[Forest Design]

or is it mostly for psychological effect? cause i don't hear anything that noticable.

 

[Assorted]

Normally the difference's are subtle, but some stereophonic recordings made for speakers are very fatiguing, and crossfeed helps it.

It's hard to describe in words. It makes the music... "softer". You would feel the difference when you're used to listening to music for a long long time without crossfeed, then turning it on.

 

[bindibadgi]

In my opinion (which is by no means professional!!!) it helps make the listening experience less fatiguing. I don't really notice any difference in sound, but over a long period of listening I feel it is more natural.

My theory is that your brain doesn't have to try so hard to distinguish what's happening when it hears something akin to a couple of speakers sitting in front of you. When the brain gets signals from one ear and not at all from the other (as in a "clean" stereo track) then subconsciously your brain is doing more work because it's not a natural experience.

Well, that's my $0.02 Australian.

 

[kramer5150]

The crossfeed circuits I've heard made things sound slightly warmer. My understanding is the amount difference it makes depends heavily on the recording.

 

[feh1325]

can't really tell a difference on my bithead

 

[Forest Design]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bindibadgi /img/forum/go_quote.gif In my opinion (which is by no means professional!!!) it helps make the listening experience less fatiguing. I don't really notice any difference in sound, but over a long period of listening I feel it is more natural. My theory is that your brain doesn't have to try so hard to distinguish what's happening when it hears something akin to a couple of speakers sitting in front of you. When the brain gets signals from one ear and not at all from the other (as in a "clean" stereo track) then subconsciously your brain is doing more work because it's not a natural experience. Well, that's my $0.02 Australian.

that's basically what it says in Corda's booklet to my Headfive, but i was just wondering if there was something less subtle going on that i'm just not hearing. looks like consensus is that there isn't...

 

[hew]

I know you are asking about hardware based crosssfeed but if you use Foobar, you could also try crossfeed plugins. These allow you to mess with settings to experience a more dramatic example of what a crossfeed can do.

The best setup, meaning least impact on sound quality, I've found thus far is Channel Mixer ---> Dolby Headphone Wrapper.

 

[D_4_Dog]

i think the effect is generally quite subtle... unless it's one of those songs that DELIBERATELY do the L<->R panning thing for special effects. When listening to those songs, if i don't have crossfeed, i end up feeling a bit nauseous/dizzy...

As for foobar crossfeed, the channel mixer=> dolby headphone hew mentioned is fairly good, but u might also want to try BS2B plugin. Diff flavor but serves the same purpose. For me personally i prefer bs2b

 

[b0dhi]

It depends on which crossfeed plugin you use is, but generally I find crossfeed to be one of the more obvious effects in the audio chain if used for acoustic recordings. The quality of crossfeed plugins vary a lot, and I've found about 2 I like out of around 8 I've tried, and both of those were written by students.

Generally crossfeed pushes close sounds "outwards" from the center of the head, so for something panned directly to the left, instead of sounding like its 5cm from your ear, will sound 30cm away for example. It also makes sound less fatiguing because it makes spatial cues more realistic to the brain (real sound always enters both ears, not just one) by feeding some of the right signal to the left and vice versa.

40% crossfeed with a 230us delay works well for me.

 

[Redo]

If the music has hard panned L or R tracks, the difference is noticeable immediately.

 

[Forest Design]

the new Low album has the vocals all in the right channel and i still didn't notice any change with the crossfeed on

 

[Redo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forest Design /img/forum/go_quote.gif the new Low album has the vocals all in the right channel and i still didn't notice any change with the crossfeed on

Even though it may sound like it's all on one channel, it may not be. Especially with newer albums, hard panning is quite rare. The Beatles are notorious for having hard panned effects. Check out Sgt Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour for some good hard panned material. The first track on Sgt Pepper is great to test crossfeed.


Edit:

If you're using your computer, make sure you're not in "headphone mode". Use straight 2/2.1 channel mode.

 

[Forest Design]

no, the vocals are pretty distinctly in the right channel on Drums and Guns. i'm using my desktop Magnavox stereo and a headfive amp. the crossfeed doesn't nothing to the vocals on the album. there is a slight bit of "echo" of the vocals in the left channel, but it's very, very slight.

 

[Redo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forest Design /img/forum/go_quote.gif no, the vocals are pretty distinctly in the right channel on Drums and Guns. i'm using my desktop Magnavox stereo and a headfive amp. the crossfeed doesn't nothing to the vocals on the album. there is a slight bit of "echo" of the vocals in the left channel, but it's very, very slight.

Same goes for "The Doors - The End". You'd swear some of the drums and instruments are hard panned. But when I flip on crossfeed, there really isn't much of a difference. This is an example of a stereo master that isn't just hard panned to one side, but you'd swear it was otherwise.

 

[b0dhi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forest Design /img/forum/go_quote.gif the new Low album has the vocals all in the right channel and i still didn't notice any change with the crossfeed on

The sounds also need to be "close" for the maximum effect. What're the settings on your crossfeed?