonal balance either why I started adjusting the Electri-Q EQ to get as close to as I can get to the original tonal balance as if I wasn't using Dolby Headphone. I'm close with the "Genre: Balanced (Default)" but yes I can hear it's not perfectly the same tonal balance still either but it heavily depends on the song tested with too, there's songs where when you switch between stock and the dolby headphone setting you can barely hear the difference in the tonal balance and there's some that you can hear quite a change in, the biggest difference is in the treblerange, if you'd try EQ electri-Q and think you've come up with a better or more closer to the stock foobar2000 tonal balance by all means share the EQ setting! I may have come closer than this already but I always validate with lots of different genres and type of music to see if I'd really evaluate it as "better sounding" / closer to the stock foobar2000 tonal balance but so far I haven't been able to come up with any setting that I'd concider to be obviously better so always reverted back. At least I'm happy with how the bass presence is pretty much equal now with stock or dolby headphone config with that about -1.5 reduction in Electri-Q. It may also be that Electri-Q is simply not good enough of an EQ for this purpose, would need a high quality hardware EQ to get a better result but Electri-Q was obviously chosen since it's something every1 could use as it's free and IMO the best free software EQ out there. Software EQs are usually less accurate when it comes to boosting than cutting.
One of the few singers who sound much better live than in studio!
