[Quaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by troymadison /img/forum/go_quote.gif Soundstage is a k701

is that like "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet"

 

[Sieg9198]

I didnt really know what is soundstage before, until my hornet told me...

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaddy /img/forum/go_quote.gif is that like "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet"

Like other headphones don't have a soundstage.

One has a bigger one then others but it's there. Some wider, some deeper.

Soundstage is the 3 dimensional place left to right, foreground to background. So, how wide and deep you actually can hear (see) into the recording.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hancoque /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...I would assume that all the headphones with a "wide soundstage" do some kind of speaker simulation to create the effect. But what if I don't want such a built-in effect because I would use a DSP for this particular purpose? Would the SR325i be perfect then?

You are assuming soundstage is an effect like an EQ, but that isn't the case.

Soundstage is the capacity of a headphone to recreate the depth of sound in a 2D environment, but the headphone doesn't add the effect into what isn't there. Wide soundstage headphone doesn't position an instrument on a particular place in your imaginary 3D plane, you do. Since we listen to sound in 3D environment all the time, our brain will automatically try to position any stereo sound in to a imaginary plane which stimulate the illusion of being 'live'. What wide soundstage headphone does have is the sound characteristic of sounding from a distance further away from your ear (aka "the depth of sound"), which makes it easier for you to imagine. Narrow soundstage headphone doesn't have this type of sound characteristic. Their depth of sound is very shallow, therefore they sound like 'in-your-face'.

No matter how much EQ you throw in, you wont be able to change a headphone natural soundstage. You can't expend a headphone's soundstage to a capacity it doesn't have in the first place, nor could you EQ a wide soundstage 'phone to be 'in-your-face'. You might be able to slightly tune the headphone's soundstage, but you won't be able to turn a 'phone soundstage around by EQing.

 

[Hancoque]

I don't mean EQing. I mean HRTF and the like. There are DSP solutions that do this. The solutions vary from a simple crossfeed to complete room simulations like Dolby Headphone. I want to solely rely on these solutions and don't want to let the headphone do anything of the sort.

 

[kodreaming]

I didn't what was soundstage before..
But, when I tired to listen Carmina Burana with my A700... I know mine certainly has very limited soundstage..
It is like squeezing a full size Orchestra into your living room...

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hancoque /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't mean EQing. I mean HRTF and the like. There are DSP solutions that do this. The solutions vary from a simple crossfeed to complete room simulations like Dolby Headphone. I want to solely rely on these solutions and don't want to let the headphone do anything of the sort.

OK, but my last paragraph still stands true. I have tried crossfeed and SRS WOW on my MS-1, and I can tell you this: No matter what type of EQing you use, you can only make a MS-1 less 'in-your-face', but never wide soundstage or even normal soundstage. If a scale where 1 is no soundstage and 10 is wide soundstage, EQing can only turns MS-1 from a 1 to a 2 (or 3 at best).

Quote:

Originally Posted by kodreaming /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't what was soundstage before.. But, when I tired to listen Carmina Burana with my A700... I know mine certainly has very limited soundstage.. It is like squeezing a full size Orchestra into your living room...

You should try AD700, much better on SQ and soundstage.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif You are assuming soundstage is an effect like an EQ, but that isn't the case. Soundstage is the capacity of a headphone to recreate the depth of sound in a 2D environment, but the headphone doesn't add the effect into what isn't there. Wide soundstage headphone doesn't position an instrument on a particular place in your imaginary 3D plane, you do. Since we listen to sound in 3D environment all the time, our brain will automatically try to position any stereo sound in to a imaginary plane which stimulate the illusion of being 'live'. What wide soundstage headphone does have is the sound characteristic of sounding from a distance further away from your ear (aka "the depth of sound"), which makes it easier for you to imagine. Narrow soundstage headphone doesn't have this type of sound characteristic. Their depth of sound is very shallow, therefore they sound like 'in-your-face'. No matter how much EQ you throw in, you wont be able to change a headphone natural soundstage. You can't expend a headphone's soundstage to a capacity it doesn't have in the first place, nor could you EQ a wide soundstage 'phone to be 'in-your-face'. You might be able to slightly tune the headphone's soundstage, but you won't be able to turn a 'phone soundstage around by EQing.

EQ is solely for frequency responce. You can alter a certain range of frequencies to boost or to tame certain frequencies but it never, as said before can alter a soundstage. Why would you eq a headphone? It doesn't have any accoustic problems. If you want to use eq, i would go for another, better headphone.

 

[e_resolu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissembled /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sometimes there's a subtle bell, whistle, ring in a song.Confused, you look up to see if the ring came from the telephone across the room. That's soundstage.

I totally agree with you. The type of headphones that seems to have more soudstage seems to be the "open" type headphones (I sometimes have feel sound is coming from the oustside of the music with my KSC75 and not with my Crossroads X3)

 

[AS1]

Here's something spooky: with open headphones you not only hear the music that goes directly into your ears. You also hear the music around your head which is leaking from the cans.

This gives you a sense of wide soundstage.

 

[AS1]

Just started Pink Floyd's "Lost for words" without remembering what to look for. That was scary indeed!

 

[vixro]

I've had one or two experiences from music where I heard noises in the background and thought for sure that it had come from somewhere inside the next room or in my house.

Although, I never have been able to figure out if it was from the wide soundstage of my cans, or the fact that I'm slightly paranoid when I'm by myself with my cans on and I can't hear very much outside noise.

 

[tourmaline]

I understand, if you really want lifelike soundstage in a headphone you gotta use binaural sound.

for some test sounds:

http://www.binaural.com/bindemos.html

holy moly, that's what i call sounstage! I was all stereo cd's were recorded like that for headphones.

 

[MusicallySilent]

Yea I have experienced the turning to see where the sound is coming from on a first recording I listening to with my bad altec langsing headphones, I can't wait to experience better sound stage on my first pair of audiophile headphones which I am still deciding on

HOLY!!!!... The guy sounds like he is coming from infront of me... this is incredible!!!!... I can't imagine what this sounds like on a k701 or k1k

 

[NamelessPFG]

And here I thought the accepted definition of "soundstage" was the amount of separation between left and right (to the point of sounding outside of the head at the extremes), while "imaging" is what represented the sense of direction for each sound, like being able to tell that someone just fired a gunshot on the floor above you and to your front right about 10 feet away.
 
For some reason, I don't mind the presentation of stereo music generally mixed with loudspeakers in mind on headphones. Perhaps it's because I'm focused more on enjoying the sound than I am pinpointing exactly where everyone is; it's not as crucial for me when it comes to enjoying music, much unlike when I'm in the middle of a game and need to figure out where the enemy is so I can act accordingly. (Competitive aspect aside, it's also more immersive that way.)