[Tyll Hertsens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrox89 would this opposite signal technology have anything to do with bose's noise cancelation technology used in their quiet comfort headphones?

This is really a completely different approach to the completely different problem of getting rid of the noise in the environment so you can hear whats playing on the headphones.

 

[rickcr42]

Very nicely done Tyll.That should forever answer the age old "what is a headphone crossfeed and why should I care" question

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

A pleasure, Rick.

(Rack another one up for the post cont whore

)

 

[s m @]

Thanks all, very interesting indeed.... I know two things:

1: The theory behind those Polks seem to violate many rules even just on a common sense level.
2: With the description from the original poster, I'd LOVE to hear a pair.

 

[nspindel]

This reminds me of my honeymoon.

My wife and I went to France, and did a nice tour of the Bordeaux region. We have friends in the wine industry who were able to set us up with tours and tastings in some exquisite chatteux (or however you pluralize that word...). My wife and I were drinking wines that cost $400 a bottle. The tour guides always presented these eloquant descriptions of the process of growing the grapes, picking the grapes, pressing the juice, removing the skins, fermentation, filtration, barrell aging, barrell rotation, bottling, bottle aging, and then would describe the complex characteristics of the nose of the wine, the different fruits one might taste in the wine (black courrant, etc...). It was all so eloquant, it was like poetry being composed right in front of you. Then they would pour us a glass, slide it across the tasting table to us, we'd take a sip, and say, "Mmmm.... Smooth...." But we would say that "Smooth..." with the most sincere, complimentary intentions.

With that, Tyll, in response to your Crossfeed explanation, I say to you: Smooth!

No, in all seriousness, I am so glad that I started this thread. I'm learning so much about this new (ouch, my wallet just bit me!) hobby of mine, and am enjoying the intellectual aspect of it all in addition to the "Wow this sounds really good" part....

All this being said, though, I still think the Polk SDA sounds amazing

 

[nspindel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by s m @ 2: With the description from the original poster, I'd LOVE to hear a pair.

And I'd love to demo them for you, I still have a pair. It's not completely outside the realm of possibility, since the November NYC meet is not far from where I live. Unfortunately I won't be at that meet, since I'll be flying back from London on a pretty late flight the night before, and will need to catch up with the family on Saturday (when I wake up....)

I also don't have an amp to power them with. What you really want to hear are Spad's. I have the SDA-2's, he's got the SRS's. It's kind of like deciding which HeadRoom amp would you want to hear - my Micro, or a Max? Maybe if interest in this topic holds out till April we can figure something out during the national meet.

Maybe Spad could bring his SRS's! You think they'd fit in the carry-on bin, or would you need to check them???

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nspindel With that, Tyll, in response to your Crossfeed explanation, I say to you: Smooth!

As I recall, that's also what Pierce said to Hawkeye after a fuming swig of 4077th bootleg, too. But I'll take it any way I can get it.

Also, I'd love to hear your Polks, too. Maybe when I come down in the van for the National Meet in April I can haul a sweet little Pass designed Volks amp and we can have a listen. I'd love to do a little mini-meet at your place and compare a Max Balance with crossfeed and your Polks. A little savoring of the pros and cons of some esoteric acoustic would be fun. Please PM me if your interested.

Nighty night.

 

[Spad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens Rack another one up for the post cont whore

There's a misspelled word in that sentence but I can't decide whether you dropped a character or just hit the wrong key.

Seriously, thanks for the explanation.

 

[Spad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nspindel Maybe Spad could bring his SRS's! You think they'd fit in the carry-on bin, or would you need to check them???

The best bet might be to drape flags over them and ship 'em as coffins.

BTW, if you can find it, Stereo Review did a pretty detailed review of them in the November '85 issue. Read that and you may be grabbing that pair you mentioned yet.

Can you believe that each speaker has the bass radiation of a 40-inch woofer? They actually reach an amazing subsonic 7Hz (no typo!) with the lowest bass distortion ever measured, at least to that date.

I don't actually spend much time listening to mine. They're in my home in Vegas and I spend about half my time at my other address. Like many here, I get most of my music via headphones these days and don't feel I'm missing a thing.

 

[tortie]

Great thread! As a lover of crossfeeds, its pretty cool to know the "how" and "why" of crossfeeds. Thanks for the enlightening posts Tyll, and thanks to the thread starter for bringing this up.

 

[patrox89]

yep the bass i feel is much more realistic with the headroom crossfeed on, in my experience, than when it is off. i feel that the bass really comes together and sounds like one source is making the sounds, rather than each ear hearing a piece of the bass.

also, when i game, ive noticed that setting my a2zs to headphone and in game sound settings to headphone with crossfeed off on my micro amp, lets me pinpoint a sound's location... this is possible, according to tyll because the game is copmensating the sound location and the mix of what ear hears what for the rotation of my character in game.. im speaking of counter strike:source, btw. however... when i turn the crossfeed on... any sound loacation perception diminshes greatly.. if your curious just find somebody with a relatively new first person shooter and an audigy 2 zs card and try it for yourself.... its downright scary how precise the audigy 2 can locate sounds..

also, setting my a2zs to only a 2.1 speaker set up and running it through the micro amp with crossfeed on results in minimal accuracy as well.

i think that this would probably be the most inexpensive way for people to try this concept first hand..

 

[AdamWill]

I just read this thread, and there's one thing in the initial post I still can't shake off. I still can't figure out why this system requires one speaker to be labelled Left, and one to be labelled Right. If they each output a negative image of the other, why does it matter which one is left and which is right?

 

[Spad]

For some really dazzling headphone listening, try Pioneer's Dolby Headphone System. I been using an SE-XB1000 for a few years and I'm still knocked out by it. Even though I have no neighbors within earshot, I often use it just because I enjoy it so much.

I've always been a sucker for the PSYCHO-acoustic stuff. In fact, I still have a Phase Linear Auto-correlator lovingly packed away in the attic. I'd like to be around when my heirs try to figure that puppy out.

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

If they each output a negative image of the other, why does it matter which one is left and which is right?

If all the drivers are in a single line and that line dead center on the baffle it should make no difference unless there is also a bit of pasive HRTF EQ added to the left and right channel spread to shape the image

 

[nspindel]

Hi, sorry it's taken me a while to post, but I work in a place that is ridiculous about blocking sites. Believe it or not, head-fi.org is a forbidden site for me at work....

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamWill I just read this thread, and there's one thing in the initial post I still can't shake off. I still can't figure out why this system requires one speaker to be labelled Left, and one to be labelled Right. If they each output a negative image of the other, why does it matter which one is left and which is right?

There are two midrange drivers side by side (well on mine - on Spad's there are like 8 of them!) One side puts out the normal signal, the other side puts out the inverted signal. I forget which one is which - the inverted signal must always be either on the inside or the outside. But they are reversed between the left and right speaker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens Also, I'd love to hear your Polks, too. Maybe when I come down in the van for the National Meet in April I can haul a sweet little Pass designed Volks amp and we can have a listen. I'd love to do a little mini-meet at your place and compare a Max Balance with crossfeed and your Polks. A little savoring of the pros and cons of some esoteric acoustic would be fun. Please PM me if your interested.

Oh, for sure. I'd love to have you over. One thing to note, though - I'm probably 45 minutes to an hour from Bayside. Feel free to forget the Max Balance at my house too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spad Read that and you may be grabbing that pair you mentioned yet.

I've been divorced once already, I have no desire to go through that a second time!