The spatial reproduction of localization cues as they are used in common perception tests is only one aspect when it comes to the question of how well headphones are able to represent 3-dimensional spatiality. From my point of view it is even more important how headphones are able to reproduce diffusivity, because appropriate and meaningful diffusivity recognized by the perceptual system of the listener directly influences the overall quality of what is perceived. What is meant is the perceptual phenomenon that makes the listening experience in very good concert halls a very special one. This is a matter of holistic diffusivity, not local diffusivity, the latter making a single sound source appear less sharply defined. Holistic diffusivity can be experienced directly in good concert halls by switching between a place that is cut off from the diffusivity field (most often under the balconies) and a "good" listening place during the interval - sometimes it is already enough and makes t he comparison especially striking to simply sit down 2 rows further ahead. There are worlds between the two listening experiences.
Such holistic diffusivity which is not uniform but highly structured seems to be largely under the radar of acoustic and perceptual sciences, and, as far as I know, it is also hardly ever discussed in the audio field. Already with stereo music recordings, it is usually an essential sound aesthetic goal for me to make this kind of diffusivity effective to the listener even within the highly limited context of the stereo format. These recordings are mixed over loudspeakers, but with the occasional use of headphones I always choose the Sennheiser HD600. Also and especially with binaural mixes (HOA 3rd order) I haven't listened to any better suited headphones so far. Without wanting to judge what the technical background for this is, the described "holistic" spatial reproduction of these headphones has been extremely successful. It is the main reason why it seems to be the most common tool used by audio professionals involved in binaural mixing (it was also used, besides the entries here in the forum, for the binaural remixes of old Kraftwerk recordings). Best Gernot > Am 24.06.2020 um 18:00 schrieb sursound-requ...@music.vt.edu: > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 11:48:53 +0200 (CEST) > From: Brian KATZ <brian.k...@sorbonne-universite.fr> > To: sursound@music.vt.edu > Subject: Re: [Sursound] Suitable headphones for monitoring binaural > compositions > Message-ID: > > <969745703.37859639.1592992133215.javamail.zim...@sorbonne-universite.fr> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > "it would interesting to see if there are any papers/listening tests > which have > tested lovcalisation with HRTFs and different types of headphones - are > there any ?" > > Here is at lest 1 study that I am familiar with: > > D. Sch?nstein, L. Ferr?, and B. Katz, ?Comparison of headphones and > equalization for virtual auditory source localization,? in Acoustics?08. 9e > Congres Fran?ais d?Acoustique of the SFA. Paru dans : JASA, Vol 123, n?5, > (Paris), pp. 1?5, 2008, > (http://webistem.com/acoustics2008/acoustics2008/cd1/data/articles/001080.pdf). > > -- > Brian FG Katz, Research Director, CNRS > Groupe Lutheries - Acoustique ? Musique > Sorbonne Universit?, CNRS, UMR 7190, Institut Jean Le Rond ?'Alembert > http://www.dalembert.upmc.fr/home/katz _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, edit account or options, view archives and so on.
