[bosiemoncrieff]

Sonarworks is great for pop music, but I find for something like Bernstein's Liebestod, the airiness of the stock HD800 is just as appealing. The flavorers and the holy grail-ers have been arguing forever but if you listen to classical music and some other genre, classical music is going to tolerate, and likely demand, a brighter can every day of the week.
 
For the symphonic comparison, I'm thinking something along these lines
 
- Haydn - one of the London symphonies
- Mozart - Symphony 40, first mov't
- Beethoven - Symphony nos. 5, 6, 7 with Furtwangler, Harnoncourt (or Gardiner, or Jacobs), and perhaps Thielemann or some other non-period-instrument maestro
- Schubert 8 (first mov't) and 9 (finale)
- Schumann 3 or 4
- Brahms - first piano concerto (Gilels) and Symphony No. 3 (Karajan)
- Bruckner 9
- Mahler 5
 
For choral
- Vivaldi's Gloria
- some excerpt from the Mass in B Minor
- ditto Mozart's requiem
- Missa Solemnis
- Verdi's requiem

 

[fjrabon]

  Sonarworks is great for pop music, but I find for something like Bernstein's Liebestod, the airiness of the stock HD800 is just as appealing. The flavorers and the holy grail-ers have been arguing forever but if you listen to classical music and some other genre, classical music is going to tolerate, and likely demand, a brighter can every day of the week.
 

not arguing about sonarworks, but specifically classical demanding "bright" headphones.  To me, a bright headphone with classical is a complete no-go.  It loses the body of the lower timbre instruments, and for me it can make violins especially unbearable in their higher registers.  To me, classical demands a balanced can.  Now, classical has been amazing since I added the subpac in, because it allows a full experience of the low end, without needing it to be 100% carried by the headphone, which is then free to "roll off" the bass a bit.  About the only music I can bear a bright headphone is organ music, but even then I prefer a flat headphone to get the body of the lower register of the organ.  Again, YMMV, etc.  Just stating how I feel about headphone demands of classical.  To me, the only thing classical demands that other music doesn't is better separation and imaging accuracy.  SOme classical music doesn't need anything below 100Hz, because most classical music just doesn't contain those frequencies.  But when those frequencies are called upon in classical music, they tend to be very important and need to have the proper power to give the composer's intended effect. (think also sprach zarathustra, without proper power in the bass in that prelude, the piece loses ALL impact and emotion).
 
But then again, I think I'm just different in this regard.  I tend to prefer a single frequency response for all my music, rather than different frequency responses for different genres.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Why does SW make random popping sounds (esp when it gets loud)? It's really annoying. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[FLTWS]

... For the symphonic comparison, I'm thinking something along these lines
 
- Haydn - one of the London symphonies
- Mozart - Symphony 40, first mov't
- Beethoven - Symphony nos. 5, 6, 7 with Furtwangler, Harnoncourt (or Gardiner, or Jacobs), and perhaps Thielemann or some other non-period-instrument maestro
- Schubert 8 (first mov't) and 9 (finale)
- Schumann 3 or 4
- Brahms - first piano concerto (Gilels) and Symphony No. 3 (Karajan)
- Bruckner 9
- Mahler 5
 
For choral
- Vivaldi's Gloria
- some excerpt from the Mass in B Minor
- ditto Mozart's requiem
- Missa Solemnis
- Verdi's requiem

 
It's all good.

 

[FLTWS]

  Why does SW make random popping sounds (esp when it gets loud)? It's really annoying. Am I doing something wrong?

 
Is it the SW or is the headphone possibly being over driven on loud dynamic sections? 

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

It's perfectly fine when I send it straight to the Bifrost. this only happens—sometimes—going though sonar works (and Pedalboard, by extension). it's intermittent but truly execrable.  

 

[Zoom25]

 
That's the one. Fantastic application.

Thanks. This is how I have it setup. Anything I should know or to tweak?
 
 
 

 

[fjrabon]

  Why does SW make random popping sounds (esp when it gets loud)? It's really annoying. Am I doing something wrong?

usually this means it needs more buffer allocated to it or its host program, or your processor is hitting a wall.  

 

[fjrabon]

 
Thanks. This is how I have it setup. Anything I should know or to tweak?
 
 
 

There's nothing else you need, per se.  However, at this point it is up to you and how intense you want to go with it.  Here's one of my more extreme setups:


This has sonarworks, mid-side (which allows you to widen the soundstage and deepen the sides), CanOpener (advanced crossfeed), an out for my subpac that does away with the sonarworks adjustment in the bass by inverting the EQ sonarworks uses down there (the path that ends with the Schiit Fulla), then for the main HD800 line it does all of that minus the 10 band EQ, but with individual L/R EQ adjustments for my inner ear canal resonances (my ears have a resonance at 3.7kHz, and it's stronger in my right ear, thus the individual side adjustments), then finally a recorder at the end, so I can record to mp3 and have sonarworks and canopener adjusted tracks to use for portable.  But don't worry, it doesn't need all that, and I actually pretty rarely use this complicated of a setup.  This is mostly for when my ears are a bit fatigued and I"m finding 3.7kHz particularly grating.  Otherwise I tend to use this:
 


This is by far my go to setup.  It has a bit extra fidelity vs the other setup since it doesn't have an extra round of EQ after the primary DSP chain.  However, the other setup can be easier to listen to when my ears are fatigued.  That's one of the great features of AudioHijack is that it allows you to create as many different custom profiles as you want.  You can create profiles for different setups, different headphones, and even different genres or different listening moods.  

