[Lunatique]

Quote:

Nice!  I would buy it if not for the slight clipping and distortion issues -- but I can understand the lack of refinement, because as stated above by the developer it's really not meant for serious playback.  It's just a tool for audio dudes.  
 

Whoa there. That's a bit of a misguided thing to say. I'm not offended or anything, but I just want to clarity that what you said is totally wrong.
 
Your so-called "audio dudes" are the people who record, mix, and master the music you actually listen to--they are the audio professionals with training as sound engineers and have many years of expert experience in dealing with acoustics, DSP algorithms, psychoacoustics, and music/audio production. Their level of scrutiny and demand for refinement is what makes the music you love sound so damn good. If that's not "serious playback" then I don't know what is.
 
Isone was designed to be used by the said audio-professionals so they can do critical monitoring on headphones if they need to, and its ability to emulate different listening conditions is invaluable to audio professionals who need to check how their music will sound on a variety of audio reproduction rigs and environments. 
 
There was absolutely nothing said to indicate Isone is meant to be less than refined. There's also no evidence on my end that Isone is doing all the negative things you're saying it does. How you managed to clip and distort your signal chain is unique to your situation, and it is not an indication that it's automatically the same for everyone else. I use replaygain and set my audio playback to be consistent to a level below clipping, and Isone has never had a problem. As a composer and sound designer, I'm extremely picky, and I use Isone as part of my monitoring chain when I need to work with headphones on while doing critical audio work. Isone has never been a source of problem for me. Although I don't let any singular tool have the final say in my mix/masters (the best practice is to check that your mix/master translates to as many difference devices as possible), including Isone, it has never contributed negatively to my mix/masters before. 

 
 

 

[sphinxvc]

Whoa there!  I think you're barking up the wrong tree because I wasn't trying to be condescending.  I'm not at all trying to devalue what audio professionals do.  I should probably retract that sentence you quoted -- the developer did not say Isone isn't meant for serious playback.  Poor choice of words/reading on my part.  As far as how refined Isone is, I feel it's an interesting, useful and revelatory tool, and I'll leave it right there. 

 

[SP Wild]

Just wanna say that I only recently started experimenting with DSPs again.  I never did try this plugin with my LCD2s, only went as experimented with it on the D7000s.
 
With the LCD2s, I agree with Lunatique, this software is quite amazing.  I have never got speaker like performance like this before, wow. 
 
Obviously, it will alter the soundscape, but it does sound like "real" speakers to me.  In fact, all this time chasing tube amps for my LCD2s was to address a single factor, to make the sound more "real".  The LCD2 on its own will reproduce the recording as is.  Mikes very close to an acoustic guitar, the transients coming out of the LCD2s are like your are the where the microphone is, true to recording, but never true to a real performance.
 
Atmosphere always blunted transients to my ears, and a tube amp was able to smear it enough and flesh out the tones for a more realistic experience.  Isone can do a similar thing, whilst adding subtle depth cues throughout the audible range that most of my headphones cannot pickup all of.
 
IMO if you own a LCD2/HD800/T1 etc, you owe it to yourself to try this software.  I keep thinking I have left my speakers on and they are full blaring at 2 am...but my speakers are no where near this good.
 
Great stuff, thumbs up.

 

[SP Wild]

WOW, I got the ear size, head size and HRTF fine honed to my head.  Tremendous binaural processing going on here.
 
I can't find the instructions anywhere, to tell me what the knobs are for.  So here's a rundown of what they do according to how I hear it.  Took me about fifteen minutes to find a nice setting.
 

Head size:  This needs to be correct, and is the single most important adjustment.  Twirl this knob so that the image matches your ear spacing, you can tell when the closest sound goes into your head, this is too much, increase the headsize.  If too much headsize is dialled in the closest sound is too far out from your ear.  I found this to be the most important setting for the rest of the room effects to work correctly. Mine is set to 60%
 
Ear size:  I think this is the second most important, you have to dial this so that the sound doesn't sound like its going through a skinny tube piped into your ear, hard to describe - but that's the sensation I get when the ear size was dialled too small.  Going too big and the it sounds like the sound is being funneled into your ears by a funnel larger than your lobes.  Mine is set to 80 percent, which is about right, I always see people with smaller lobes than me, they seem so tiny and is fascinating.  This seems to explain my abhorrence of bright cans.
 
HRTF:  I couldn't work out what this was trying to accomplish, it seem to compress the tone of the instruments the higher I turned it, nothing else changed but that single tonality change.  Finally, I understood, this is simply the length of your neck.  Or how close your heads are to your shoulders.  I set mine to 20 percent when sitting up right, or standing.  If slouching I set it to about 35 percent, because the shoulders are much closer to my ears.  This one is difficult to dial, imagine at the maximum setting you are hunched over and as you dial down you extend your neck further and further upwards.  Set it to whatever sounds natural to you.
 
That's it, these are the most important settings.  I always use the flat reference, and omni directional tweeters, I tend to leave room effects off and distance of speaker centered.  But those other knobs are very accurate and very useful on many recordings, this is what I think they do:
 
T60: the distance between left and right walls in the room
Level:  Use this to eliminate clipping
Diffusion:  The distance between left and right speaker (no that's not right, there is a direct angle setting - not sure exactly what this one does, it affects width)
Early Ref:  The height of the ceiling
Size:  overall size of room
Distance: speaker distance from listener.
 
