[derekphone]

Got my Woo WA6! I set up up my Rega Dac with it. I'm still waiting for my HD6xx's so I'm just using my Bose QC 15's. In regards to this thread topic, the Can Opener & Midside - wow, the effects are more apparent with this setup. A definite step up. Me likey. But then Audio Hijack trial ended, just when I got things set up lol. PS. I love this Rega Dac, so musical.

Now I need to make a decision if I'm going to use Audirvana with crappy Tidal interface but apparently better sound (I couldn't tell a difference in SQ but that was without my gear! And without a lot of time with either). Or just use Amarra with the better Tidal Interface, with the Audio Hijack (for Goodhertz plugins). I also might test out Out Of Your Head software again when I get the HD6xx's. On that note, I probably shouldn't make any purchases until I get the HD6xx's LOL. Silly me. That was the lesson from hearing Can Opener & Midside with better gear. Everything changes!

Another upgrade is a SPDIF converter (thank you @buonassi)
Then I found a thread of someone who upgraded the Rega Dac innards. Might try that later on if I feel adventurous.

Then there was this...

Radio Interference: I isolated the issue. It's the RCA-RCA interconnect. The second it touches the WA6 it starts, when it's connected to Rega Dac or not. I tried a power cleaner, same issue. I tried another brand new interconnect - same thing. But the new cable was a $20 one from The Source which I ran to the store before it closed. The original was an old Monster cable that I used for my 2-CHannel, but never heard that before in all the years. Here's the weird part...The issue only occurs at the very bottom volume level. Like 0. Then when I go up to listening level it cuts out. And if the song has a silent part, the RI is gone. But when it's there at 0-1 volume level it's pretty loud. I can hear a whole radio station! I have the ohms setting at 8-99 because of the Bose cans. If I go to 100+ the RI gets louder. So, it's not a big deal, but kinda a nuisance because I always start my volume at 0. I'm hoping a higher quality cable will solve this. What do you guys think? Any recommendation on the type of cable?

PS. Even with my Bose QC's I'm having a hard time putting the headphones down. Can't wait to get the HD6xx's and burn them in!

 

[buonassi]

These interconnects served me well for quite a while - sonically transparent - beat out the Audioquest Evergreen I used to use. Best of all, the price - can't go wrong here, even if you decide to upgrade. I upgraded and couldn't tell a difference FWIW - these were where my chain (or ears) topped out:

https://www.amazon.com/Foot-Directi...sr=8-3&keywords=worlds+best+cables+mogami+rca

are you sure the RCA's are the source of your RFI? Does your Rega have a headphone out you can check? From what you describe it sounds like the Woo turns the RCAs into an antenna the minute theres a connection. Hopefully the shielded cables (like the ones I linked to) solve the issue for you. Be aware that these cables are directional - not for sound quality, but for shielding effectiveness. They have a floating ground at the end that connects to the amp.

and the HD6xx will wipe the floor with those Bose if you haven't heard them already. For the price, nothing comes close to an HD600 or 650 matched up to a good amp.

finally, just a word of caution ..... not all spdif converters are the same. The Eitr by schiit or the SU-1 by Singxer are my recs (and seems to be the consensus online as well). Both of them are outstanding, I have both. But the Eitr is half the price!

 

[derekphone]

These interconnects served me well for quite a while - sonically transparent - beat out the Audioquest Evergreen I used to use. Best of all, the price - can't go wrong here, even if you decide to upgrade. I upgraded and couldn't tell a difference FWIW - these were where my chain (or ears) topped out:

https://www.amazon.com/Foot-Directi...sr=8-3&keywords=worlds+best+cables+mogami+rca

are you sure the RCA's are the source of your RFI? Does your Rega have a headphone out you can check? From what you describe it sounds like the Woo turns the RCAs into an antenna the minute theres a connection. Hopefully the shielded cables (like the ones I linked to) solve the issue for you. Be aware that these cables are directional - not for sound quality, but for shielding effectiveness. They have a floating ground at the end that connects to the amp.

and the HD6xx will wipe the floor with those Bose if you haven't heard them already. For the price, nothing comes close to an HD600 or 650 matched up to a good amp.

finally, just a word of caution ..... not all spdif converters are the same. The Eitr by schiit or the SU-1 by Singxer are my recs (and seems to be the consensus online as well). Both of them are outstanding, I have both. But the Eitr is half the price!

