Out Of Your Head - new virtual surround simulator

[hoth]

  I have never heard HD700s, so I can't really comment on why they would not work as well. But the HD800's work really well due to their exceptional imaging and detail. 
 
-Darin

I have not tried HD800's but will likely in the next few days.  I wonder if the issue with the HD700s is that OOYH sounds best with headphones that can most faithfully reproduce the mathematics.  That is, OOYH works because of the equations that convert a multi-point signal into a two channel signal that when it interferes with itself in the right way produces the sense of distance and space.  A headphone that causes the outputed signal to deviate from the intended signal projected through it would likely produce non coherent errors.  In contrast, a headphone that more faithfully reproduces the input signal would sound better with OOYH.  In addition, the most important aspect to reproducing the OOYH effect would be in the body of the music and a headphone with little body would have more trouble in reproducing the effect.  Just theories.  

 

[hoth]

I had to buy the whole enchilada based on Darin's very generous offer to give us free licenses for other computers if we buy the whole package. What a class act.

 

[olegausany]

I also had a chance to try Paradox Slants and they really sounded great using HA-1 as Dac and BH SEX amp

 

[dmbr]

Please tell me I can use this on my laptop as well as my desktop....I did not consider that this license might be per-machine when buying it! I bought it and installed it on my desktop first but do most of my listening on my laptop.

Is there any way to move the license to a different machine, if it is limited? $150 was already more than I felt comfortable spending.

I must recommend a login system so that only one user may use it at once but across all their machines.

Edit: found my answer in the FAQ

" for multiple computers, you will need to purchase a separate preset license. But you do not have to purchase a separate Out Of Your Head license for each computer."

Fair enough...could be worse. But I'm not buying more licenses than the two because of this limitation :/ Please consider a way to rectify this, Daren. I'm sure it's losing you money and leading to less-than-satisfied customers like myself.

 

[alpha421]

PM Daren.  He'll hook you up.  I had a different situation when I upgraded the HDD on my laptop and had to have a new license.

 

[dmbr]

I'm definitely going to PM him, didn't know I could--thanks.
 
Somehow my license has stopped working after I re-installed JRiver Media Center. I am very unhappy right now.

 

[darinf]

  I'm definitely going to PM him, didn't know I could--thanks.
 
Somehow my license has stopped working after I re-installed JRiver Media Center. I am very unhappy right now.

I got your PM and am responding now. 
 
But installing/uninstalling JRiver should not have any effect on Out Of Your Head. They are totally separate software packages. JRiver does install a virtual sound card driver too now, but in theory that should not affect the Out Of Your Head virtual sound card driver. 
 
I will try to replicate the problem on my system. But I will also contact you via PM to troubleshoot.

 

[dmbr]

I got your PM and am responding now. 

But installing/uninstalling JRiver should not have any effect on Out Of Your Head. They are totally separate software packages. JRiver does install a virtual sound card driver too now, but in theory that should not affect the Out Of Your Head virtual sound card driver. 

I will try to replicate the problem on my system. But I will also contact you via PM to troubleshoot.

Thanks, Daren.

It seems somehow the driver was installed twice somehow, which may be the problem.

Any idea why feeding it a 5.1 source would be causing scratching/crackling? I am using the Foobar channel mixer to turn stereo into 5 channels, as this sounds much better.

 

[darinf]

Thanks, Daren.

It seems somehow the driver was installed twice somehow, which may be the problem.

Any idea why feeding it a 5.1 source would be causing scratching/crackling? I am using the Foobar channel mixer to turn stereo into 5 channels, as this sounds much better.

If you see two instances of the Out Of Your Head driver, then that is definitely a problem. My recommendation is to uninstall Out Of Your Head and then uninstall all instances of the Out Of Your Head driver in the Windows Device Manager (also check "delete the driver" when uninstalling.
 
Warning: When two instances of the Out Of Your Head are installed, you may get a BSOD when trying to uninstall the driver. I will e-mail you instructions on how to uninstall without BSOD.
 
Regarding the scratching/crackling, it may just be an issue of clipping. Try adjusting the volume level down in FooBar and/or the input levels in the Out Of Your Head Control Panel. 
 
I have never tried using FooBar to upconvert 2 channels to 5.1 channels. I will test it to see if I can replicate the problem. Can you tell me how you are doing that in FooBar? Are you using a plugin?

 

[hekeli]

  I wonder if the issue with the HD700s is that OOYH sounds best with headphones that can most faithfully reproduce the mathematics.

 
You are thinking too complicated. It's mostly about frequency response and interaction of headphone with your head and ears which also modify FR. That's why Smyth Realiser also does HPEQ to flatten the headphone/pinnae response. Of course the generic coherency/openess/speed/lack of resonances etc of headphone is a good part of how accurately it can reproduce sound. Since OOYH does not provide a (HP)EQ, you could simply try equing stuff "flat" with your player.