Like I said, I have not read the manual because I can't find it anywhere and I never really tried this software properly before, because the D7000 wasn't resolving enough, so there's a good chance I may be wrong.
 
Its incredible, it really is - this is the number one binaural processor that I will use for speaker like staging.  It is far better than simple Xfeed - but Xfeed is good to preserve headphone intimacy for a good headphone experience. 
 
When maxing out the room perimeters and listening distance - the soundstage is very realistic, massively tall and humungously wide and deep like only very large expensive speakers can do. 
 
Getting the head size, earsize and a natural HRTF is the only way to achieve this, it also reduces transient smearing when those are dialled in correctly.
 
Anyway I hope this helps.

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Like I said, I have not read the manual because I can't find it anywhere and I never really tried this software properly before, because the D7000 wasn't resolving enough, so there's a good chance I may be wrong.

It's the first hit when you do a google search:
 
http://www.toneboosters.com/manuals/TB_Isone.pdf
 

 

[donunus]

Deleted the settings I posted. This plug in is making me way too paranoid. There is no one setting that works for all music for some reason.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[juman231]

I actually bought the JRiver because of the option to use the Isone! Great find Lunatique!

 

[SP Wild]

Quote:

It's the first hit when you do a google search:
 
http://www.toneboosters.com/manuals/TB_Isone.pdf
 

Its the same link posted earlier in the thread and the page doesn't seem to want to load up.  Been catching up with this thread, quite funny, lets just say I agree with you, that some people have no idea.

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Its the same link posted earlier in the thread and the page doesn't seem to want to load up.  Been catching up with this thread, quite funny, lets just say I agree with you, that some people have no idea.

The manual can also be found from this page: http://www.toneboosters.com/documentation/
 
If the PDF is not loading up for you, then you need to check that you have PDF reading software installed on your computer. Or, try a different web browser. That page should not be blocked from your location, since if I can see it from China, then you shouldn't have a problem seeing it at all.
 

 

[SP Wild]

Quote:

The manual can also be found from this page: http://www.toneboosters.com/documentation/
 
If the PDF is not loading up for you, then you need to check that you have PDF reading software installed on your computer. Or, try a different web browser. That page should not be blocked from your location, since if I can see it from China, then you shouldn't have a problem seeing it at all.
 

Thanks for that, got the manual...yay, I was spot on with my guesswork for the HRTF knobs.
 
I find that there is a slight smearing in very high frequencies, above 8 khz, and that some of the data above there is eliminated (MP3 effect).  This is fixed by increasing the speaker angle, but tonal balance is leaned out significantly doing this.  Gonna play around with speaker distances to see if this will clear that up.
 
So far I have heard speakers that are more transparent to the signal, whilst maintaining the immense staging, but those were 30K.  Still this is a small price to pay and is not even noticeable on my other headphones.  Small price to pay indeed, I need to Paypal my new toy.
 

 

[donunus]

That compromise between the phasey smearing and the right tonality is what is making me go crazy in setting the darn thing up. I decided to turn it off for the time being. It's getting to be too fussy to set up correctly.

 

[SP Wild]

That phasey smearing is how it calculates the ambiance of distances, but that's what I hear very badly in every single speaker set up - odd resonances and and irregularities from phasing issues and room interactions...this perfect room is something that Isone can do - it doesn't affect the tonal balance of individual instruments.  The limitations of this software is that it can't maintain true atmosphere transparency at the highest of frequencies - I have heard better in my own bookshelves.
 
Having said that it is a valuable tool - and excellent listening experience through headphones.  The truth is fidelity is still extremely high, and I mainly notice this with direct AB, or I know my source recording extremely well - throw in a track I never heard before with the simulation on, and I wouldn't be complaining that anything is missing.  In fact dial it correctly and just enjoy your music, without analysing.  Keep it on for a session, then switch back to headphone mode...there is no doubt in my mind which one is more "real" - but I am still an audiophile, so I know exactly what you're saying.
 
Still having problems?  Well, it is also the most transparent Xfeed only software, more transparent than both headfit and the JR one.  Headfit darkens the signal a bit and images within a smaller space than with no xfeed.  This one honestly is the only one I have used that does nothing to the tonal balance at all.
 
Take down speaker distance to zero, Take down HRTF to zero.  You can change from in-head image, like headfit by zeroing head size or more out of head imaging like JR by maxing the headsize.  You control speaker angles.  Leave CSC on and turn off room modes, and the tonal balance does not change whatsoever within these adjustments.  I find as a Xfeed it is more intuitive to use than head-fit and is more transparent, with more versatility.

 

[donunus]

What's JR by the way?

 

[donunus]

SP Wild,
Okay thanks for that extra tip there. Now I have something satisfying. I just got my headsize right then turned HRTF Cue and Distance all the way down then compensated for the gain. I am liking this. No more weird nasal thinness to the sound.

 

[SP Wild]

JR Media Center.  It also has a X Feed algorithm.
 
What headphones are you using by the way?  I tried my K701s with the room settings, and hear absolutely no negatives with the K701, only vast improvements.