[OCC7N]

What you experienced was air pressure waves (sound) produced by your ATC speakers, interacting with your room’s acoustics and then hitting your body. As DACs do not output air pressure waves (sound), only an analogue electrical signal, then obviously a DAC cannot provide “the magic lowends” you experienced.

Even HPs/IEMs can’t, although they obviously do produce sound pressure waves, because they only present sound to your head/ears. They do not present sound pressure waves that interact with your room acoustics and then hit your whole body. A potential solution, that’s good enough for some people, is simply to EQ more bass before the digital audio is converted and sent to your HPs. A better solution is to use something like a Symth Realiser, which processes the digital audio to emulate the effects of listening to speakers in a room by applying a personalised HRTF (head related transfer function) and convolution reverb. That obviously doesn’t solve the problem of the sound waves hitting your whole body but otherwise gets quite close to recreating the experience.

There are vests/straps available which produce haptic feedback that is supposed to emulate the sensation of low freqs hitting your body. I tried one once and personally didn’t like it much but some people feel they’re good. So potentially a Smyth Realiser A16, plus one of those vests/straps could recreate that “magic” you experienced with the ATCs but with HPs. The technology isn’t quite there yet to guarantee such a setup would work for you but it might get you close enough for you not to notice.

G

Smyth Realiser A16 sounds interesting. I want tp try that. Does it sound like a “room” ?

Thank you for the good explanation. It makes sense.

 

[gregorio]

Smyth Realiser A16 sounds interesting. I want tp try that. Does it sound like a “room” ?

Yes, that’s what a convolution reverb does but that’s only part of it. The personalised HRTF is the other part, the timing delay between your ears, the frequency effect of your pinnae and the crossfeed and masking effect of your skull.

G

 

[OCC7N]

Can we all make the test between speaker and headphone?

The song is:


I have the flac file but if you can find it on better streaming. Lets go!

First listen to the song on speakers. Not loud but decent volume. Then headphones the same level.

Requirements:

1. speakers that can deliver some lowend. Does not need to be floorspeakers.
2. Headphones you like


This song is just different…the magic must be in the song. Its made for speakers

 

[OCC7N]

Yes, that’s what a convolution reverb does but that’s only part of it. The personalised HRTF is the other part, the timing delay between your ears, the frequency effect of your pinnae and the crossfeed and masking effect of your skull.

G

I thought that Smyth was software. Do you know any software that can simulate a room/speakers?

 

[gregorio]

Do you know any software that can simulate a room/speakers?

Software convolution reverbs have been around for over 20 years. Today there are many of them, from professional ones costing hundreds of dollars and simulating room acoustic effects in full surround, to many completely free versions, typically in VST but also in AU or RTAS formats.

As I said though, that’s only part of the equation. With HPs/IEMs the left channel is played only into your left ear and the right channel only into your right ear. This is completely different to listening with speakers, where both the direct sound from the speakers and the indirect sound (room acoustics/reflections) enter both ears but with some timing and frequency differences, which is where HRTFs enter the picture. So you need software that does both at the same time. We are starting to see some software which does this, in fact the developer of one software solution has this active thread in the Sound Science subforum. That would be the best place to ask.

G

 

[OCC7N]

Software convolution reverbs have been around for over 20 years. Today there are many of them, from professional ones costing hundreds of dollars and simulating room acoustic effects in full surround, to many completely free versions, typically in VST but also in AU or RTAS formats.

As I said though, that’s only part of the equation. With HPs/IEMs the left channel is played only into your left ear and the right channel only into your right ear. This is completely different to listening with speakers, where both the direct sound from the speakers and the indirect sound (room acoustics/reflections) enter both ears but with some timing and frequency differences, which is where HRTFs enter the picture. So you need software that does both at the same time. We are starting to see some software which does this, in fact the developer of one software solution has this active thread in the Sound Science subforum. That would be the best place to ask.

