[bigshot]

It helps to be able to turn your head to localize the source. Can't do that with cans strapped to your ears.

 

[jcx]

which the Smyth Realizer's head tracking is there for
 
changes the signals to your 2 ears appropriately as you turn your head up to +/-30 degree
 
including side and rear channels signals too - up to 7.1
 
 
simply don't tell people what can't be done until you've heard the Smyth Realizer with personal HRTF calibration with multichannel speakers

 

[bigshot]

Or just a good 5.1 speaker system.

 

[ginetto61]

you can include some isone VSTs to your player, they give a "demo"  to try out(full use but no saving the settings). .

 
Hi and thanks for the valuable advice
I am not that good with SW ... i have to study how to do that
Regarding the player i have a question
My goal would be to find a player that can also play videos like concert and not only music files
Because i have some concerts on dvd or BR that i would like to test with this TB Isone or similar product.
To end the ramblings the goal would be to have also with HP a hint at least of what i can hear with a HT system.
But just frontal sounds would be more than enough.
I have been forced to HPs by issues with neighbours but now i am starting enjoying this a lot
HPs can be fascinating ...
Kind regards,
gino

 

[analogsurviver]

  It helps to be able to turn your head to localize the source. Can't do that with cans strapped to your ears.

It is not required to be able to turn head to localize the source with headphones. My experience is with AKG K-1000 driven by BAP-1000 processor made specially for it. But come to think about it, it IS possible to "turn your head" when wearing K-1000; one can simply displace it slightly where the pads are touching the temples - achieving effectively the same as id turning the head listening to music live or to loudspeakers.
 
The combination has uncanny ability to project correct localization - 360 degrees in horizontal plane. It also does height with good binaural recordings.
 
I have not tried Smyth Realizer and more conventional headphones, so that I can not comment on that.

 

[RRod]

  It helps to be able to turn your head to localize the source. Can't do that with cans strapped to your ears.

 
It helps, but even without it you can still get a good sense of front back. It's not like I lose my ability to know when something is behind me if you put my neck in a brace. And like jcx said, head tracking already exists, and hopefully something cheaper than the Smyth comes along soon that supports it. A good 5.1 speaker setup is nice, but HRIR/BRIR DSP can actually be portable, useful for gamers and travelers, at least.

 

[ginetto61]

Or just a good 5.1 speaker system.

 
Hi i would say even better
The complete immersion in sound that a closed HP can give is far beyond the involvment of any speakers set up
Sooner or later we will have it ... i am sure of this.  The demand is just enormous.
I am sure the Armies have something ... or are developing something
It is just a matter of time
In the future even in the theaters we will have our personal helmet
in this way the man coughing behind me will not annoy me anymore
Regards, gino

 

[cdsa35000]

Oculus Rift etc.

 

[maverickronin]

  Or just a good 5.1 speaker system.

 
That does work just fine.  It also takes up much more space, and will bother family in the next room, if not the neighbors in the next house.
 
Personally I'd prefer to use speakers at home, but for the above mentioned reason, it's just not a viable option.  That's pretty much why full size headphones exist, isn't it?

 

[mkshm]

   
That does work just fine.  It also takes up much more space, and will bother family in the next room, if not the neighbors in the next house.
 
Personally I'd prefer to use speakers at home, but for the above mentioned reason, it's just not a viable option.  That's pretty much why full size headphones exist, isn't it?

 
This is the No.1 reason for me to switch to Headphones from Speakers. Also, it helps when I am listening to Rap music, I use closed headphones, so that my kids don't hear the lyrics 

 

[Gr8Desire]

 
get a clue
 

 
That's a simulation my friend that's adds distortion or other artifacts to get around the fact that headphone drivers are facing the wrong way.  
 
When room speakers are facing a listener in roughly the same plane, they can create forward and back placement of sound (for example: when content from a single binaural microphone has successfully captured multiple instruments in a deep studio).  Here's the gotcha: This deep soundstage recording translates to wider separation of sound in a headphone because its drivers are more or less perpendicular!  

It's even funnier because what some of you call a wider soundstage is actually content recorded on a deeper soundstage.  

(Some good news: Headphones represent differences between recorded channels more or less correctly. Perpendicular drivers reproduce these differences as well or better than forward facing speakers - at least when ignoring room acoustics)   
 
The only way to move sound forward and back with perpendicular drivers is to add more drivers on roughly the the same plane. That's not on the menu, is it?

For those want to challenge themselves, consider this axiom:

Perpendicular drivers will create proper lateral sounds (forward and back relative to the listener) only when these drivers can physically be in two or more places at once.  
 
 
Figure out how to do that, and I might start believing the forward and back sound placement is NOT a defect.

 

[maverickronin]

  That's a simulation my friend that's adds distortion or other artifacts to get around the fact that headphone drivers are facing the wrong way.  

 
So in other words it actually works, but you just don't like it for some poorly defined reason...

 

[bigshot]

 
It helps, but even without it you can still get a good sense of front back.

 
With a binaural recording, I can get a generalized sense of distance, but whether it is either front or back is hard. I have to focus my concentration on holding it in front of me, or it randomly pops to behind. I listened to that buzzing razor file, and the razor was in front of me one second and behind the next. I have no problem with that with my 5.1 speakers.

 

[mkshm]

   
With a binaural recording, I can get a generalized sense of distance, but whether it is either front or back is hard. I have to focus my concentration on holding it in front of me, or it randomly pops to behind. I listened to that buzzing razor file, and the razor was in front of me one second and behind the next. I have no problem with that with my 5.1 speakers.

 
With headphones, for me, for some reason it's always in the back, never in the front. However, even with two speakers, I don't have that problem. 

 

[RRod]

   
With a binaural recording, I can get a generalized sense of distance, but whether it is either front or back is hard. I have to focus my concentration on holding it in front of me, or it randomly pops to behind. I listened to that buzzing razor file, and the razor was in front of me one second and behind the next. I have no problem with that with my 5.1 speakers.

 
Of course, the speakers actually let your ears and body do their thing. Chesky's shave/haircut files aren't very convincing to me on the HD800s, and that's probably just due to the small mismatches between my ears and the dummy ears plus the effects of the cups. But OpenAL games (for which I have a specific HRIR loaded) sound great. I opened up one for the first time and the first thing I heard a character talking behind me; turned around and there they were. Customization really matters for this kind of thing. Speakers are harder to set up and aren't portable, but they'll work for anyone in the right seat. Headphones take a bit of tweaking.