Dolby Atmos For Headphones

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Yeah that's what i've been using it with today. Aune X1S paired with HD600 today. Superb!


Shankly I bought it after testing for an hour I think it was £13.86 or some weird price like that. Defo £13 though.

I'll probably still buy it me even if I only use it now and then I love doing all these little tests with audio.
 
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Some DACs won't go down to 16bit...I think. That may be the problem as its currently locked at 16bit. I think some like the Dragon Fly are locked at 24bit so could be the same for others.
 
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For games you would select stereo or headphone mode without any surround feature.

The dolby headphone works best with stereo, where the GSX for example works best when it has 5.1/7.1 native audio streams.
Oops that's why BF1 didn't sound as good as BF3. Had it set to surround. Cheers dude. Much better now.
 
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Damn nice amp!

Just looked at the back and its got optical. If you're running optical you could be locked in 24 bit. So switching to USB should allow you the lower 16bit rate......I think :D
 
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lol what. Headphones are stereo. If you want Atmos you'll need a full 9.1 or 11.1 speaker system.
Simulated surround sound from two speakers is poop, it's just doing some wonky phase processing or whatever.

The thing is though, we only have 2 ears. We don't have 7.1 ears, or whatever - so in theory it should be possible to create the best possible surround experience with only 2 point sources (one for each of our point sensors). Obviously you need clever sound processing for that, but it should be possible...

I don't know anything about the current tech or trends or whatever, but shouldn't it theoretically be possible? about 10 years ago when I last looked at "true" surround headphones they were all terrible. Have things improved since then?
 
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The thing is though, we only have 2 ears. We don't have 7.1 ears, or whatever - so in theory it should be possible to create the best possible surround experience with only 2 point sources (one for each of our point sensors). Obviously you need clever sound processing for that, but it should be possible...

I don't know anything about the current tech or trends or whatever, but shouldn't it theoretically be possible? about 10 years ago when I last looked at "true" surround headphones they were all terrible. Have things improved since then?

We do only have two ears, but they are designed so that we can locate where the sound is coming from. A whatever point one speaker system works because the sounds are coming from different locations.

From a purist point of view, surround headphones don't work anywhere near as well because there's just the two points of origin, not multiple ones. You have to rely on trickery to fool the brain into thinking that the sound is coming from different locations, rather than just one that's located one centimeter from each ear. That requires a whole bunch of processing, which they aren't keen on. Some people don't mind that, others see it as soiling the audio, if you like.

As for 'true' 5.1 headphones, they're no different. Still cheap multiple drivers crammed into 2 ear cups. Some people still like them and probably will until there's a simulated surround approach that works for all people; except maybe purists. :p

Sennheiser's GSX1000 is the best one yet that is affordable, although still quite expensive for what it is.
 
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for any of the DSP virtual surround effects to work they need multi-channel input - without that you'll just be getting stereo with reverb

Tbh the Dolby Atmos doesn't have that much Reverb, its miles better than Dolby Headphone! The GSX you can even disable the Reverb completely and the positional audio cue is still better than anything I have tried.
I do agree with you the best way is taking the native 5.1 or 7.1 like GSX and then doing the virtual audio, rather than taking a stereo and doing Virtual audio like Dolby does.
 
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Going to give this a bash but


I have my doubts. Where do all the positional queues come from if the game is spitting out stereo audio?

The Dolby Headphone does its own trickery with the Stereo signal to create a virtual surround sound. This has always been the case for any of these techs that require a stereo signal.. The GSX or even Sound Blaster Z these Hardware approuches are best used when the game is outputting a native 5.1 or 7.1 audio they than take that audio and do there own virtual surround.

A good indication of this is with Windows audio settings do you see 2.0 or do you see 7.1 or 5.1 even if you using Stereo headphones.

For example

Untitled7166e.jpg
 
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Dolby Headphone also needs a multi-channel input in order to create a binaural output. If you just give it straight stereo to work with it's just not going to be able to magically create the positional audio cues as it has no way of knowing what they are.

For gaming I set my STX to either 6 or 8 channel and hit the Game DSP selector which uses DH mode 2 - so reverb is not too intrusive, unlike mode 3 which is just ridiculous.
 
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Dolby Headphone also needs a multi-channel input in order to create a binaural output. If you just give it straight stereo to work with it's just not going to be able to magically create the positional audio cues as it has no way of knowing what they are.

For gaming I set my STX to either 6 or 8 channel and hit the Game DSP selector which uses DH mode 2 - so reverb is not too intrusive, unlike mode 3 which is just ridiculous.

This isn't true though the demo I recorded is from a Dolby Atmos Headphone and is only two channel. From what I know Dolby works best with stereo signal.

Just listen to the difference from the first two clips both Stereo only change is Atmos enabled on the second clip. Not sure about you but I can easy tell a great difference from plain stereo to Atmos Headphone.



Dolby Atmos Changes the Game in Overwatch®

Works with any stereo headphones
Overwatch® has Dolby Atmos built into the game, so you’ll get the full Dolby Atmos sound experience with any stereo headphones that you can plug into your PC.

With Overwatch®, Dolby Atmos brings new dimensions to gameplay over headphones. For the first time, powerful moving audio sweeps all around you and above you with amazing precision and realism. You’ll be able to exactly locate allies and enemies by sound, even when you can’t see them. And you’ll become one with the world of Overwatch®.


Dolby Atmos over headphones for PC will give you a huge competitive edge. You’ll know which way to turn when your enemy is behind you. Or be aware of threats from above. With Dolby Atmos, you’ll get a much better sense of the combat scene around you, whether they are friends or foes.

You can use any stereo headphones with your PC, and you won’t need any extra hardware or software to play Overwatch® in Dolby Atmos. Just your wits—and quick reflexes.
 
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