How do you hear headphone 'soundstage'

[wiggum]

Funny thing though that notching the 10kHz with a filter does nothing for the sound stage.
Also many headphones actually have peaks there.
The 10kHz notch is caused by the 'ear' and in measurements by the fake ear (pinna + earcanal) and depends on the the fixture + pinna used.

This all makes the evidence of the 10kHz notch (Rtings) extremely 'thin'. At Rtings they thought it (along with the difference between a pinna + pinnaless (but with ear canal) was something they could 'rate' easily which was the goal. It was kind of determined by looking at a few headphone that were said to have good spatial effects.
Those 2 or 3 headphones all had similar 'effects' caused by the pinna and that became the target. The 10kHz dip is part of that pinna.
When you look at the (older) plots you will find the 'target' to be very close to the HD800 response.

I mean ... wouldn't it be great if all headphones with poor sound stage suddenly would get a good sound stage if we would just notch 10kHz.
Sadly that doesn't work.

Did you ABX with a 10 kHz notch? Easy to create 2 samples files with ffmpeg?

 

[solderdude]

Extensively... experimented with different frequencies and even Q factors.

That said... even binaural doesn't do it for me. This is not strange either given the poll.
It is a perception thing + pinna effects.
What 'works' for you (notching 10kHz) may well fool your brain into creating depth but it won't for others so is no universal indicator for sound stage.

I can hear the 10kHz getting 'softer' but does not change the sound stage for me.

 

[wiggum]

Extensively... experimented with different frequencies and even Q factors.

That said... even binaural doesn't do it for me. This is not strange either given the poll.
It is a perception thing + pinna effects.
What 'works' for you (notching 10kHz) may well fool your brain into creating depth but it won't for others so is no universal indicator for sound stage.

I can hear the 10kHz getting 'softer' but does not change the sound stage for me.

Try these samples. I am also not convinced that much as I find using the bs2b or sofa filter has more impact. I think ITD(interaural time difference) is more significant than this notch.