The Rega does not have a headphone jack. You're right, I can't prove it's not the amp. But when I tested it at the original owners home, I heard no RI. But that could just be because there was no RI in the area. So I'm hoping it's the cable. I just didn't expect an amp like this to be the cause.

Thanks for the link to the cables. What does "directional" cable mean? And what do you mean they aren't for sound quality, because you mentioned they beat out the Audioquest evergreen? I'm ok spending up to 100 ish if it adds good sound quality. With that in mind are there any other interconnect cables to recommend (I don't WANT to spend more money, but just making sure I keep the option open in case it makes sense).

Rack suggestion: Does anyone have suggestions for racks suitable for desktops? I'd consider one for my Woo WA6 and Rega Dac.

 

[buonassi]

Directional to help with RFI, in how they ground the shield on one side and not on the other. They are not directional for sound quality purposes is what I meant but only for shielding purposes . Just hook them up as indicated on the cables and you'll be FINE.!

Soundwise they are absolutely fine. IMO really all you need .Anything more expensive is hard to discern any difference .

 

[derekphone]

Received my HD6XX's and guess what? The RFI is non existant! Gone. Maybe its the 300 ohm vs whatever my Bose is (somewhere around 40-50)?

Can Opener and Mid Side - So thanks to @buonassi I'm understanding more of what it does. The bass! Wow, now I can't do without it. Bass on one side of the ear. Bass being the most traveled frequency range, makes most sense to be more adjusted to make it more like speakers. Now it's so weird to feel the air pressure from one ear only. I found that some old recordings make it really easy to notice.

Dean Martin's "I will" - on your right ear you can hear the air hitting your ear, the bass completely on the right. With Can Opener and Mid Side the bass becomes much more realistic bled into both sides, still with more on the right but it's more realistic. Overall there's so much more space and less tight "right-left" localization. The older recordings of the 50s-70s do this a lot. "Reconsider Baby" by Elvis is a great example of way better soundstage and crossfeeding.

When I initially played with this software, I was comparing it to OOYH and it's really a different animal. OOYH does an amazing job of getting the sound in front of you. But it's at the cost of fidelity and a cost I'm just not willing to make with nice gear. For my bose headphones in the Mac headphone jack, sure it's cool. But with my current set up, it just doesn't feel right to me. Can opener and MS keeps fidelity. It helped that I understood the staging and bass "spreading". That allowed me to get over the idea of needing it so much out of my head. Of course, in an ideal world I'd have OOYH if it kept the fidelity. But that seems impossible. I can notice on Mid Side the more I slide the stereo image and especially the side bar up, the more hissing I'd hear. It's all the processing I assume. Sacrifices. So I'm really enjoying it now.

I'll turn off Audio Hijack (running Can Opener and Midside in a session) to compare, and wow, now I really don't want to feel that bass on one side of my head. In that regard, this definitely makes headphone listening more like speakers. Regardless of that comparison, it's just a more enjoyable music listening experience. More cohesion, whilst improving imaging.

My recent adjustments to my settings are the following:

- Reduced stereo imaging from 150% to 175%
- In Mid Side advanced settings, Side Tilt set at Standard loudness mode. (It removes much of the hissing from the 200% stereo width and 1.0db side tilt)
- Set bass level in Can Opener back to even 0db
- Testing out raising the bass on Can Opener to 1db ( tough because I just noticed on Reconsider Me, it was thin, Eg. of how it's dependant on the song)

I'd say, totally just a shot in the dark, about 20-40% of the effect is dependant on the recording. In other words, some recordings you may want less stereo imaging for example. Even just using the presets will do most of the trick.

Keep in mind, I'm more neurotic, not so much an audio veteran like others on here. lol.

