Isone Pro - the best thing you could ever get for your headphones on your computer

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironmine /img/forum/go_quote.gif I found out that Senn HD650 does not need Isone Pro as much as Denon D2000. Maybe because D2000 has closed cups and HD650 vice versa is open-type headphones. I wanted to demonstrate to my friend the Isone Pro plugin but it only degraded the sound of his HD650. While the same settings (see my message above) work quite well with my Denon.

You can always disengage the Room and ITDs and set the distance to very close (1 meter or closer), which will bypass the more complex simulation but still remain very effective.

I've used it with all my headphones and I don't find that it works better or worse--it simply just works, and sounds great on all of them. I'll see if I can get Jeroen himself here to answer some questions regarding his creation.

 

[ironmine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunatique /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can always disengage the Room and ITDs and set the distance to very close (1 meter or closer), which will bypass the more complex simulation but still remain very effective.

If you read my message above, I already switched off the Room simulation and set ITDs to 0-10% and the distance to 1 m. By the way, 1 m is the minimum, there is no "closer".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunatique /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've used it with all my headphones and I don't find that it works better or worse--it simply just works, and sounds great on all of them. I'll see if I can get Jeroen himself here to answer some questions regarding his creation.

My main question is: can the Isone Pro plugin function as the Dolby Headphone plugin, i.e., to accept 5.1 channels and output 2.0 sound with a surround effect?

 

[Currawong]

If you have a Mac, there's a thread on Canz3D which does the same thing. Just thought I'd throw this in here.

 

[JeroenB]

I just got the link to this topic from Lunatique, with a request to
answer some of the questions that are being posted here... So here we go

Winamp: The winamp VST bridge should work flawlessly, both
for stereo as well as 6-channel (5.1) material. You can find the
bridge here: VST Winamp Bridge - Winamp
or on Christian Budde's page Christian’s Blog
For Surround material, the content should have 6 channels that
are ordered as follows: Lfront, Rfront, Center, LFE, Lsurround,
Rsurround.


Type of headphones: this should not matter too much from a
localization accuracy point of view. Research so far as shown
that if the frequency response is reasonably flat, one would not
expect any degradation in localization accuracy. It may differ
in preferences though, so just go what sounds good to you.

Settings: the default settings should work with most people, and
are a good starting point for tweaking. They represent the 'most
common ears' from a large database that was used to develop
the HRTF models. The HRTF knobs allow to tweak the most
common differences between people's ears. However, because of
this limited model with just a few knobs, it may in some cases
happen that it is difficult to match your own ears with any setting.
We estimated that this can occur for a few percent of the listeners.
It is important though to listen through the plugin for a somewhat
prolonged time. It may get several minutes to get used to the
virtual acoustics. It also works best if you sit in a room that has
physical speakers.

 

[ironmine]

Hello Jeroen!

Thanks for answering our questions!

Could you please tell more specifically how to make Isone Pro mixdown 5.1 material to 2.0 pseudo-surround sound (as Dolby Headphone does)? Do I need to use jb_isone_pro or jb_isone_pro_surround plugin? Which channel mode I should select in the channel mode drop-down menu?

What is the maximum bit-depth and sampling frequency that Isone Pro can accept?

 

[Ro-amp]

Hello Jeroen,
Just want to say thank you for such a great product, currently using it with my HD650's and finally can listen to headphones...again...
Awesome!
Cheers

 

[JeroenB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironmine /img/forum/go_quote.gif Could you please tell more specifically how to make Isone Pro mixdown 5.1 material to 2.0 pseudo-surround sound (as Dolby Headphone does)? Do I need to use jb_isone_pro or jb_isone_pro_surround plugin? Which channel mode I should select in the channel mode drop-down menu? What is the maximum bit-depth and sampling frequency that Isone Pro can accept?

The surround version (jb_isone_pro_surround.dll) can handle 5.1
input and create a surround sound percept using headphones
(stereo out). The default setting should work OK; you may ofcourse
tweak it using all controls.

The channel mode drop-down menu identifies down-mix options
before the speaker simultion is applied. The default setting (5.1 surround)
is the one to use so simulate the full 5.1 speaker setup.

Isone Pro supports all bit depths that are supported by your
host program (anything between 8 and 64 bits should work).
Sample rate should be below 384 kHz (so no worries here

)

 

[fenixdown110]

This is yet another thread worth stickying. I still haven't tried it yet, but will it beat the 5.1 foobar configuration?
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/5-...-files-447089/

 

[fenixdown110]

I compared it to the 5.1 foobar setup and this still can't stand up to it. To each their own. The foobar setup is 100% free too.

 

[ironmine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeroenB /img/forum/go_quote.gif The surround version (jb_isone_pro_surround.dll) can handle 5.1 input and create a surround sound percept using headphones (stereo out). The default setting should work OK; you may ofcourse tweak it using all controls. The channel mode drop-down menu identifies down-mix options before the speaker simultion is applied. The default setting (5.1 surround) is the one to use so simulate the full 5.1 speaker setup. Isone Pro supports all bit depths that are supported by your host program (anything between 8 and 64 bits should work). Sample rate should be below 384 kHz (so no worries here )

Thanks for clarification.

By the way, it would be great if there were a way to adjust the loudness of all channels separately.

 

[ironmine]

I am sorry, Jeroen, but something is wrong with your suggested settings. I tried Ambra - 2003 "Child Of The Universe" (DTS 5.1), track # 11 - Introducing Salvador Dali.flac. In the middle of this track, Dali walks around the listener while speaking. When I listen to this track using the Dolby Headphone plugin, I can hear him walking behind my back speaking all the time. But when I listen to it using your setup all sounds disappear when he walks behind my back. It means the rear channels are muted in the mixdown.

 

[JeroenB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironmine /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am sorry, Jeroen, but something is wrong with your suggested settings. I tried Ambra - 2003 "Child Of The Universe" (DTS 5.1), track # 11 - Introducing Salvador Dali.flac. In the middle of this track, Dali walks around the listener while speaking. When I listen to this track using the Dolby Headphone plugin, I can hear him walking behind my back speaking all the time. But when I listen to it using your setup all sounds disappear when he walks behind my back. It means the rear channels are muted in the mixdown.

That is strange. What happens if you set the channel mode
to 'ITU downmix'? If everything works fine, you should hear
the surround signals coming from the virtual front speakers
with that setting.

Another option could be that the content is not 5.1, but some
other channel format...

 

[ironmine]

Jeroen,

1. I use the Surround version of Isone.
2. The input signal is indeed in 6-channel (5.1) format (I checked the properties of the file by right clicking on it in Foobar).
3. The channel setting is indeed '5.1 surround'.
4. The plugin is active.

I use Foobar2000 and George Yohng's VST Wrapper. May be this wrapper is a problem?

 

[ironmine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeroenB /img/forum/go_quote.gif What happens if you set the channel mode to 'ITU downmix'? If everything works fine, you should hear the surround signals coming from the virtual front speakers with that setting.

No, ITU downmix has got the same problem - no rear channels are present in the downmix.

 

[thuantran]

The foobar wrapper does not support higher than 2 channel audio AFAIK.