G

I know reverbs etc I have cubase pro 12…

I was just wondering if there were a specifik good one where I could place the source(L and R) in the room

 

[hakunamakaka]

Arya is best suited for ambient/chill stuff. Grab something from Focal lineup and you will get a lively/punchy presentation. Used OG Clear should go cheap now

 

[gregorio]

I was just wondering if there were a specifik good one where I could place the source(L and R) in the room

Convolution reverb + personalised HRTF is still a relatively new thing and requires a fair amount of computing power, so you either need a dedicated hardware unit like the Symth Realiser or software for a laptop/desktop computer. As I said, best to ask in the Sound Science subforum.

Arya is best suited for ambient/chill stuff.

No, there are no headphones that will sound like speakers.

G

 

[hakunamakaka]

No, there are no headphones that will sound like speakers.

G

I never said so

Arya lacks punch and liveliness, but it's spacious presentation perfectly fits genres mentioned above

 

[ToroFiestaSol]

You are right but scm40a is actually pretty big for my room 10m2.

I am treating the room with envizol panels from ekustik.eu I bought a pack of 10 to start with

Be careful with using too many of them, because those panels can't treat bass effectively (only active bass traps like PSI AVAA C20 can do that) and end up sucking up the lower midrange too much and negatively affecting the liveliness of the sound IMO. With those room dimensions, you are better off having a good leather sofa, unevenly placed books, a good rug, and probably some ceiling diffuser/panel to distribute high frequency more evenly. If you really want to really treat bass response, 2 active bass traps can do the trick but will cost you around 5000$ and your speakers have a very small woofer to properly reproduce bass, so even if you do it the expense may not be totally justified IMO. Just my thoughts on it, have fun experimenting and enjoy the setup, speakers are much more rewarding than headphones.

 

[OCC7N]

Be careful with using too many of them, because those panels can't treat bass effectively (only active bass traps like PSI AVAA C20 can do that) and end up sucking up the lower midrange too much and negatively affecting the liveliness of the sound IMO. With those room dimensions, you are better off having a good leather sofa, unevenly placed books, a good rug, and probably some ceiling diffuser/panel to distribute high frequency more evenly. If you really want to really treat bass response, 2 active bass traps can do the trick but will cost you around 5000$ and your speakers have a very small woofer to properly reproduce bass, so even if you do it the expense may not be totally justified IMO. Just my thoughts on it, have fun experimenting and enjoy the setup, speakers are much more rewarding than headphones.

I have used 5 of the ekustik. I think it helps with the sound. I am using two(5cm x 60cm x 120cm) of them so they are thicker(10cm). My initial impression(10 hours) is that the bass is tighter, more clean boomy sound on certain tracks

 

[gregorio]

I never said so

Yet you are responding in a thread where the OP is trying to recreate his experience of speakers in a room.

I have used 5 of the ekustik. I think it helps with the sound. I am using two(5cm x 60cm x 120cm) of them so they are thicker(10cm). My initial impression(10 hours) is that the bass is tighter, more clean boomy sound on certain tracks

Acoustic treatments are products/materials designed to treat acoustic problems. Therefore, before you apply a treatment you need to know what problem/s you are treating. We can all have a guess and some peoples guesses are going to be better others but at the end of the day, they are just guesses. Much better to actually measure your room, identify the problems and then treat them, especially as it’s cheap to do so.

In a small room you’re always going to be limited when it comes to the bass. 5cm panels are going to have no effect on the bass, typically they’ll only significantly affect a freq range between about 300Hz and 1kHz, so that must be what you’re hearing. Most likely a combination of diffusion and absorption would be best but that’s just a guess without measuring your room’s response. And of course positioning of the treatment is also vital.

G

 

[hakunamakaka]

Yet you are responding in a thread where the OP is trying to recreate his experience of speakers in a room.

Yet I haven't mentioned anything about hp's vs speakers. Get some fresh air and do productive stuff instead of arguing with random people on the forum all the time

 

[gregorio]

Yet I haven't mentioned anything about hp's vs speakers.

So you admit going off topic?

G