 

[derekphone]

Goodhertz Can Opener + Midside VS. ifi Pro ican 3D effect VS. Out Of Your Head software

I've been looking for the crossfeed/"out of your head"/more like 2-channel experience for headphones. I have come to a conclusion! It took me quite a bit of testing and configuring. I first heard this kind of effect on the ifi Pro ican as the 3D selector. I smiled when I first heard it set to max. I'm new to headphones, coming from 2-channel. So I immediately noticed I enjoyed this more. So instead of just buying that amp I wanted to see what the heck this was so I came home and researched. I won't bore you with the process but get straight to my conclusions.

Out Of Your Head:
It does the effect the best. It tricks your mind thinking the speakers are a few feet in front of you. BUT, in my opinion, it's at the cost of fidelity. It just doesn't sound like hi-fi. Spending the money on gear and then losing that, is kind of a waste in my opinion. It would be a great solution for me if I was using entry level gear.

ifi Pro ican:
The amp is awesome. But for this comparison, I am only looking at the 3D crossfeed effect. It's a lot more subtle than Out Of Your Head. There's no tricking you thinking the speakers have magically been placed feet in front of you. But it is a nice effect. Set at max, which is where I always had it set to hear a worthwhile difference, it adds a little hissing sound. The fidelity is kept other than that hiss.

Goodhertz's Can Opener and Midside plugins:
This is a lot more subtle than Out of Your Head as well, but definitely does the effect more than the ifi Pro ican - (so it's quite a bit less subtle than the ifi 3D). The best part is it doesn't lose the fidelity. You have way more control as to how much effect you want. I was able to make the settings get much more results than the ifi Pro ican by only adding 25% (conservative guess, maybe 10%) of the hiss that the ifi does. The sound quality overall seems to be better than the ifi. Of course, I'm only comparing the effect. For example, I'm comparing the difference when I would turn Can Opener & Midside plugin off and on in my set up VS. when I would turn the 3D effect on the ifi on full and off on the setup at the store. Goodhertz simply did the effect better. It crossfeed'ed better, image'ed, soundstage'ed and moved the imaging outside my head better than the difference the 3D control had on the ifi.

I didn't test the Meier crossfeed plugin for Foobar. I like how Amarra integrates Tidal, and that's the reason why. Assuming there's no other workaround which I've tried researching.

 

[derekphone]

3 months later: Just wanted to chime in on something here boys. I found myself not using headphones much in the last month. I started getting back to playing music through my speakers. I listened to my hd6xx's, straight from the computer, no woo wa6, no rega dac. BUT I did run Audio Hijack/CanOpener/Midside. First thing is that man I love the sound out of these headphones. They are so smooth and relaxed, with enough detail that satisfies me without taking away from the honey. I've been searching for that sound in my speaker setup and it's still hard to find, even with super expensive gear.

But here's the kicker, the Goodhertz tools make the headphone experience amazing. Without it, I find the separate channel situation pretty annoying. Feels so off! I'm pretty damn happy with the HD6xx and goodhertz. That's it. No amp or dac. Yes, it will sound a bit better, but honestly, for me those two elements get me 80% there, and for what my usage, I'm really happy with it.

HUGE thumbs up for goodhertz. I can't listen to headphones enjoyably without it now. It's such a game changer. In my opinion, the headphone technology is still pretty early in development and I think in the future we will see that tools like CanOpener and Midside paved a path to how we listen to headphones. I can see it being standard in all devices.

 

[fernandocuello]

On the K7XX I tried Canopener — wasn’t wowed. Anyone with similar headphones and better experiences?

 

[pieman3141]

How does Polarity work in CanOpener and why does it sound so good, especially when paired with Midside Matrix? I've tried this setup with a 4.5 side gain on Midside Matrix (0db mid), and with polarity turned on in Canopener. Super wide soundstage, without the blobbiness.

 

[remilio]

I'm a big fan of CanOpener myself, it's the best binaural software I've tried - subtle yet notable difference in soundstage perception without loss of details. Didn't like Midside though - vocals feel too distant with it and the little details are gone.

The only gripe I have is that CanOpener is the ONLY vst I tried with JRiver (and other players too) that hiccups if used directly. So I have to use software bridge like Blue Cat's Patchwork to use CanOpener.

