[Sanctuary]

Is there any reason to believe that if I managed to get two pairs of Focal Utopias that they would not work well with the A16 as far as their character?

Would 2 open back headphones interfere with each other?

Can't really see that ever happening, unless you're literally sitting a few inches away from each other. Even then, probably not. It shouldn't be much different (if at all) than any other time you're using open headphones, especially with the same content.

 

[bearcatsandor]

Thanks. I've never used open headphones before and someone had told me that anyone with in a few feet would hear them as loud as i did.

 

[sander99]

Although Sanctuary is probably right, maybe to be on the safe side just try first before spending $8000,- on 2 pairs of headphones?

 

[illram]

I have a bunch of headphones that I'm eager to test and see how much better/worse they all are. Not sure I will ever truly try all of them given the need to do a calibration with each set. My hunch is the differences will be minimal for most. I think the A16's unique use-case might make some otherwise average/mid-tier cans better (e.g. the 400i, an accurate affordable planar) than more popular/better reviewed cans (e.g. the HD6XX) due to the criteria you want for VSS/simulation.

My guess on which of my cans are going to be best, in order:

1. HD800S
2. Koss ESP950 (unusually excited to try these)
3. HE-560
4. HE-400i
5. LCD2 classic
6. AKG 7XX
7. HD-598
8. Fostex TH-X00
9. VModa M100
10. HD6XX

Wildcard: My Nighthawks. No clue how these will do. My guess is the holographic feel to them will be great. Can't rank them though.

This is mostly ranked on what I remember in terms of soundstage/imaging for these cans using the 5.1 VSS with my Creative X7. Like I said the A16, my guess is, will throw some of the usual headphone rankings out of whack. The HD-598 for instance has a great stage with great imaging even if the TH-X00 is to me a better, more fun headphone for almost everything else, listening out of a normal source.

 

[bearcatsandor]

Although Sanctuary is probably right, maybe to be on the safe side just try first before spending $8000,- on 2 pairs of headphones?

Oh, of course! I'm still in the fantasising stage, though I love their speakers and everything that I've read tells me theydt be perfect.

 

[mbyrnes]

I have a bunch of headphones that I'm eager to test and see how much better/worse they all are. Not sure I will ever truly try all of them given the need to do a calibration with each set. My hunch is the differences will be minimal for most. I think the A16's unique use-case might make some otherwise average/mid-tier cans better (e.g. the 400i, an accurate affordable planar) than more popular/better reviewed cans (e.g. the HD6XX) due to the criteria you want for VSS/simulation.

My guess on which of my cans are going to be best, in order:

1. HD800S
2. Koss ESP950 (unusually excited to try these)
3. HE-560
4. HE-400i
5. LCD2 classic
6. AKG 7XX
7. HD-598
8. Fostex TH-X00
9. VModa M100
10. HD6XX

Wildcard: My Nighthawks. No clue how these will do. My guess is the holographic feel to them will be great. Can't rank them though.

This is mostly ranked on what I remember in terms of soundstage/imaging for these cans using the 5.1 VSS with my Creative X7. Like I said the A16, my guess is, will throw some of the usual headphone rankings out of whack. The HD-598 for instance has a great stage with great imaging even if the TH-X00 is to me a better, more fun headphone for almost everything else, listening out of a normal source.

That should be a fun list to go through with the A16. I actually think they'll all be pretty good.

For my Fostex TH-X00 Ebony, I did the Dekoni lambskin pads. I then added the Dekoni plastic ring inserts ($15 on Amazon), to bring the bass back. Much better comfort with bigger ear openings, and helps increase the soundstage. The rings should help with many of the different pads available that have the same bass killing problem. The stock pads have a sown in plastic ring. Not sure if you knew this already.

 

[raband]

I have a bunch of headphones that I'm eager to test and see how much better/worse they all are. Not sure I will ever truly try all of them given the need to do a calibration with each set. My hunch is the differences will be minimal for most. I think the A16's unique use-case might make some otherwise average/mid-tier cans better (e.g. the 400i, an accurate affordable planar) than more popular/better reviewed cans (e.g. the HD6XX) due to the criteria you want for VSS/simulation.

My guess on which of my cans are going to be best, in order:

1. HD800S
2. Koss ESP950 (unusually excited to try these)
3. HE-560
4. HE-400i
5. LCD2 classic
6. AKG 7XX
7. HD-598
8. Fostex TH-X00
9. VModa M100
10. HD6XX

Wildcard: My Nighthawks. No clue how these will do. My guess is the holographic feel to them will be great. Can't rank them though.

This is mostly ranked on what I remember in terms of soundstage/imaging for these cans using the 5.1 VSS with my Creative X7. Like I said the A16, my guess is, will throw some of the usual headphone rankings out of whack. The HD-598 for instance has a great stage with great imaging even if the TH-X00 is to me a better, more fun headphone for almost everything else, listening out of a normal source.

I've got a surprisingly similar library to test out with the A16.

I really want to/should offload a heap, but have been waiting to get the A16 in to properly work out which ones I want to keep.

It seemed like an ideal plan 18 months ago, but I probably should have culled the collection along the way instead of waiting so long.

 

[musicday]

The most important/impressive headphone for me that i really want to own and try with the A16 is the Meze Empyrean, original design Made In Romania.
Was by far my favourite headphone at CanJam London 2018.

