How do you hear headphone 'soundstage'

[Oldson]

for me, when listening to music its totally in my head and left to right.
i dont seem to be able to perceive soundstage depth or height that others speak of.
i can with the "virtual haircut" though.

which part of the chain has biggest influence on soundstage?
i would guess
1) headphones
2)source (equipment not material)
3)amp, though i aint sure this affects it at all

 

[Timcognito]

for me, when listening to music its totally in my head and left to right.
i dont seem to be able to perceive soundstage depth or height that others speak of.
i can with the "virtual haircut" though.

which part of the chain has biggest influence on soundstage?
i would guess
1) headphones
2)source
3)amp, though i aint sure this affects it at all

If by source you mean recording then #2 is the most important by far.

Binaural recording - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Oldson]

i actually meant dac/cd etc. sorry i should have been clearer


edited now

 

[Timcognito]

i actually meant dac/cd etc. sorry i should have been clearer

Depth is arguably very difficult to perceive, if at all. You are among many that can not hear it. Tests have shown that. The binaual guys still try to get on the recordings thou.

 

[frogmeat69]

Uhh, with my ears??

 

[DualTriode]

for me, when listening to music its totally in my head and left to right.
i dont seem to be able to perceive soundstage depth or height that others speak of.
i can with the "virtual haircut" though.

which part of the chain has biggest influence on soundstage?
i would guess
1) headphones
2)source (equipment not material)
3)amp, though i aint sure this affects it at all

An honest person.

 

[kemmler3D]

I wanted to update my answer to this after a long time...

For me it's normally a hard L||____|C|____||R inside my head. There isn't much spread between center and left or right.

Since then I started using crossfeed, and it gives more of a continuous 2D image slightly in front of my head.

So it's more like this: L|_|_|_|_|C|_|_|_|_|R ... if that makes any sense. It doesn't fully spatialize stuff but I think it smooths / spreads out the image perceptually. I think the tradeoff is a very tiny penalty to tonality and sharpness of transients.

I was a skeptic for many years, but it's well worth trying if you have a setup that can do it.

 

[InfiniteJester]

An honest person.

Am I dishonest if I say that I experience soundstage in 3D?

 

[solderdude]

Only when you are lying about it

 

[InfiniteJester]

Only when you are lying about it

I insist in that I believe that it is a cognitive ability and that you can develop it.

This is a drawing from imagination I did some time ago. My hearing changed when I became obsessed with drawing like Kim Jung Gi. I think that you can learn to think in 3D.

I can also share the software I wrote for training synesthesia. I believe that it greatly enhances visualization.

 

[Basic Channel]

Since then I started using crossfeed, and it gives more of a continuous 2D image slightly in front of my head.

In front of your head? Everything on headphones happens behind my head

 

[Ze Frog]

I've never really liked headphones myself beyond where it's a necessity, simply because you do lose a lot of the soundstage and the effects speakers can provide in my opinion. Year's ago I tried those Sony 'Surround Sound' headphones a friend had, nice sound but certainly not surround sound. I'd certainly never want to only use headphones although I know people that's literally their sound system.

 

[kemmler3D]

In front of your head? Everything on headphones happens behind my head

Yeah, subjectively it's sort of, kind of like nearfield monitors.

 

[DualTriode]

It is about the science.

Headphones all on their own do not provide much directional information.

I belong to the Audio Engineering Society and receive their monthly journal publication. Often there are articles about auditory spatial location processing. Almost always there are some type of head position sensors in the headphones and real time convolution of the auditory program material. It is about creating the illusion. It does not require expensive headphones but the processing needs to be correct. Small errors in the processing will destroy the illusion.

Accelerometers and gyroscopes like are used in your cell phone are used for head position sensors. the next generation technology will likely use nystagmus sensors to monitor eye movement.

Not so much for your typical headphones.

Today I was at the dining room table, there was this high frequency sound. What was causing it, it drove me nuts looking for the source. I positioned my head up and turned it all around. Some times I could hear the sound, some times not. Turns out the sound was from the LED lamps overhead, the fixture was on a dimmer.

This type of head positioning is what is going on with the current headphone spatial location processing "Augmented Reality".

Good luck with standard headphones without program convolution and head position monitoring.

Thanks DT

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