• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

The Audiophile Society: a new project by David Chesky

TitaniumTroy

Active Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Messages
202
Likes
81
Location
South Bend/Mishawaka IN
Welcome to the Audiophile Society your premiere place for high quality HD 3D music. We believe that headphones and speakers are two different experiences and to enjoy them to the maximum we must create custom 3D mixes for each with our own Meta-Dimensional Sound system. At the Audiophile Society, you get multiple speaker and headphone mixes for the price of one~
LIMITED TIME GRAND OPENING SALE!
So David Chesky has a new project, in where he started a new company to record music in a different way to expand the sounstage from 60-120 degree, instead of the traditional 30 degree triangle. He also wants to dramatically increase the depth of the imaging, using DSP but not in a gimmicky way, instruments coming from behind your listening position.
I have not tried it yet, but there is a free sampler, so looking for opinions on this concept.
 
Last edited:

Blumlein 88

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
20,524
Likes
37,057
I've downloaded and listened to a couple of them. Would have been nice to have the plain stereo mix without the extra 3D processing for comparison.

I don't know I'd call the speaker mix 3D, but it does seem to maintain the imaging more than normal as you move off axis and quite far to either side. So maybe that is more like a real source in your room rather than stereo speakers.

I know it is in the youtube video, but here is where you can download the sampler which is 2.8 gb for 7 songs one version of each for headphones and one for speakers.

I don't know if anything has changed, but Mr. Chesky for a few years has been doing recordings binaurally and processing for 3D over phones and speakers. I preferred his old recordings which were a straight Blumlein microphone technique without other mikes or processing. But I don't seem to hear binaural recordings well like other people. Maybe my pinnae are shaped too far from the norm.
 
Last edited:

Snarfie

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
1,169
Likes
926
Location
Netherlands
I downloaded the sampler an listen to the tracks an it sounds great. However I did not found a hugh difference with his previous way of recording. I strongly got the impression that it is a repackaging marketing thing/trick. Something like the launch of MQA. .Just after listening i deleted the more than 2 gb files whithout any hesitation.:facepalm:
 
Last edited:

kongwee

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 22, 2022
Messages
1,024
Likes
276
Headphone and speaker mix sound different on speaker and phone. Soundstaging is different between elements. For non soundstage believer, it is just loudness between all elements.
 

Chrispy

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 7, 2020
Messages
7,752
Likes
5,911
Location
PNW
At first I thought it was a photo of when Guttenberg did a recording or two there....but !
 

Snarfie

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
1,169
Likes
926
Location
Netherlands
At first I thought it was a photo of when Guttenberg did a recording or two there....but

Guttenberg did an AF episode with him last week regarding The audiophile Society. Got the impression that Chesky was a bit bored arrogant.

 

Axo1989

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 9, 2022
Messages
2,814
Likes
2,815
Location
Sydney
Chesky and Guttenburg together on screen would be like dark and light doppelgängers. Needs a retro avant-garde horror plot from Dario Argento (which I would watch, assuming Asia Argento is appropriately cast).

I also did the sampler download and listen to "96 Headphone Mix" via Mac > Mojo > Sony Z1R and via Mac > AirPods Pro. Nice clean recording as expected from Chessky. To my ear a slightly u-shaped soundstage with left/right material somewhat beyond/in-front of the ear-space and centre still in-head (but not offensively so). In other words not out front/external like Apple spatial audio mix (or many tracks regardless of mix using the spatial audio setting) via iPad > AirPods Pro. Using Apple Music as player in all cases. Now that I'm used to it, I prefer head-tracking to maintain the external soundstage illusion (the short latency of Apple's implementation notwithstanding). I can imagine purists preferring the TAS way though. I'm more of an audio Magpie.

The sampler included jazz, jazz-adjacent and orchestra tracks favoured by that cohort so I don't expect to make purchases. Pray for Plagues won't be coming my way from The Audio Society. Because I had a metalcore remix album lined up in my play queue I got the next track from that each time the TAS track finished, which was novel. Good production values on that one so the transition was more palette-cleaning than jarring.

I'll try the TAS playlist on main speakers when I get around to it. I don't have an M1 Mac yet to play spatial audio to the DAC > amp > speakers chain (now that Apple has added the Atmos setup function to CoreAudio) so the comparison may favour TAS soundstage. We'll see.
 
Last edited:

kongwee

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 22, 2022
Messages
1,024
Likes
276
I'll try the TAS playlist on main speakers when I get around to it. I don't have an M1 Mac yet to play spatial audio to the DAC > amp > speakers chain (now that Apple has added the Atmos setup function to CoreAudio) so the comparison may favour TAS soundstage. We'll see.
The headphone mix is achieving atmos binaural like mix. All files are wav. So don't think there is any metadata that contain atmos. In reality, you can achieve atoms mix or spatial audio in headphone by pure mixing. That is another set of skill that is not easily achieved and not widely accept by mix engineer for music.
 

