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Headphone Listening with Acustica Audio's Sienna

OK1

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I thought it good to share, cos it has absolutely impressed me a whole lot.

Acustica Audio is a pioneer in a special kind of convolution based emulation of analog audio processing devices, such as microphone preamps, equalisers, compressors and reverbs. Been around for about a decade IIRC.

Not long ago they released a new product called Sienna, which now has a couple of different versions, including up to support for multi-channel Dolby Atmos kind of emulation, over headphones. Their solution also includes headphone correction for over 200 of the most used headphones. I use an AKG K702.

Unfortunately their marketing information is a bit convoluted, not as clear and as simple as it should be. So it is a bit difficult to figure out exactly how to get the products, and discern the difference between each edition of Sienna.

There is a free version - Sienna Free. All you need to do is create or use an existing account on Acustica Audio's web site, then download the Acustica Audio - Aquarius installer, which supports both Windows and Mac.

Aquarius, upon searching or clicking on the Purchased icon, displays all free Acustica products, which you are enabled to install, and this includes Sienna Free.

Sienna Free is an audio plugin, and depending on your computer - you can install various plugin formats - such as AU, VST2, VST3 and Avid AAX.

I'm using the VST2 64 bit version via Reaper (my DAW), and have routed all Windows audio to my DAW using a virtual audio driver (ASIOLink). You could use any other.

So all audio from my Windows apps, such as Spotify and Youtube are processed in my DAW, using Sienna Free, and my DAW (via the virtual audio driver ASIOLInk) sends the result through to my chosen output device - soundcard, or USB connected audio interface or other audio interface such as any connected via other methods - PCIe/Thunderbolt, etc...

Sienna Free includes two plugins - a basic one called Sienna Rooms, which applied predominantly default corrections for the chosen "professional studio emulations" and also corrects the frequency response of your chosen headphone.

The other plugin is an advanced user version of Sienna - called Sienna Guru, which provides many more controls, and options and warrants a thorough read of the manual and a review of available demos and training/introductory videos on Acustica Audio's Youtube channel.

Not being aware of the skill level and experience of whomever may be reading this, I though it best to outline all of the above in some detail, for anyone for whom all this may be new.

I had many years ago used Sonarworks, which is about one of the more popular - well advertised solutions claiming to do something similar. I have not used Sonarworks in recent times, so its a bit difficult to compare, furthermore Sonarworks is a paid product and I have not been convinced enough after I used the demo version many years ago, to take the plunge.

Using Sienna Free - and moreso the Sienna Guru component, over the last week or so, I have been able to tweak the default corrections for my chosen studio emulation, and applying the default correction for my AKG K702 Headphones, to arrive at a listening experience that I find really next level.

It's awkward to try to describe what I now hear in words but I will try.

Without Sienna, I hear everything close to my ear, with almost no spacial cues - well commercial music does have some reverb or was recorded in a real space so some of that does translate.

But with Sienna and my current tweaks, there are the following improvements.

1. I feel or hear such a much better accuracy of all instruments vocals, etc.
2. Space. The audio is coming at me from a few inches or a few feet away in virtual space - kind of as if my head or ears are a few inches or feet bigger.
3. Transients are ridiculously accurate - being able to discern the texture of instruments, frequencies, etc, is now like child's play.
4. The difference in tone of instruments, within a track, and between different pieces of music, is like immediately transparent.
5. The clarity has enabled me listen at lower volumes yet still hear everything so much clearer.

I have added some eq via a parametric eq, to shave off some of the highs, of the end result of Sienna. I don't think its Sienna's fault, some of the high frequencies of my AKG Headphones, were always a bit too much for my taste anyway.

It's something I could never have imagined existing, every record sounds like a live performance on a stage surrounding my ears, extending into a virtual room.

Using Sienna Room is a respectable improvement, and if this was the only option, I'd still be happy with it, cos it really does correct the frequencies on my headphones.

But using Guru, enables me to take this further, and create an end result, where, the stereo width and separation of the left and right from the center, is made to become even more prominent - Wider is the word, like the sound is coming from somewhere beyond the headphone cups surrounding my ears. Unfortunately Acustica is justifiably close lipped about exactly what is going on - in the box(in their DSP).

