Haven't seen any discussions of this here yet, so I thought I'd start a thread on it.
Headphones don't sound like stereo, we all know that. Stereo soundstage happens in front of you, headphone soundstage happens inside the head. The reasons for this are complicated (google "head related transfer function"), and has to do with how the ear/brain uses direction cues to localize sounds and create a stereo illusion in front of us. As far as I know there has until now only been one really successful way of making headphones sound more like stereo - the Smyth realiser hardware. Problem: It's expensive, and almost impossible to buy (has it become vaporware?).
But I recently discovered that Genelec has now created an algorithm which promises to do the same. https://www.genelec.com/aural-id
One only needs to take a video of ones head and torso with a smartphone, upload the movie to Genelec, and they will then generate a personalized file/plugin which can be uploaded to different computer programs. This will then equalize and change the signal so that our brain thinks that the sound is coming from the front, not from inside the head. Cost is around 600 euro.
It seems to be geared towards the pro market for now, but I see no reason why this can't be used by audiophiles and music lovers as well... Any thoughts?
The only drawback for me personally is that I've gone back to CDs for my listening, so in that case I would need to find a smart way of using a raspberry PI for example as a digital interface between the CD player and the headphone amp, which seems somewhat complicated.
Headphones don't sound like stereo, we all know that. Stereo soundstage happens in front of you, headphone soundstage happens inside the head. The reasons for this are complicated (google "head related transfer function"), and has to do with how the ear/brain uses direction cues to localize sounds and create a stereo illusion in front of us. As far as I know there has until now only been one really successful way of making headphones sound more like stereo - the Smyth realiser hardware. Problem: It's expensive, and almost impossible to buy (has it become vaporware?).
But I recently discovered that Genelec has now created an algorithm which promises to do the same. https://www.genelec.com/aural-id
One only needs to take a video of ones head and torso with a smartphone, upload the movie to Genelec, and they will then generate a personalized file/plugin which can be uploaded to different computer programs. This will then equalize and change the signal so that our brain thinks that the sound is coming from the front, not from inside the head. Cost is around 600 euro.
It seems to be geared towards the pro market for now, but I see no reason why this can't be used by audiophiles and music lovers as well... Any thoughts?
The only drawback for me personally is that I've gone back to CDs for my listening, so in that case I would need to find a smart way of using a raspberry PI for example as a digital interface between the CD player and the headphone amp, which seems somewhat complicated.