[bigshot]

With me, the shaver keeps popping from a couple of inches from my nose to close behind my head and back and forth. In front, behind, above, below... it has no precise location. I can't control it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't sound real at all.

 

[Brahmsian]

With me, the shaver keeps popping from a couple of inches from my nose to close behind my head and back and forth. In front, behind, above, below... it has no precise location. I can't control it. It sounds weird, but it doesn't sound real at all.

For me, it had pretty precise location and lots of depth, but not like it was actually outside the headphones.

 

[bigshot]

I think the reason that binaural has never really caught on for commercial recording is that it works differently with different people. One size doesn't fit all.

 

[castleofargh]

I like those demo files:
http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/sounds.html
Each is made from the HRTF of one person and of course each time what's actually simulated is a proper horizontal circle around the listener(at about 1m away I think, I don't really remember). It doesn't show us how other people are perceiving things, but at least we get a feeling for how much change a different head can cause to sound and how we'll interpret it.

 

[megabigeye]

Binaural sealed the deal for me with the virtual barber shop demo.



In it, it really felt as though the shaver went over my head.

For me this was actually less convincing than many stereo recordings. With my IEMs it was completely left-right, with my headphones it was only marginally more convincing, but I wouldn't call it realistic at all. There was a binaural recording of waves on a beach that I heard a couple years while ago and it sounded so off that it was disorienting for me. I also find ASMR to be really horrible (but that's my misophonia as much as anything).

Also, why was Cookie Monster playing guitar and calling himself Manuel? I guess everybody needs a hobby.

 

[reginalb]

Works well for me. As he says throughout, it's all about how your brain interprets it. You guys must have broken brains.

 

[pfzar]

HRTF's are measured in a few different ways. Blocked meatus, meaning the microphone is placed in the concha bowl, the entrance to the ear canal, or DRP the Drum Reference point. KEMAR/HATS, or a probe mic, meaning the microphone is placed at a depth relative to the eardrum.

These two methods will result in different measurements that describe the HRTF.
Got sidetracked and didn't finish post.

A large portion of the spatial audio playback world is using real human HRTFs as opposed to the HATS method. Which is a blocked meatus measurement. This will result in the majority of spatial audio reproduction sounding best on over and on-ear devices.

The IEM's al Etymotic would need a different filter applied to the algorithm to get the same out of the head experience as a traditional headphone.

Some Binaural mics are also recording at the entrance to the ear canal and not at the DRP.

 

[Slaphead]

I think the reason that binaural has never really caught on for commercial recording is that it works differently with different people. One size doesn't fit all.

Yep, doesn't work for me at all, well it can almost work, until I twitch my head and then everything collapses into either a phasey mess or just a condensed centre image lacking in dynamics.

If you want real binaural then a stereo speaker system is the only valid choice.

 

[hakunamakaka]

Well I tried both types of IEM's that goes deep into your ear and not, none of the came close regards sense of space compared to the headphones. These praised out of your head IEM's had one thing in common and that was lot's of bass, sound itself was still wrapped in my head. With some high tier openback headphones I could get the sense of large surroundings around me, but Arya's drivers were covering nearly my whole head. While reviews claiming that specific IEM's beating/matching most spacious open back headphones I start to believe that forums are flooded with promotional reviews, but what's more surprising that many folks agree with them, so maybe I really don't know how to listen...

 

[sander99]

but what's more surprising that many folks agree with them

They hear what they expect to hear. Hearing perception is done mostly by the brain, and is influenced by many things going on in the brain, including input from other senses. The influence of expectation bias is orders of magnitude larger than the smallest real differences that are audible. That is why non-blind tests are essentially worthless. The problem is that this information is not known by the majority of the people, and this fact is exploited to the max for financial benefit by many companies.
It makes me very sad because a lot of money is being spend on things that make no to almost no real difference. And that money could have been spend on things that do make a difference: for example loudspeakers, acoustic treatment, clever room correction dsp, binaural simulation over headphones of loudspeakers in a room, ...

Yep, doesn't work for me at all, well it can almost work, until I twitch my head and then everything collapses into either a phasey mess or just a condensed centre image lacking in dynamics.

Yes, if you move your head and the spatial clues don't adapt to the movement the brain gets clues that it is being tricked and can reject the out of head illusion. Not everyone is affected equally by this though.

I think a nice comparison can be made with the following situation:
Sometimes when you sit in a train in a trainstation and the train next to yours start to move you can have the feeling that it is your train moving, and that the next train is standing still. (Or was it the other way around? Or maybe both is possible.) Until your brain picks up a clue that reveales the true situation. Then the first illusion collapses and is immediately replaced by another illusion, that corresponds with the real situation.

Another problem of standard binaural recordings is that they generally don't match your personal HRTF.

If you want real binaural then a stereo speaker system is the only valid choice.

Listening to a Smyth Realiser A16 using your personal measured PRIR and HPEQ and using headtracking (to keep the virtual speakers stationary, so properly adapting the spatial clues to the head movement) comes very, very close.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Smyth Realiser A16

I would like to try it, but it's damn expensive. It isn't that I crave any kind of "spatial sense" while listening to music, but it would be nice to try and see if it can change my mind (even after owning the HD 800 I did not feel any "spacious" feeling).

 

[bigshot]

I used to think head tracking was the key, but I can’t get any kind of surround sense with my Oculus Quest either. I think it’s mostly personal anatomy.

 

[sander99]

I would like to try it, but it's damn expensive.

Yes I agree the normal price is very high. Luckely I have a standing pre-order for 2000 Euro's (incl. shipping, 2nd headtracker, and 20% VAT). The real lucky ones backed the kickstarter project for less than 1000 Euro's.
But there is always free impulcifer software from @jaakkopasanen. Only you need to buy mics and some audio interface. If he could add headtracking would that be something...

 

[colonelkernel8]

Yes I agree the normal price is very high. Luckely I have a standing pre-order for 2000 Euro's (incl. shipping, 2nd headtracker, and 20% VAT). The real lucky ones backed the kickstarter project for less than 1000 Euro's.
But there is always free impulcifer software from @jaakkopasanen. Only you need to buy mics and some audio interface. If he could add headtracking would that be something...

2000 euros is still over and beyond insanely expensive...but I guess some fools spend that money on cables, and if this is as revolutionary as they say it is, then I really do hope you enjoy it.

 

[Davesrose]

When it comes to convincing positional audio without an external DSP, I have been fooled with demo Dolby Atmos Headphone tracks (with over ear headphones). There are very few examples: and it's different than the Dolby Atmos speaker tracks in movies (I think Dolby has been advertising it for gaming). Otherwise, yes....I also never found a traditional binaural recording as being a true positional audio experience (with any type of headphone).