 

[mikejazz]

First of all. Is there any way to contact Audirvana for customer service?
I've had Audirvana for a few weeks. I downloaded trial versions of FabFilter and Voxengo. Cool stuff. I just downloaded trials of GoodHertz's Can Opener Studio and Mid Side. Game changing stuff for headphone guys.
But----
All of a sudden my image/balance changed with ANY VST3 plugin. With VST3 turned off--normal. Even with all VST3 plugins turned off the center is now 50% to the left. I've got 3 Vst3 possible plugins. I thought that the problem was with GoodHertz stuff. But even if I have Fabfilter or Voxengo on all 3--same thing. Even with the Plugins cancelled--none active---same thing. Turn off the VST3 switch--normal. Any ideas?

 

[buonassi]

@mikejazz ,
Damien Plisson (Audirvana owner and developer) is more active on another forum. I'll PM you that info because we're not supposed to mention other forums. I wish I could help you solve your issue, but I have Audirvana for Mac and use AU plugins instead of VST. I'm guessing you're on a PC?

 

[mikejazz]

Thanks. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything. Work's fine now. Weird. Anyhoo, thanks for this thread. This is a total game changer for me. I was looking just for a good crossfeed app to listen to the obnoxious really early stereo jazz recordings (I play jazz for a living). Now I find that ALL recordings sound better. I wasn't aware that the soundstage could sound so good with in ears. (I use Tansio Mirai Zodiacs and Audeze LCD i4's through had Ibasso 220 Max). I have a little 8"Windows convertible tablet on the way. I'm stoked!

 

[Satriany]

Hello,

I subscribed for canopener demo.
I basically use equaliser apo with morphit and then I had canopener. It doesn't seem to work.
Should it work with eq apo ?

Regards Greg

 

[eulenfalter]

Hello,

I've been using CanOpener and Midside for a few weeks now (trial) and today I decided to buy them both because I found them to have a clearly positive effect. I have turned them on and off a hundred times during those weeks and I think I preferred them activated in I'd guess 98% (yes, 98%) of cases - the positive effect was also very audible, not "homeopathic" at all. (Yamaha HPH-200 48 Ohm, no amp).

I haven't fully understood all of their features, but nonetheless I'm posting my current configuration which I might still improve on in the future. I'd be very interested in screenshots of your own configurations, as well as comments on my own.

(Unfortunately there's no headphone EQ preset available for my headphones, but I'm going to get new ones anyway soon.) Spotify EQ is set to flat, and compression quality to highest, obviously.)

I asked for support (support@goodh..) from Goodhertz and had issues getting a response (support simply would not reply for a very long (!) time. Not in mid-conversation, but I didn't get a reply to my initial support request, which was very friendly and had just a very small amount of questions). I ended up contacting them by other channels, and then got very friendly support and an apology for the long delay. I was given support by Noah Dayan.

I will quote some of their responses as they might be of interest to users.

QUOTE:
Midside was designed with mid/side processing in mind and does not make use of any actual crossfeed algorithms to manipulate the stereo field. CanOpener, on the other hand, is a monitoring plugin, based on psychoacoustic research, and it is generally not meant to be "printed" with a mix (i.e. it's for monitoring purposes only).

You're correct that there is some potential for overlap: Midside's Mono Below feature is somewhat similar to what a zero-delay crossfeed algorithm would do, but ultimately, the two algorithms are apples and oranges. There's no real harm in using both together; especially since they are both linear processors, there's no potential for signal degradation.

Regarding the A/B states (...): We should certainly have a section in the manual that explains the toolbar. The toggles allow you to have two different plugin states and compare the two sounds by switching seamlessly between them. The arrow copies the currently selected state to the other one.

(...) when we say "for monitoring purposes only", we do include music listeners. We are only advising not to record the output of CanOpener, so essentially we could be saying "for listening purposes only".
UNQUOTE
___
hope that was of interest.

I'm also quite happy with SoundSource -- but if you have any reason to suggest a different application, please don't hesitate to recommend.