As I said earlier, I am pretty stoked about this. It is by far the best listening experience I have ever had, from an electronic device, and this includes speakers. Totally immersive, I'll end my observations by saying, I'm on the lookout for a pair of wireless headphones which use some form of lossless wireless communication between the headphones and my computer, so I can walk about the home untethered, and I dread going back to listening on speakers. Never heard anything so clear, that causes to revisit a bunch of my reference music tracks, and every listen is a revelation - discovering panning moves I never heard before. I'll repeat, with the tweaks, the clarity, to me is stunning.

Unfortunately this is Audio Science Review, and I have no way of proving, confirming or demonstrating, any of the aforementioned observations. No graphs or charts or measurements. I do have the plot of the changes to the frequency response, which I obtained using ddmf's plugin doctor, but these are meaningless, cos you cannot hear a plot.

Thankfully I urge you to try it yourself, and hope like me - you'll end up in almost disbelief - did I just get a new pair of headphones or a new pair of ears, or both.?

Do try and let me have your thoughts. I found something that touched me pretty significantly, and wish to share the experience with others.

PS.I am not affiliated to Acustica Audio, neither am I a fan boy - trust me, their plugins and marketing and delivery have some quirks, but Sienna is IMHO, on another level of audio geekery, and sonic excellence (my opinion of course and I have obviously not listened to every high end set of speakers or headphones, or correction system, out there in the wild).

About the primary and really thankful result of Sienna, in use, is that my impression of the audio frequencies I am listening to in a recording, correlate with any checks I make via a spectrum analyser, so much easier to judge the balance of frequencies in a recording, and compare them with other recordings, by ear, and find that the mental impressions I had correlate easily with whatever a spectrum analyzer, which I check after the fact, informs me.

Merry listening.
 
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Keith_W

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Hello OK1, I read your post with interest. I have spent the last week researching Acustica Sienna and I finally installed it. To say that the learning curve is deep is an understatement - I can't get it to work! My intention is to use JRiver to play my music, then pipe the music out via USB into my DAC/headphone amplifier.

First hurdle: I need a DAW. It took me a lot of reading to find out I need a DAW. So I decided on CakeWalk by BandLab, because it is (1) free, and (2) supports VST plugins, and (3) is supposedly the best free DAW available. I have added all the VST plugins created by Sienna but I am unable to get any of them to load. I will download Reaper (since you mentioned it) and see if I can get that to work.

Second hurdle: I need to reroute ASIO (presumably set it up so that JRiver acts as the input for the DAW?). I tried using ASIO Link software, but the creator of this software has passed away and it has not been updated. On my PC which runs Windows 11 (with all the latest updates), ASIO Link refuses to work. Do you know another way to reroute ASIO?

I would really like a Plug and Play solution, and I do not think Sienna is it. If it requires a DAW, that is a piece of software which adds multiple layers of complexity to what I want to do: which is listen to music! I don't want to take this off topic, but are you (or anyone else) aware of an alternative to Sienna?
 
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OK1

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Hello OK1, I read your post with interest. I have spent the last week researching Acustica Sienna and I finally installed it. To say that the learning curve is deep is an understatement - I can't get it to work! My intention is to use JRiver to play my music, then pipe the music out via USB into my DAC/headphone amplifier.

First hurdle: I need a DAW. It took me a lot of reading to find out I need a DAW. So I decided on CakeWalk by BandLab, because it is (1) free, and (2) supports VST plugins, and (3) is supposedly the best free DAW available. I have added all the VST plugins created by Sienna but I am unable to get any of them to load. I will download Reaper (since you mentioned it) and see if I can get that to work.

Second hurdle: I need to reroute ASIO (presumably set it up so that JRiver acts as the input for the DAW?). I tried using ASIO Link software, but the creator of this software has passed away and it has not been updated. On my PC which runs Windows 11 (with all the latest updates), ASIO Link refuses to work. Do you know another way to reroute ASIO?

I would really like a Plug and Play solution, and I do not think Sienna is it. If it requires a DAW, that is a piece of software which adds multiple layers of complexity to what I want to do: which is listen to music! I don't want to take this off topic, but are you (or anyone else) aware of an alternative to Sienna?
Hello Keith, this is a quick response so you know I have read your enquiry. Please give me a day or two, so I can provide a comprehensive response. Maybe earlier. but definitely no later than the end of this week.
 

Keith_W

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Thank you OK1. I have installed Canopener which works as a VST plugin in JRiver. For simplicity it can not be beaten IMO - download, install, and go to the JRiver plugin manager and enable it. It just works. No twiddling with ASIO drivers, DAW software, and so on.

