Crosstalk Cancellation (XTC) and Colouration

[STC]

Here is a RACE based XTC audio sample. The recording is made with binaural microphones (DPA 4560) worn by myself at the listening chair. The head is deliberately moved up and down and side ways.

The track is Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner.

The track was played continuously and every 15 seconds (+/- 5), it was changed from stereo, XTC without EQ and XTC with EQ ( not necessarily in that order).

Can you tell which one sounds coloured to your ears?

Please note, this sound was captured with binaural headphones and therefore it is meant to be listened with headphones. The tonal characteristics will be very much different because you are listening to my pinna frequency shaping. The objective here is to hear the difference in the 3 segments and do you hear the so called extreme colouration that BACCH claimed to be associated with non BACCH XTC.

OneDrive

1drv.ms

 

[Geert]

Extreme colouration certainly not, actually rather subtle with this recording and without the original to compare to.

Spoiler: My observations, which will bias everyone who reads them without listening first

What I notice is a bit more presence at around 00:13, and decreased presence at around 00:30 increasing again at 00:36. But the difference is so small I would like to check with longer fragments, and to compare to the original or a recording without XTC/EQ/head movement to be sure of what I'm hearing. Without the original it's impossible to determine what sounds coloured.

 

[STC]

Thank you @Geert. Your observation is valuable to me.

Tom’s Diner is plain centre vocal. XTC not supposed to be much difference except for slight imaging difference but it serves as a great reference for colouration. I would have used pink noise to demonstrate this but such test will definitely sound slightly different. What matters to the ears is whether XTC colouration is audible or detrimental.

You can also try this for longer version. Please use headphones but it doesn’t matter as binaural recordings will sound weird for most due to the fact your are listening to someone’s pinna.

This is AmbiophonicsDSP.

Does Ambiophonics DSP degrade the sound quality?

 

[Geert]

Tom’s Diner is plain centre vocal. XTC not supposed to be much difference except for slight imaging difference

No imaging differences to be expected in a mono track of course, but XTC will impact the frequency response since it affects the comb filter effect that results from interaural crosstalk.

 

[Geert]

You can also try this for longer version. Please use headphones but it doesn’t matter as binaural recordings will sound weird for most due to the fact your are listening to someone’s pinna.

Here the differences are more outspoken, including audible phase effects, but it's indeed to hard to listen to on a Sunday morning