• Welcome to The Audio Annex! If you have any trouble logging in or signing up, please contact 'admin - at - theaudioannex.com'. Enjoy!
  • HTTPS (secure web browser connection) has been enabled - just add "https://" to the start of the URL in your address bar, e.g. "https://theaudioannex.com/forum/"
  • Congratulations! If you're seeing this notice, it means you're connected to the new server. Go ahead and post as usual, enjoy!
  • I've just upgraded the forum software to Xenforo 2.0. Please let me know if you have any problems with it. I'm still working on installing styles... coming soon.

IEM soundstage and imaging ever a question?

Ditto. The only thing I've done to any of my systems in the past couple of years is a new pair of tubes for my headphone amp. I do occasionally run through the calibration procedure in the HT just to make sure things are still performing well, but that takes ~15 minutes.
 
All of this talk is about helping people find ways to prioritize the most influential things they can do to get a better audio experience, if they believe audio performance is worth making an effort to improve. I came online specifically to present top down priorities for good audio performance for people to choose from. When I started this endeavor, it was common for people to split their speaker budgets between speakers and cables. That was what they were being told to do online and by the salesmen at the audio store.

Once we have exhausted our options, then we can stop and just enjoy.
 
True to the above about enjoying the music. I will agree for the most part with Flint on the image. Headphones can leavy the image as positions between the ears unless they have been using some processing.
We use the acoustics of the room and treatments to help the speakers to make the imaging not room controlled. Removing the room acoustics for the speakers gives a different picture in the mind.

Headphones have not given the image of something from above, or from behind very well. Compare the to 5.1 or 7.1 for rear ?
 
malsackj said:
Headphones have not given the image of something from above, or from behind very well. Compare the to 5.1 or 7.1 for rear ?
Click to expand...

In fact, modern virtual reality technology making that possible. The trick is to make a DSP with position sensors on the headphones which will tell the DSP exactly how the head is positioned so the processor can adjust the placement of all the sound. It is possible, but currently quite costly and in some instances poorly executed.

Our brains process placement as often as 20,000 times a second. A good system will adjust the DSP at least that often.

It can be done, but it requires some serious work.

In ten years these algorithms and sensors will be pretty commonplace and we will be telling the newcomers to the hobby about the old days when we didn't have convincing 3D VR audio.
 
Flint said:
Our brains process placement as often as 20,000 times a second. A good system will adjust the DSP at least that often.
Click to expand...
And I suspect that less than a "good" system could mess with the vestibular system causing effects like nausea, vertigo, and a desire to drive a spike through your ear canal - depending on the music, of course. :)

When there's a disconnect between the perception of one of our senses, and another, like seeing and hearing, it can really confuse the old noggin.

Simple example: you are sitting absolutely still (and your sense of "touch" tells you so) but on the big screen ahead you are on a roller coaster ride ("sight'). Your stomach does backflips as a result.

Likewise, depending on the frequency / phasing, I imagine that a disconnect between the positioning of your head (and therefore where you expect to perceive a sound coming from) and the auditory cues presented to your ears could trick the brain into an unwanted reaction. At the mild end it could mean listening fatigue (as the brain continually struggles to process / catch up).

Just some random thoughts.

Jeff
 
You are correct. It needs to be realistic. For example, if the DSP can create the perception of 5, 7, 9, 11, or even 39 speakers placed through out the room, anchored consistently at all times, it should be fine. However, if you are sitting perfect still and the system moves the speakers around for no apparent reason, you will likely have a negative reaction.

I saw a demo in a lab where they placed speakers in the room because some of the test listeners were bothered that they could not see the speakers the VR system was presenting over the headphones.
 
Our brains process placement as often as 20,000 times a second. A good system will adjust the DSP at least that often.
Click to expand...

As often as once per cycle at the highest freq young people can even hear? That's hard to, er, wrap my head around.
 
Indeed, it is... tests have shown tiny variations in arrival time help us locate sound.
 
Botch said:
As often as once per cycle at the highest freq young people can even hear? That's hard to, er, wrap my head around.
Click to expand...

My first response didn't explain anything...

Simply put, the same physics odd hearing which makes a quarter-wave the threshold for perceiving location, as we talk about with subwoofers, a quarter-wave of a 5kHz sound will hit your ear 20,000 times a second. While our ability to place sound sources is strongest in the 2-3kHz range, it is still effective at 5khz. Above 5 kHz we struggle to place sound sources.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top