Surround sound and headphones
Dec 24, 2023 at 1:45 PM Post #2 of 11
Any limit on budget?
 
Dec 25, 2023 at 1:31 AM Post #3 of 11
Dec 25, 2023 at 3:43 AM Post #4 of 11
AirPods?
 
Dec 26, 2023 at 4:01 AM Post #8 of 11
StradivariusViolin said:
Is there something about AirPods that mimic surround sound?
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I'm sorry, I was thinking about the Spatial Audio/ Head tracking Apple has, but it's not surround sound. My bad.
 
Dec 26, 2023 at 7:13 PM Post #9 of 11
There are a few ways to approach this one, with varying levels of cost and effectiveness.

In terms of sources, several companies have made "surround sound" dongles in the past, ranging from tech designed for gaming to stuff made to supposedly imitate vacuum tubes. I used to have a list of the various dongles, but I've since lost it, so you'll have to do some solo research if you want to pick one of those up.

When it comes to actual headphones, there's a lot more to work with. Keep in mind though, that headphones still have some critical issues with imaging that most hardware is not going to fix without severe alterations.

In my experience, I've found that a total of 0 of the 20+ headphones in my collection have been able to project sound from the front or below.

Here are some other accounts of this:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/fro...er-in-front-of-me-with-headphones-why.796868/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hav...coming-from-the-front-with-headphones.764579/
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/fswa3s/anyone_feel_like_most_headphones_have_a/

With that said, here's what you should generally look for to indicate that a headphone will have good imaging / soundstage.

  1. Open Backs
    1. Ventilation on a headphone is a pretty good indicator the soundstage will be larger. You've probably figured out this much from your own research.
  2. Angled Drivers
    1. Some brands, for example Sony, will angle their driver or earcup to direct sound more naturally into the ear. Sony does this a lot, and used it even more in the past when they were actively making open-air headphones like the MDRMA900. The extreme conclusion to this idea are designs like the AKG K1000, Qualia, Mysphere, etc.
  3. Extended Atrium
    1. A larger housing for the driver is also a good sign. Take the HD800 and the SHP9500 for example. Both create distance between the driver and the ear, and have much better stages as a result.
  4. Multiple Drivers
    1. Having extra drivers in a headphone can help add depth to the staging of the can. My pair of AKG K280s, for example, feel as if the soundstage has "height" my other headphones don't have. This idea can be extended even further with specific hardware.

If you really want to take this to the extreme, you could always purchase a quadraphonic player, decoder, headphones, and set of records (the idea with this tech was to add more channels for extra immersion, it's not really made today). You'd need to do a lot of research though, since not all decoders and records work with each other, and it's old tech with less documentation.
 
Jan 1, 2024 at 5:58 PM Post #10 of 11
Waxletter said:
There are a few ways to approach this one, with varying levels of cost and effectiveness.

In terms of sources, several companies have made "surround sound" dongles in the past, ranging from tech designed for gaming to stuff made to supposedly imitate vacuum tubes. I used to have a list of the various dongles, but I've since lost it, so you'll have to do some solo research if you want to pick one of those up.

When it comes to actual headphones, there's a lot more to work with. Keep in mind though, that headphones still have some critical issues with imaging that most hardware is not going to fix without severe alterations.

In my experience, I've found that a total of 0 of the 20+ headphones in my collection have been able to project sound from the front or below.

Here are some other accounts of this:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/fro...er-in-front-of-me-with-headphones-why.796868/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hav...coming-from-the-front-with-headphones.764579/
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/fswa3s/anyone_feel_like_most_headphones_have_a/

With that said, here's what you should generally look for to indicate that a headphone will have good imaging / soundstage.

  1. Open Backs
    1. Ventilation on a headphone is a pretty good indicator the soundstage will be larger. You've probably figured out this much from your own research.
  2. Angled Drivers
    1. Some brands, for example Sony, will angle their driver or earcup to direct sound more naturally into the ear. Sony does this a lot, and used it even more in the past when they were actively making open-air headphones like the MDRMA900. The extreme conclusion to this idea are designs like the AKG K1000, Qualia, Mysphere, etc.
  3. Extended Atrium
    1. A larger housing for the driver is also a good sign. Take the HD800 and the SHP9500 for example. Both create distance between the driver and the ear, and have much better stages as a result.
  4. Multiple Drivers
    1. Having extra drivers in a headphone can help add depth to the staging of the can. My pair of AKG K280s, for example, feel as if the soundstage has "height" my other headphones don't have. This idea can be extended even further with specific hardware.

If you really want to take this to the extreme, you could always purchase a quadraphonic player, decoder, headphones, and set of records (the idea with this tech was to add more channels for extra immersion, it's not really made today). You'd need to do a lot of research though, since not all decoders and records work with each other, and it's old tech with less documentation.
Click to expand...
Interesting information! Thank you for the input.
 
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