Originally posted by: TheVrolok
I've heard recordings like this before, I'm surprised there aren't more recordings like this for movies. Though I suppose the extra effort for a small minority of listeners would be rather impractical.
Yep. That's why Dolby developed their own headphone technology. It works reasonably well since they rely on it making use of their own surround technology. Like headphones in general, it doesn't necessarily sound better to everyone. It was nice to see Creative finally make good use of some of their patents, particularly the binaural/holophonic effects that Aureal had developed, which showed up as CMSS-3D Headphone on the X-Fi.
At the most recent national Head-Fi meetup, a company showed off a technology that impressed quite a few people. Its supposed to be able to recreate speakers in various environments. While that doesn't sound like anything new, apparently the actual application was surprising. It has not shown up yet, but I believe its supposed to come out this fall. Unfortunately the initial version is being paired with a higher end Stax system (and so the price is 2-3 thousand dollars). They have said they intend to release a standalone one at some point, but they're also trying to woo bigger companies to integrate it into their own products/services, so who knows.
Something else to make note of is that some headphones actually are especially good at spacialization and soundstage that they do this on their own. Two of the four true "wow" audio moments were at least partly because of this. One of the biggest deficiencies of IEMs/earbuds comes from their inability to recreate a sense of depth and soundstage. I'm not saying they're bad because of it, and its difficult to understand until you hear headphones that do it properly that you notice the difference. Some people might even prefer the sound of IEMs, but it is the main reason I can't put up with them.
Facebook
Twitter