However ... while I CAN hear that Canopener seems to make my headphones produce a more natural sounding soundstage, it does not seem to carry that effect far enough. They still sound like headphones and not like speakers. Also, Canopener lacks a number of features that Sienna has, for example individual headphone correction, emulation of multiple recording studios and speakers, and so on. So I still curious to try Sienna.

Awaiting your reply with keen anticipation.
 
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OK1

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Thank you OK1. I have installed Canopener which works as a VST plugin in JRiver. For simplicity it can not be beaten IMO - download, install, and go to the JRiver plugin manager and enable it. It just works. No twiddling with ASIO drivers, DAW software, and so on.

However ... while I CAN hear that Canopener seems to make my headphones produce a more natural sounding soundstage, it does not seem to carry that effect far enough. They still sound like headphones and not like speakers. Also, Canopener lacks a number of features that Sienna has, for example individual headphone correction, emulation of multiple recording studios and speakers, and so on. So I still curious to try Sienna.

Awaiting your reply with keen anticipation.

Part 1

Since I initiated this thread, regrettably things changed somewhat for me, and my preferred configuration was modified about two months ago, to one which I am unlikely to change for a while, which I will explain below.

1. FREQUENCY FLATTENING

So many of us are in the journey to optimise whatever listening environments we use, so that we can hear our audio, more "accurately". By this I mean, without excessive distracting frequency imbalances, which would subjectively or objectively "colour" what we listen to. This is the 1st target. I'll call target 1 - Flattening. some flattening approaches incorporate a tradition where there is a gentle boost in the bass, which some also call a HOUSE CURVE.

2. PERSONAL LISTENING CURVE

The second target, for some, is to then be able to add a personal preference, which they wish to apply to all audio on top of whatever tool has been used to achieve target 1. I'll call target 2 - Personal Listening Curve

3. HARMAN CURVE

One other kind of target comes to mind which I would call, an industry listening curve, such as the Harman headphone curve (of which there are a few variants)

4. HEADPHONE EMULATION CURVE

Finally there are headphone emulation curves, which aim to give you some of the listening experience of a specific headphone, even though you are listening on a completely different set of headphones.

5. SPEAKER EMULATION CURVE - attempt to apply the frequency response of a specific kind of real speaker, to the audio, to make it seem as if you are listening to a model of a real speaker.

6. SPATIAL ENHANCEMENT

The other aspect of headphone listening which some tools aim to achieve, is speaker simulation, to give an impression that the sound is coming from a point in space somewhere outside of the headphones. I'll call this Spatial Enhancement, and there are many extensions to this such as using a sensor attached to the headphone to rotate the sound as our head rotates, to give an impression of a set of speakers placed somewhere in the room, so that the sound changes, in the headphones, from one ear to another, as we turn our heads, e.g things get louder in one ear, and quieter in the other. etc, etc.

The underlying technique for Spatial Enhancement, is Ambisonics, and different ambisonic simulation algorithms, attempt to take a stereo signal and simulate the impression that the sound is coming from a speaker location, in front of us. Presenting the Ambisonic information on headphone through one of these algorithms, is also known as Binaural.

One of the key challenges of Ambisonics is that it relies on a transform known as the HRTF, the Head Rotating Transfer Function, which is a unique map of how a specific individual translates audio coming into their ears, to their auditory canal. In an ideal world, each person would go to an Anechoic Chamber and have their HRTF measured, so that this personal HRTF, can be applied to all their headphone based listening, to make audio sound like its coming from somewhere in the room, rather than from the sides of their head.

Unfortunately this is not the case for most people, we do not have our own personal HRTF captured, so the Ambisonic BInaural representation uses one or more options of generic HRTF's made using real human models, or dummy heads, and regrettably unless we have head shapes and Ear/Ear shapes that are similar, the realism of the emulation is poor. Almost like when 3D glasses were introduced in cinema's but some people just do not find it easy to experience the 3D simulation, it works for some and not so well for others. So the realism of Ambisonic Binaural audio is somewhat a hit and miss affair.

7. REVERBERATION - which is simulating the reflections from a room, by emulating the absorption and reflection properties of types of surfaces (e.g wood, stone, fabric, briick, etc), the size of the room, and the position of the speakers in a virtual room, so this is also added to the sound, to make it seem more realistic.

8. CROSSFEED - which attempts to overcome the extreme separation of audio to left and right in headphones, by mixing some of the audio from one ear to the other, typically based on a filter and possibly a time delay, to simulate how the head blocks audio from one speaker from reaching the ear on the opposite side of our head, and the slight delay in the arrival of sound to the opposite ear, due to the slightly greater distance between a speaker in real life, and the ear on the opposite side of our head.