 

[johnjen]

   
Not fully. I've been using the mixed filter so far and trying to listen for extended period of time at same settings to get more used to it. I'm not worrying about the bass extension for now. However, I will note that when I run Audirvana Plus straight without any audio units or any signal alternation, it still doesn't get there like the BDP-1. The Bryston really brings in that last bit because of how tight and clean the sound is across the range.
 
I think next I'll look for system wide implementation on Mac, especially for use with video and thus minimal latency. What's the go to solution here that can maintain sound quality? I keep hearing Audio Hijack from time to time?

I use Jriver Media Center with its DSP stack for my 800's with my music collection.
I also have Audio Hijack that I use for other audio setups (browser, and speech based audio inputs, etc.).
 
One aspect to pay attention to in the Ref3 plugin are the clipping indicators, both input and output.
If either of them show red instead of green the SQ will suffer until the source of the clipping is dealt with.
And I found the linear filter phase type sounded best for me and my setup.
And since I only playback music and have no concern about latency, that was the 'best' choice for me.
 
JJ

 

[Zoom25]

 
There's nothing else you need, per se.  However, at this point it is up to you and how intense you want to go with it.  Here's one of my more extreme setups:


This has sonarworks, mid-side (which allows you to widen the soundstage and deepen the sides), CanOpener (advanced crossfeed), an out for my subpac that does away with the sonarworks adjustment in the bass by inverting the EQ sonarworks uses down there (the path that ends with the Schiit Fulla), then for the main HD800 line it does all of that minus the 10 band EQ, but with individual L/R EQ adjustments for my inner ear canal resonances (my ears have a resonance at 3.7kHz, and it's stronger in my right ear, thus the individual side adjustments), then finally a recorder at the end, so I can record to mp3 and have sonarworks and canopener adjusted tracks to use for portable.  But don't worry, it doesn't need all that, and I actually pretty rarely use this complicated of a setup.  This is mostly for when my ears are a bit fatigued and I"m finding 3.7kHz particularly grating.  Otherwise I tend to use this:
 


This is by far my go to setup.  It has a bit extra fidelity vs the other setup since it doesn't have an extra round of EQ after the primary DSP chain.  However, the other setup can be easier to listen to when my ears are fatigued.  That's one of the great features of AudioHijack is that it allows you to create as many different custom profiles as you want.  You can create profiles for different setups, different headphones, and even different genres or different listening moods.  

 
Thanks. I'll revisit this if I need more. Right now just trying to put mileage on standard settings.

 

[fjrabon]

   
Thanks. I'll revisit this if I need more. Right now just trying to put mileage on standard settings.

the only other thing you'd want to do is make sure under preferences of audiohijack you have "more reliable" checked.  this will reduce instances of "popping" that some people experience.

 

[Zoom25]

 
the only other thing you'd want to do is make sure under preferences of audiohijack you have "more reliable" checked.  this will reduce instances of "popping" that some people experience.

Thanks.

 

[Zoom25]

  I use Jriver Media Center with its DSP stack for my 800's with my music collection.
I also have Audio Hijack that I use for other audio setups (browser, and speech based audio inputs, etc.).
 
One aspect to pay attention to in the Ref3 plugin are the clipping indicators, both input and output.
If either of them show red instead of green the SQ will suffer until the source of the clipping is dealt with.
And I found the linear filter phase type sounded best for me and my setup.
And since I only playback music and have no concern about latency, that was the 'best' choice for me.
 
JJ

 
Yeah, I take active care of those. No problems yet.
 
I can hear the benefits and disadvantages of both as far as sound quality goes (completely ignoring latency issues). I'll be doing more extended testing, but the pre-ringing effects are quite obvious to me. The lack of punch is very noticeable. Glad it's working out for you though!

 

[mrmarano]

  Sonarworks is great for pop music, but I find for something like Bernstein's Liebestod, the airiness of the stock HD800 is just as appealing. The flavorers and the holy grail-ers have been arguing forever but if you listen to classical music and some other genre, classical music is going to tolerate, and likely demand, a brighter can every day of the week.
 
[...]
 
For choral
- Vivaldi's Gloria
- some excerpt from the Mass in B Minor
- ditto Mozart's requiem
- Missa Solemnis
- Verdi's requiem

 
Humbly suggest adding Sergei Rachmaninov's Vespers (All Night Vigil), particularly the Vladislav Chernushenko version (1992; haven't heard 1986). Certain of the Russian choruses include octavists - or male vocalists capable of at least a full octave below basso/basso profundo - heard primarily in parts 2 and 5. The 1965 Alexander Sveshnikov version is still considered the Ur Text of this piece, but the recording does show its age (if you can find a good copy). Either performance is ear-opening.