[runswithaliens]

I've been using Media Jukebox for some time due to some of it's nice playlist features, but couldn't find a crossfeed filter for it. But I did find that Winamp has two available (just do a search on "headphones" on their plug-in page).

Using the HeadPlug MKII (SR1) crossfeed plug-in has really improved headphone music listening for me. It seems to do a fine job of eliminating that irritation caused by recordings that have parts of the music panned out to 100% left or right. The effect is very subtle at the default settings but a definite improvement. I haven't noticed any degradation of music quality either.

What really surprises me though is how it cleans up some aspects of the sound-stage as well. The bass in particular seems tighter and more focused on many recordings.

I know there are other crossfeed options out there as well; whether software or hardware, but this is the only one I have tried.

 

[leeperry]

yes, I couldn't listen to headphones w/o crossfeed anymore. it just fools the brain spot-on

there's many lousy plugins, though...that simply mono-ize your music

 

[Bojamijams]

Isn't their purpose to in essence, de-mono-ize

 

[Shike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams /img/forum/go_quote.gif Isn't their purpose to in essence, de-mono-ize

Which is why leeperry was referring to ones that "mono-ize" music as "lousy".

Crossfeed does add soundstage, but it still sounds like you have speakers directly right and left of you. I took the extra step and went with HW based Dolby headphone. Now it sounds like music is coming from the front of the room

Of course you're bound to find some purists that absolutely hate any processing. Just a word of warning.

 

[runswithaliens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams /img/forum/go_quote.gif Isn't their purpose to in essence, de-mono-ize

I think this explains it pretty well:

"Many commercial mixes can sound rather weird over headphones. When listening to loudspeakers, your right ear receives sounds from the left channel as well as the right, but slightly later and at a slightly reduced level. This is due to the 'shadowing' effect of the head, and in particular the external parts of the ears, which act like complex direction-dependent tone controls. You also hear additional reflections from walls, ceilings and floors. This all sounds perfectly natural, because that's how we experience every sound around us.

On headphones, you hear only the left channel in your left ear and the right in your right ear. Any hard-panned sounds will be heard through one ear, which sounds very unnatural. In fact, it can cause headaches and induce nausea over prolonged periods. When sounds panned to the middle are played through loudspeakers they are heard 'in front', but the same sounds on headphones appear to be emanating from inside your head. You can get used to the skewed spatial response, and you can even enjoy its intimacy, but the one-ear phenomenon remains unpleasant for some.

Some headphone amps, accessories and plug-ins (see the box on page 82 for examples of the latter) provide optional 'crossfeed' that mixes a little of the left-hand channel into the right and vice versa, to mimic the natural behaviour of our ears. This technique is sometimes known as acoustic simulation. Since our heads and ears absorb and reflect sounds at higher frequencies, the crossfeed signals are generally rolled off by a few dBs above about 2kHz. Crossfeed can make hard-panned sounds appear to come from similar points in space as they would on a pair of frontal loudspeakers, and I recommend it for listening to albums that otherwise seem 'unlistenable' on headphones. This includes lots of stereo albums released before high-quality headphones were popular, such as Beatles and early Pink Floyd LPs, and many releases from the '60s and '70s."

- from Sound on Sound magazine: Mixing on headphones.

 

[leeperry]

yep! 15% crossfeed w/ 1ms delay feels like paradise to my brain