To avoid this being too long, I'll continue in another post.
 
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OK1

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Thank you OK1. I have installed Canopener which works as a VST plugin in JRiver. For simplicity it can not be beaten IMO - download, install, and go to the JRiver plugin manager and enable it. It just works. No twiddling with ASIO drivers, DAW software, and so on.

However ... while I CAN hear that Canopener seems to make my headphones produce a more natural sounding soundstage, it does not seem to carry that effect far enough. They still sound like headphones and not like speakers. Also, Canopener lacks a number of features that Sienna has, for example individual headphone correction, emulation of multiple recording studios and speakers, and so on. So I still curious to try Sienna.

Awaiting your reply with keen anticipation.
Part 2

Different freeware and commercial products attempt to cover one or more of these simulation opportunities, of course in varying degrees of success, and any evaluation by listeners will end up being subjective, cos there is no way to really know what the other person is hearing.

Sometimes, it may be expedient to use more than one tool, in a chain, with each tool focussing on a specific aspect of the emulations., i.e a chain of plugins typically.

Of course all of this will be significantly impacted by the headphone we use. Some tools provide support for specific headphones, on the basis that, the aural behaviour such as frequency response of the unaltered audio via those headphones, has been measured. Measuring the response of a headphone itself is a science and an art, so some have this headphone awareness opportunity implemented well, others not so, depending on the skill of the software manufacturer.

A pattern emerges, not just in audio technology, but in pretty much any human endeavor. Is this the primary focus of the software provider? What expertise do they have in-house, or is this a case of - oh this is now popular, and something we can make money from, so they hire in experts for a while, simply to get into this new market, and take away some market share, as there will always be the gullible few, from whom they can make a buck or two, no matter how terrible their product is. And especially as software sales, in our world, are final, once it is sold, it is sold. Job done. Pretty much no refunds, predominantly. Somewhat of a captive market.

The hit and miss nature of binaural HRTF based rendering, further clouds the vast majority of products out there which use this technique. There is also divergence in the options for rendering the ambisonically placed stereo speakers. The academic world from which these algorithms emanate, does not have one approach. Therefore in comparing products, across all the various aspects, its really difficult.. The other issue is that there are many parameters in each product, such as the angle between the virtual speakers, which may not correspond ie a spacing of 60 degrees in one product, may not sound exactly like 60 degrees set in another product.

For example if I compare the Waves NX and the Acustica Sienna, they are like chalk and cheese. Not much similarity in the final result and you wonder which of these is more correct, especially when there are so many parameters that may be tweaked in each product.

My intention was to use these products for mixing audio, to arrive at a predictable, well controlled result that is exactly the same every time I put on headphones, anywhere, compared to the variability of listening to audio on speakers in different locations, e.g as I move from one home to another, or to another room. Consistency was the objective.

I think that the products that attempt to do so many things, never really do any one of them well, And I've demoed about 6 or 7 products/approaches. Some I'd have to go back to look at to remember the product names, cos its been a while.

I no longer use Sienna, cos it became obvious to me that the end result was a rather skewed one, from the perspective of the product developers, and not one I agree with. Nice to listen to, but a bit off.

Rather than aim to do too many things, I've settled on two -ToneBoosters Morphit for Headphone frequency correction. and a freeware plugin Meier Crossfeed (by Case) - the 64 bit version, which is the 3rd link below. I place the crossfeed plugin before Morphit.

My headphones are AKG K702's, and Morphit supports these. I use the emulation of the Sennheiser HD 650's, with some minor custom eq, applied within Morphit, to taste.

This does not give me the "out in the room" virtual representation of a speaker, but it also does not add tons of accumulated "errors" from attempts to simulate room ambience, or a specific pair of speakers. The Crossfeed Strength parameter can be set to taste. I have mine set to 34.

All of these operating in my DAW - Reaper.

As I could imagine it would be possible to use this arrangement in JRiver, which supports VST plugins



 
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OK1

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Thank you OK1. I have installed Canopener which works as a VST plugin in JRiver. For simplicity it can not be beaten IMO - download, install, and go to the JRiver plugin manager and enable it. It just works. No twiddling with ASIO drivers, DAW software, and so on.

However ... while I CAN hear that Canopener seems to make my headphones produce a more natural sounding soundstage, it does not seem to carry that effect far enough. They still sound like headphones and not like speakers. Also, Canopener lacks a number of features that Sienna has, for example individual headphone correction, emulation of multiple recording studios and speakers, and so on. So I still curious to try Sienna.