Axo1989

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 9, 2022
Messages
2,814
Likes
2,815
Location
Sydney
The headphone mix is achieving atmos binaural like mix. All files are wav. So don't think there is any metadata that contain atmos. In reality, you can achieve atoms mix or spatial audio in headphone by pure mixing. That is another set of skill that is not easily achieved and not widely accept by mix engineer for music.
Yes definitely, I was referring to playing non-TAS comparison tracks via Apple's spatial audio implementation (which is only supported on Apple Silicon so iPhone/iPad and M1 Macs but not Intel Macs). I'm aware TAS isn't doing Atmos.

I could compare TAS binaural soundstage to Apple spatial audio soundstage via iPad > AirPods Pro for example. On speakers I'll be comparing TAS soundstage to regular stereo. Chessky makes claims regarding TAS soundstage "wider triangle" etc so still interesting.
 
Last edited:

Jim Shaw

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
616
Likes
1,159
Location
North central USA
I'm keeping an open mind about this. Chesky, undeniably, knows something of what he speaks and does. His past recordings (at least the ones I own) are well above the artistic and technical quality commercial average I've become used to. Chesky's modus before was to make great recordings the hard way -- with artistic use of studios and equipment to get the most out of an artistic musical effort. I applaud that. I, too, share his announced opinion that speakers and headphones are very different sound reproducers, leading to very different human perceptions. It shouldn't surprise me that Chesky might try to work around and through those differences. I hope he makes progress.

I have not listened to any utterance out of Guttenberg in a couple of years. He is, in my experience, an unreliable chronicler of music and audio.

But I admire Chesky's effort to raise the bar in music recording and playback. I'll be following this with considerable hope.
 

Chrispy

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 7, 2020
Messages
7,752
Likes
5,911
Location
PNW
I'm keeping an open mind about this. Chesky, undeniably, knows something of what he speaks and does. His past recordings (at least the ones I own) are well above the artistic and technical quality commercial average I've become used to. Chesky's modus before was to make great recordings the hard way -- with artistic use of studios and equipment to get the most out of an artistic musical effort. I applaud that. I, too, share his announced opinion that speakers and headphones are very different sound reproducers, leading to very different human perceptions. It shouldn't surprise me that Chesky might try to work around and through those differences. I hope he makes progress.

I have not listened to any utterance out of Guttenberg in a couple of years. He is, in my experience, an unreliable chronicler of music and audio.

But I admire Chesky's effort to raise the bar in music recording and playback. I'll be following this with considerable hope.
Well, fwiw I do believe Guttenberg did produce or engineer a few recordings at Chesky at one point.....but haven't looked further than your written post. Video....meh.
 

Jim Shaw

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
616
Likes
1,159
Location
North central USA
Well, fwiw I do believe Guttenberg did produce or engineer a few recordings at Chesky at one point.....but haven't looked further than your written post. Video....meh.
By his own description, a few years ago, Steve was merely a bystander at one or two sessions. Steve lives in Brooklyn NY near where Chesky does some of his recordings. Steve was/is neither a producer nor an engineer. He could, I suppose, have some role in ASoc.

I listened, last night, to ASoc's 24/96 headphone sample and the 24/192 speaker sample. I found them interesting. I could not find a 'stock' mix to compare them with. I did try playing the speaker mix through headphones and found the differences to be significant.

As of this moment, I cannot find a comparison, but I may say that the mixes were interesting. It isn't PSAudio snake oil at all. I can say that I find Chesky's experiments with using different studio mixes for HP and SPKR to have potential. However, I haven't yet found a way to play the files except through my laptop.

I call carrying the laptop to the bigger music system, my "Addidas Network." ;)

By quiet confession of many studio engineers and producers, it is common practice to make two or three different masters from a (pop) music mix:
One for broadcast and video,
One for CD and hi-res streaming,
One for vinyl cutting.

Chesky's method might redo the studio mix and add two more for headphones and speakers. We'll see if there's sufficient demand to warrant the extra work.

Meantime, I'm not going to be a naysayer of new artistic and production aspects if they indeed sound better to me.
 

Chrispy

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 7, 2020
Messages
7,752
Likes
5,911
Location
PNW
By his own description, a few years ago, Steve was merely a bystander at one or two sessions. Steve lives in Brooklyn NY near where Chesky does some of his recordings. Steve was/is neither a producer nor an engineer. He could, I suppose, have some role in ASoc.

I listened, last night, to ASoc's 24/96 headphone sample and the 24/192 speaker sample. I found them interesting. I could not find a 'stock' mix to compare them with. I did try playing the speaker mix through headphones and found the differences to be significant.

As of this moment, I cannot find a comparison, but I may say that the mixes were interesting. It isn't PSAudio snake oil at all. I can say that I find Chesky's experiments with using different studio mixes for HP and SPKR to have potential. However, I haven't yet found a way to play the files except through my laptop.

I call carrying the laptop to the bigger music system, my "Addidas Network." ;)

By quiet confession of many studio engineers and producers, it is common practice to make two or three different masters from a (pop) music mix:
One for broadcast and video,
One for CD and hi-res streaming,
One for vinyl cutting.

Chesky's method might redo the studio mix and add two more for headphones and speakers. We'll see if there's sufficient demand to warrant the extra work.

Meantime, I'm not going to be a naysayer of new artistic and production aspects if they indeed sound better to me.
Okay, thought it was something David Chesky himself had mentioned....
 
Top Bottom