 

[hyoboy24]

I just tried the trial version and I like the acoustic zen preset. But I seem to be experiencing a problem with the presets as a whole.
On tracks with few instruments, it sounds perfect, placement and all. However on tracks with many instruments/dynamics, the instruments/music seems to be jumbled up and theres a slight loss of detail. Just wondering if there's any solution for this or whether its an inherent trait.

 

[edwardsean]

I just tried the trial version and I like the acoustic zen preset. But I seem to be experiencing a problem with the presets as a whole.
On tracks with few instruments, it sounds perfect, placement and all. However on tracks with many instruments/dynamics, the instruments/music seems to be jumbled up and theres a slight loss of detail. Just wondering if there's any solution for this or whether its an inherent trait. I'm using the LCD-3 with Auralic Gemini 2000, Jriver/Wasapi. Thanks

Hi Hyoboy24, 
 
I like the Acoustic Zen preset too. For me also, it was a sort of "gateway preset" to virtual addiction. It was one of the first prsets that made sense to me and helped me reorient the "jumble" I was hearing. I had to start thinking speaker/room sound instead of headphone sound. For example, the loss of detail: There is so much detail in headphone sound. The speakers are right up against your ears or in your ear canals. You lose a kind of detail when listening to speakers that are 3, 5, 10, 15 feet away from you. If OOYH didn't emulate that loss of "ear tickling detail" it couldn't convey out of your head speaker placement.
 
Things started to "un-jumble" for me as a factor of sight before sound, i.e., I kept closing my eyes and tried to imagine loudspeakers in front of me. It's strange how much our eyes affect our ears. The Smyth Realiser folk have noted how, for some people, listening beside a wall cut off the perceived soundstage on that side. This is with headphones mind you! There is no auditory reason that where you are in your physical room should affect headphone listening. But the mind can play powerful tricks on the ears. Good for us, because OOYH depends on just that.  

 

[hoth]

  Hi Hyoboy24, 
 
I like the Acoustic Zen preset too. For me also, it was a sort of "gateway preset" to virtual addiction. It was one of the first prsets that made sense to me and helped me reorient the "jumble" I was hearing. I had to start thinking speaker/room sound instead of headphone sound. For example, the loss of detail: There is so much detail in headphone sound. The speakers are right up against your ears or in your ear canals. You lose a kind of detail when listening to speakers that are 3, 5, 10, 15 feet away from you. If OOYH didn't emulate that loss of "ear tickling detail" it couldn't convey out of your head speaker placement.
 
Things started to "un-jumble" for me as a factor of sight before sound, i.e., I kept closing my eyes and tried to imagine loudspeakers in front of me. It's strange how much our eyes affect our ears. The Smyth Realiser folk have noted how, for some people, listening beside a wall cut off the perceived soundstage on that side. This is with headphones mind you! There is no auditory reason that where you are in your physical room should affect headphone listening. But the mind can play powerful tricks on the ears. Good for us, because OOYH depends on just that.  

Great post.  I hate to follow your posts since you have great advice and really get it.  After a bit of fiddling I was able to get everything on my mac laptop (where I have the benchmark DAC2) to work.  I needed the added umph because I was going to compare the HD800, HE560 and LCD-XC with OOYH.  My findings yesterday that the HD700 didn't work with me using OOYH was somewhat validated by my experience with the HD800.  The HD800 was extremely detailed but I found that the auditory quess as to where instruments were placed were coming through so hot that that could have interfered with my enjoyment.  On the other end of the spectrum, the HE560's with rolled off treble didn't let me get enough treble information to get all the detail I needed for the instruments for the spatial cues.  Things still sounded great though but a little flat compared to the more synergistic headphones.  So last but not least was the XC which was just superb and sublime with OOYH.  It had the right amount of everything and really gives the T90 a run for its money in this setup.  I was absolutely lost and immersed in listening to James Taylor.  What a joy.  Another great listening session.  I might be turning into a fanboy.
 
ETA: By the way, my favorite presets are PBNJ, Sascha and Acoustic Zen; which are presets that others also indicated are their tops.  
 
EATA: Closing your eyes really really helps the effect.  Also, it would be great if we had a way in the plugin to delay or speed up sound for sync since I like to watch iTunes movies with OOYH including musical movies.
 
Thanks Darin!

 

[dmbr]

I resolved all my issues and Darin was very helpful and prompt in his responses. All I can't get working is WASAPI, but no biggie, DS is fine.
 
You can buy this product with confidence
 
 
PS
If you're using Foobar, I really recommend upmixing stereo to 5.1 with the "Channel Mixer" component before feeding it to OOYH. Makes for a much more encompassing surround sound feel.

 

[Fox1977]

Hi everybody !
I recently got a license of OOYH and after hesitating with Acoustic Zen and Magical Speakers, i eventually opted for Magical Speakers that sounded more "out of my head". My headphones are Sennheiser Momentum.
So far i've been using Media Player Classic, but i'm wondering if there is a better option. Will it sound the same with another software ? I read that some use Foobar or JRiver. Which improvements would i get to change my player ?
Thanks