Awaiting your reply with keen anticipation.
PART 3

So in your current setup, you are using Canopener as the plugin which provides the crossfeed feature.

I would suggest you try Morphit and Canopener together, it should not matter the order in which you place them, but that should not be a difficult thing to change and compare.

Or try Morphit and Meier Crossfeed, as I have done. And vary the Crossfeed strength to taste.

Please share your opinions.
 

Keith_W

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I am not qualified to have opinions, only questions.

To my simple mind, JRiver already has a parametric EQ that can perform frequency corrections. The only caveat is that I do not have the capability to measure my own HRTF and the FR of my headphones, so I am stuck with subjectively fiddling with the parametric EQ to my preference. This actually works quite well, I am satisfied with the FR of my headphones - it sounds correct to me, there are no annoying frequencies, no sibilance, "enough" bass, and so on. It may or may not conform to the Harman curve or any other curve apart from my own subjective preference, but in the end that's all that matters to me. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have a curve that takes into account my personal HRTF as well as corrects the FR of my headphones, but for now this will do. So: I just checked and Morphit does include a correction for the headphones I use. Is there any advantage in using it over the JRiver built-in Parametric EQ?

As for crossfeed: JRiver already has built-in crossfeed. This function is replicated by Canopener. Maybe my hearing isn't sophisticated enough, but both of them sound the same to me (if I turn off all the settings in Canopener and use crossfeed only). Is there a good reason to use Meier Crossfeed over Canopener?

Also: do any of the products you mentioned (apart from Acustica Sienna) have the capability to simulate room reverb without it sounding artificial?

I think there are a few more barriers for headphone listening that prevent it from sounding like a live performance, which my speaker setup is sometimes able to do. I have yet to try a product that makes the headphones produce a natural sounding soundstage, although the Smyth Realizer sounds like an intriguing product with its head tracking. I have heard of Ambisonics, but I am not aware of a VST plugin for JRiver.

The other barrier of course is physicality. My speaker system is capable of not only vibrating the air in my lungs, but also the whole house. In a way, it is hyper-realistic, with some recordings, it is actually better than a live performance. My speaker system is already heavily DSP'ed, and I do have the capability to measure almost anything with the speakers, so it is as close to perfect within the limitations of my self-taught audio knowledge. Short of strapping a subwoofer to my chest, I do not see any way my headphones can emulate that.

By the way: I have 59 days left before my trial version of Reaper expires. Is there any reason for me to keep it (i.e. are there any VST plugins that require a DAW) or should I uninstall it. Note that JRiver is unable to run the Sienna VST3 plugin for some reason.
 
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OK1

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I am not qualified to have opinions, only questions.

To my simple mind, JRiver already has a parametric EQ that can perform frequency corrections. The only caveat is that I do not have the capability to measure my own HRTF and the FR of my headphones, so I am stuck with subjectively fiddling with the parametric EQ to my preference. This actually works quite well, I am satisfied with the FR of my headphones - it sounds correct to me, there are no annoying frequencies, no sibilance, "enough" bass, and so on. It may or may not conform to the Harman curve or any other curve apart from my own subjective preference, but in the end that's all that matters to me. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have a curve that takes into account my personal HRTF as well as corrects the FR of my headphones, but for now this will do. So: I just checked and Morphit does include a correction for the headphones I use. Is there any advantage in using it over the JRiver built-in Parametric EQ?

Morphit "knows" the original frequency response of the headphones in its supported list, and yours is one. Excellent.

There are three kinds of correction in Morphit.


1. Correct, which is the default (after you have selected your headphone model) :

1660756861886.png




2. Simulate :

Here you can choose Generic curves or emulate some other headphone models.

If you choose the Generic Studio Target curve, in the Simulate, its the same curve used in the Correct

1660756951542.png



3. Customize :

Which gives you, in addition to the Target curve of Simulate, the ability to modify further using 4 parametric EQ's, to adjust to your personal taste.

1660757294589.png



Clearly each headphone correction software maker would use their own choice of :

1. Exactly which headphones they support, and their own method of measuring a good number of such headphone examples to arrive at an average curve for each model.
2. Decide on what their target correction curve is, to deliver their default correction.

So for these two reasons, we can expect that the default correction in JRiver and Morphit, will not be exactly the same or sound the same. The choice of which to choose, will be subjective as there is no way to objectively tell which one is the more accurate.

