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Surround Sound in Headphones

soundguys.com

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Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#101

Post by w0utert »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #72
w0utert wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the other comments I'm confused, pretty much any game I've played for the past few years supports surround sound, most of them 7.1 even. What I don't understand is why Dolby Atmos is not used much more for games. Xbox One and PC support it but only very few titles use it. PS4 and PS5 don't support it all for games (only for video content), despite all Sony's bragging about their dedication to PS5 audio. Dolby At…

I suspect it's due to cost and licensing to use that particular brand and technology.

Sure, but why does the Xbox One support it then, but not the PS5? And wouldn't it be possible to somehow incorporate the licensing cost in the console by means of a paid software upgrade (like on Windows) or a 'premium' version of the console that has it by default?

As far as I know Dolby Atmos can be seamlessly mapped onto to 5.1 or 7.1, so from the developer perspective there should be no effort/cost to provide Dolby Atmos audio. I might be wrong about this but I assume the licensing cost would be for the playback device and not for the 'right' to bundle an Atmos audio track with your game?

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#102

Post by lumost »

gruez wrote: post #76
chii wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there needs to be a standard "demo" reel of audio quality, similar to the way TVs/displays have the multi-color grid/gradient thing for showing clarity of the pixels. It's hard to compare when a person goes into one shop and hears an action movie, but in another one he hears a concert/symphony on a different speaker/headset.

so a frequency response graph? eg. https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/sound-quality/raw-fr...

Now we just need to turn the graph into 1-5 numbers which consumers can understand.

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#103

Post by bonestamp2 »

CardenB wrote: post #40
bonestamp2 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods Pro are good, but they only support iPhones/iPads as a source (I assume they'll add Apple TV later). I've heard the Sony system is good, but audio has to be encoded in Sony's format. I used to own the Smyth Realiser 8 and it was awesome. The latest version is the 16. It's rather expensive, which is maybe why the source article didn't mention it, but you can feed it almost any surround sound source. It's proba…

AirPods Pro are normal Bluetooth headphones and support anything as source. You can also use a lightning to 3.5mm cable to connect them to an auxiliary port.

Yes, they work as stereo headphones from any bluetooth source. I was speaking in the context of surround sound in headphones... AirPods Pro's spatial audio feature only works with a few surround sound formats and only with an iPad and iPhone. Spatial Audio is not supported on Apple TV or any other bluetooth device (for now).

To use a lighting to 3.5mm connection, I think you meant the AirPods Max, not the AirPods Pro. On that note, the AirPods Max have the same spatial audio support/restrictions as the AirPods Pro.

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#104

Post by nitrogen »

colanderman wrote: post #94
nitrogen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ambisonics is for encoding a full-sphere soundfield. The components have a fixed location. Positioning individual tracks is not quite the same thing, as they can start/stop/move, and they are not limited to spherical harmonics. Video games have done exactly this for ages, but the only storage and distribution formats for that type of positional audio are still proprietary (e.g. Atmos).

They should correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the GP's point was that there should be a standardized way for software to present spatial audio to the sound system, which can then render it according to the user's preferences. How the sound is generated (e.g. moving point sources; spatial reverb; pre-spatialized tracks) does not matter. Yes, using even third-order Ambisonics is not as precise as rendering all poi…

I'm currently working on something vaguely related, but presently focused on converting stereo to arbitrary N-channel surround (and documenting it on YouTube). I agree that spatialization should be more standardized, and it should be easy to convert between arbitrary spatialization setups.

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#105

Post by cfjgvjh »

gooderist wrote: post #96
cyxxon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only on mobile. What would I get for a Steelseries headset?

Thanks for checking us out! I'm sorry about the confusion. Please try the Audio-Technica build. Despite the description, all the builds work with any pair of headphones. We do tune the EQ to improve the experience for specific headsets (hence the different versions). But in the Audio-Technica build there is a "Generic Headset" option. We will also be releasing tunings for more headsets very soon, but any of the build…

Any plans to support a DT-1990 or HD-600s? I was wondering if the Beyer build may be better but I have no idea what drivers are in these; should I go with the AT build that you mentioned? (I'm mostly interested in gaming and media consumption, despite my cans)

Also I'm not entirely certain why I'd want a subscription as opposed to a one time purchase, do ears change very much over time? (Not saying your pricing is unfair or anything, just curious.)

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#106

Post by zmix »

Akronymus wrote: post #52
lloeki wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This rendition of Amiga tracker music is fantastic as well. https://youtu.be/W1bgMX4UCjw

That is a pretty good piece of music. Having always had a special liking to old school music, this instantly got added to my music playlist. Got more of similar stuff?

If you know "The Last Ninja" from the C=64 times, then this may be something for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7U5pQZJYKM

(Sound of Games: "The Last Ninja - Pure Meditation" - HQ)

Re: Surround Sound in Headphones

#107

Post by zmix »

anastasiadevana wrote: post #91
The_rationalist wrote: post #4

It's been 14 years since the last state of the art 3D audio experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA has anybody done as good since then ? What's this Cetera algorithm ?

This is not an algorithm, but a recording using the binaural dummy head - that's why it sounds so good. However this technique has extremely limited practical application.

> However this technique has extremely limited practical application.

How so? I always wondered, why I didn't here more of this kind of recordings, since I heard a (fantastic) demo in the early 1990's.

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