Launch of myHRTF Stereo - New Lifelike Personalized 3D Sound for Headphones

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Thank you for your kind offer, but let me check our database first: which headphone model(s) are you interested in?

Grell OAE1

 

[myHRTF]

Grell OAE1

I hate to disappoint you but we have measured OAE1 and decided to not process and upload it since it shows frequency response anomalies that cannot be corrected by DSP. As a result, our filters may not work as intended and this could be blamed on us.
This is very unfortunate since OAE1 features an outstanding look and feel.

Do you have any other headphones at hand?

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I hate to disappoint you but we have measured OAE1 and decided to not process and upload it since it shows frequency response anomalies that cannot be corrected by DSP. As a result, our filters may not work as intended and this could be blamed on us.
This is very unfortunate since OAE1 features an outstanding look and feel.

Do you have any other headphones at hand?

Yes, a couple, he400se DMS Open Omega (diy), and LCD-2.

I'm mainly using oae1 and dms open omega because of comfort and light weight. Also I find OAE1 to be working well with my hrtf as many many other headphones are just too bright to my ears.
Not sure why

 

[myHRTF]

Yes, a couple, he400se DMS Open Omega (diy), and LCD-2.

I'm mainly using oae1 and dms open omega because of comfort and light weight. Also I find OAE1 to be working well with my hrtf as many many other headphones are just too bright to my ears.
Not sure why

Awesome, I recommend to try it with HE400se then. I understand your comment about headphones sounding too bright, but this should be solved with our filters, too. Moreover, with the proper ear shape setting, it should sound equally good independent from the headphone model.

Currently, we are working on the new version with less reverberation and I recommend that you test this new version. I just need to ask you for a bit more patience since we will need another 1-2 weeks from now.

 

[myHRTF]

I'm happy to announce that the new version is online now. It comes with several improvements and addresses most if not all points that were mentioned in the feedback. We now have both acoustics of a dry recording studio and a more live sounding livingroom in addition to the two concert halls, see details below.
Various new Hifiman models are now supported, too.

You may try it out for free under the following link, you only need your headphones and a ruler:
Personalized Filter Designer

PM me to get your favorite songs filtered offline for testing.

The shop will be closed for maintenance until mid of February.

Happy listening,
Philipp

Synthetic room acoustics
myHRTF Personalized Filters contain different synthetic room acoustics in order to adapt them to the use case and recording. All rooms feature the following characteristics:

• No reflections within the first 5 ms after arrival of the direct wave, with the exception of wanted reflections from your body as part of your HRTF. This avoids that reflections affect the HRTF.
• No strong reflections within the first 20 ms after arrival of the direct wave, in line with Recommendation ITU-R BS.1116-3. This allows to hear the room acoustics captured on the recording rather than the listening room.
• Reflections from favorable directions only, i.e. no reflections from above or behind. This avoids that reflections with little contribution to externalization and envelopment decrease imaging.
• No resonances / room modes (in line with Recommendation ITU-R BS.1116-3), for a dry and precise yet fullbodied bass frequency range.
• No flutter echoes (in line with Recommendation ITU-R BS.1116-3), for a smooth and clear treble range.

Recording Studio​

Recording studio (Studio) simulates a perfectly symmetric room with 42 m² and approx. 270 ms reverberation time (above 200 Hz), in line with Recommendation ITU-R BS.1116-3. Studio sounds very dry, the reverberation is hardly perceivable.

• Speaker distance 1 m: recommended for mixing and mastering in the nearfield, as well as gaming and virtual reality.
• Speaker distance 3 m: recommended for mixing and mastering in the farfield and for listening to dry stereo recordings that contain little reverberation. In addition, it is recommended for multichannel recordings and TV/movies.

Livingroom​

Not to be confused with an average livingroom, this is a large acoustically treated and perfectly symmetric room with approx. 480 ms reverberation time (above 200 Hz), with a speaker distance of 3 m. Livingroom sounds more live than Studio, the reverberation is perceivable in a pleasant way and contributes to externalization. It is recommended for stereo recordings that contain reverberation.

Concert and Recital Hall​

Stereo sound reproduction in typical listening rooms fails to create the sense of space and envelopment that can be experienced in concert halls. myHRTF Personalized Filters add this spaciousness and envelopment to the music and turn your headphones into a recital or concert hall by mouse click. They do so by adding reverberation with optimum reverberation times as recommended by experts such as Leo Beranek. Recital Hall features a reverberation time (above 200 Hz) of approx. 1.6 s, concert hall features approx. 1.9 s.

 

[Bugal1998]

@myHRTF I've been thinking about possible improvements to the HRTF customization process, as I'm not convinced I was able to get the settings correct for me (some of the measurements are challenging).

Instead of making input selections on a static page, could you enhance the process to be realtime and dynamic with test tones? For example, a signal of some sort is played (pink noise, a spoken voice, etc.) and the listener moves a slider to position the sound where it should be perceived (e.g. eye level and straight ahead, sounds at 45 or 90 degrees left and right, completely diffuse, etc., etc.); essentially a test tone and slider for each HRTF input.

If the final test tones are all performing as expected, then the listener can be confident their HRTF is optimized.

 

[myHRTF]

@myHRTF I've been thinking about possible improvements to the HRTF customization process, as I'm not convinced I was able to get the settings correct for me (some of the measurements are challenging).

Instead of making input selections on a static page, could you enhance the process to be realtime and dynamic with test tones? For example, a signal of some sort is played (pink noise, a spoken voice, etc.) and the listener moves a slider to position the sound where it should be perceived (e.g. eye level and straight ahead, sounds at 45 or 90 degrees left and right, completely diffuse, etc., etc.); essentially a test tone and slider for each HRTF input.

If the final test tones are all performing as expected, then the listener can be confident their HRTF is optimized.

Thank you for your feedback and ideas!
Since the first two measurements are rather easy and don't need to be so accurate, the last one (ear shape) is troublesome. For the time being, we will not get around the listening test in the last step, and for that pink noise or a voice would help maybe.
With the introduction of surround and immersive audio we will see more listening tests with directions as indicated by you.

Thank you again for your extensive feedback on the old version: you were spot on with your points!
I think that our new version addresses all of them, and as you have indicated, not all of them were related to the reflections. Looking forward to your feedback on the new version, especially with respect to the comparison with your speaker setup.