The one think I can say is - while not having tested JRiver's correction, myself, so cannot compare, I once had a look at the academic background of the developer of Morphit. I am a bit more convinced that he knows his onions, He has also been a noted audio plugin developer, for quite a while. The developer of Morphit, is not just a plugin developer, but a subject matter expert, who started out in a degree in Biomedical Engineering and went on to specialise in the Acoustic aspects. So Morphit is, in my opinion, a boutique, labor of love project.

The option to choose from a large number of emulated curves, where your headphone is corrected to sound like another, I found educational, and this really helped me nail the emulation that I thought sounded best. In Morphit's list of emulated headphone curves, it includes a few Harman ones, and every major headphone that one may want to "try out". This would be one advantage of Morphit.

On top of this you get a 4 band set of parametric EQ's similar to what you may find in JRIver, to adjust even further, to personal taste.

As for crossfeed: JRiver already has built-in crossfeed. This function is replicated by Canopener. Maybe my hearing isn't sophisticated enough, but both of them sound the same to me (if I turn off all the settings in Canopener and use crossfeed only). Is there a good reason to use Meier Crossfeed over Canopener?

Also: do any of the products you mentioned (apart from Acustica Sienna) have the capability to simulate room reverb without it sounding artificial?

I think there are a few more barriers for headphone listening that prevent it from sounding like a live performance, which my speaker setup is sometimes able to do. I have yet to try a product that makes the headphones produce a natural sounding soundstage, although the Smyth Realizer sounds like an intriguing product with its head tracking. I have heard of Ambisonics, but I am not aware of a VST plugin for JRiver.

The other barrier of course is physicality. My speaker system is capable of not only vibrating the air in my lungs, but also the whole house. In a way, it is hyper-realistic, with some recordings, it is actually better than a live performance. My speaker system is already heavily DSP'ed, and I do have the capability to measure almost anything with the speakers, so it is as close to perfect within the limitations of my self-taught audio knowledge. Short of strapping a subwoofer to my chest, I do not see any way my headphones can emulate that.

By the way: I have 59 days left before my trial version of Reaper expires. Is there any reason for me to keep it (i.e. are there any VST plugins that require a DAW) or should I uninstall it. Note that JRiver is unable to run the Sienna VST3 plugin for some reason.

In the same way that a recording of an acoustic jazz band will never sound like the same band playing in the room, due to unavoidable inaccuracies in the microphones, recording chain, and playback speaker system, the reverb emulations can only be approximate. Therefore I avoid using reverb emulations in binaural listening.
 

Keith_W

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Sorry, I had a typo in my post that you replied to. Morphit does NOT include a correction for my headphone. However, Amir and some other reviewers have measured it and I do know the FR of the headphone as far as Amir is concerned. It is a Dan Clark Audio Stealth.
 
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OK1

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Sorry, I had a typo in my post that you replied to. Morphit does NOT include a correction for my headphone. However, Amir and some other reviewers have measured it and I do know the FR of the headphone as far as Amir is concerned. It is a Dan Clark Audio Stealth.
What I would suggest, is - tweak frequency response to taste, using the knowledge of the FR, from Amir, as well as your own listening preferences.

In addition, I definitely have found using a crossfeed plugin to counter the extreme left right separation, that headphones introduce to our listening, of audio which was aimed for listening on a stereo set of speakers (which is pretty much most of what we listen to). Now that I have experienced using a good crossfeed plugin, its impossible for me, going forward, to listen on headphones, without crossfeed.

JRiver from my search, has an in-built crossfeed. Details at link below. So it appears JRiver may be all you need.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Headphones

You asked earlier about Reaper. If you are not producing music, it may be far more than you need, if JRiver can fulfil your need for custom EQ, and crossfeed, from it own native in-built tools, without having to use any external VST plugins.

Please note that the demo for Reaper which ends legally after 60 days, will continue to function thereafter with absolutely no limitations, with only a nag screen that enforces a few seconds of wait, when the application starts up. After a few years of using it in demo mode, my conscience reached a threshold, and I paid up. From my estimates, of Reaper upgrades over the most recent 10 years, the $60 license which is valid for two main versions of Reaper, should be sufficient for about 5 years of use, if you wish to keep your version current. For those using Reaper who do not need new functionality, one my view the $60 license as an almost perpetual one, cos Reaper has been pretty stable for a very long time, and for many users, any new functionality will be surplus to their needs.
 
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