 

[Dixter]

If you are curious then you might want to load and try HeSuVi..... https://sourceforge.net/projects/hesuvi/?source=navbar once you get the software installed then you will find that it turns a PC into a quasi A16 with many presets like Dolby Atmos.. and others to play with... for music to test out goto you tube and search for 3d music... this won't be as good as the A16 we are all waiting for but it should give you an idea how the 3d sound is going to be when the A16 gets delivered...

 

[HairyHook]

If you are curious then you might want to load and try HeSuVi..... https://sourceforge.net/projects/hesuvi/?source=navbar once you get the software installed then you will find that it turns a PC into a quasi A16 with many presets like Dolby Atmos.. and others to play with... for music to test out goto you tube and search for 3d music... this won't be as good as the A16 we are all waiting for but it should give you an idea how the 3d sound is going to be when the A16 gets delivered...

I would take HeSuVi with a grain of salt. I tested it couple months ago to compare the GSX 7.1 preset with the Sennheiser GSX1000 that I had at home and they sounded really different. I only wanted the 7.1 out of the GSX so I wondered I could sell it if HeSuVi was able to accurately virtualize the sound. Maybe HeSuVi is better now, I see they have a more intuitive interface. YMMV, just sharing my experience.

 

[sander99]

If you are curious then you might want to load and try HeSuVi..... https://sourceforge.net/projects/hesuvi/?source=navbar once you get the software installed then you will find that it turns a PC into a quasi A16 with many presets like Dolby Atmos.. and others to play with... for music to test out goto you tube and search for 3d music... this won't be as good as the A16 we are all waiting for but it should give you an idea how the 3d sound is going to be when the A16 gets delivered...

After some fooling around I seem to have it working. For stereo only, my laptop doesn't support surround sound and that seems to be a problem for how it is all organised now (of course it should not be a fundamental problem, since the end result of the binauralization proces is 2 channel audio for headphones). So now it should simulate 2 speakers in front of me. What it does for me: With the ooyh0 setting it manages to push the sound from a line between my ears to outside my head... but only just outside my head, the sound now seems to be like in a 3 cm wide shell around my head. All other settings that I have tried do even less for me. So nowhere, and really nowhere near what the realiser with my own PRIR did for me in my demo. Of course non-personalised no stellar results could be expected unless one is really lucky maybe. Still fun to play with this a bit, sound glued like a 3 cm thick shell around my head is a nice change from a line between my ears. It would be interesting to make this software work with my own PRIR somehow, see how it does then.

 

[Dixter]

The program works best if your computer/laptop has at least 7 channels so it can process the music down to the two channel stereo...

 

[sander99]

The program works best if your computer/laptop has at least 7 channels so it can process the music down to the two channel stereo...

Your remark suggests to me you possibly don't really grasp the essence of what this is all about (but I could be wrong). "process the music down to the two channel stereo" is one way to look at it. What it is trying to do is a binaural simulation of speakers. Whether it is doing that for 1, 2 or 7 speakers is no essential difference for the binauralisation process, it is just a matter of adding the binaural simulations of the different speakers together, adding 2 stereo signals (each representing the binaural simulation of one speaker) together to one stereo signal (representing the binaural simulation of 2 speakers) for 2 speakers, or adding 7 stereo signals (each representing the binaural simulation of one speaker) together to one stereo signal (representing the binaural simulation of 7 speakers) for 7 speakers. With stereo program material it should ideally simulate 2 speakers in front of you. If it can't do that properly, it also can not properly simulate 7 speakers all around you.
(Don't forget to unmark the box "Automatically Deactivate Virtualization on Stereo Device", otherwise it doesn't do the binaural simulation for stereo program material).
I am always surprised when people think all this only has use for multichannel, and not for stereo sources.

Edit: Anyway, thanks for mentioning the tool. Nice to play with. Also the Equalizer APO that had to be installed first, very nice. And REW came to my attention again while installing, might try that also. I am hoping maybe when using the A16 in AV Amp mode with 15 (or 16) amps and speakers REW could do ROOM EQ calibration for all channels in one go while sending test signals as 16 channel PCM via USB to the A16, and the resulting values can be manually entered into the A16's parametric equalizer afterwards? Many if's for that to be possible, but who knows?

 

[Dixter]

I was just trying to say that if you have a sound card that has at least 7 channels vs a computer that only has 2 channels then the computer with 7 channels works best with that program... for me I have never experienced 3d headphone material... so i loaded it onto a computer with a 7 channel sound card... I tuned the setup utilizing a simple head phone (ATH-M50s) and I tuned them to sound like a concert I went to last week ( Smashing Pumpkins ) and was actually surprised just how well the program scaled those head phones and enjoyed it enough that makes we really want to get that A16 and the sooner the better...I'll be using a better set of head phones for that...

 

[sander99]

Ah yes, then I was wrong indeed, sorry.

By the way: Starting to like it more and more (HeSuVi with ooyh0, using Sennheiser HD650). Although nowhere near what the A16 does, there is at least a suggestion of space and the (my) brain is doing something with that (could I be more vague?). It is really not at all like listening to speakers, yet it is very different from plain stereo over headphones.
Turning off "Matrix Upmix Stereo Content" (I think it must have been on by default) changed the perspective somewhat.
The recording/content has influence as well of course. I am now listening to Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters and I am mesmerized (mainly by the music I must say, yet switching back to plain stereo now is like a punishment, crushing the music back into the inside of my skull).