Beach Boys in 3D sound on headphones

[Joel Goldenberg]

I have a now unfortunately no longer produced pair of Phillips virtual surround earbuds which I have been buying several times over the years for between $10 and $25. I am now on my last pair unfortunately. They are far from the best for fidelity, but on certain songs they produce an interesting 3D effect, especially on Sunflower. I don't know if I'm getting the matrixed layer or not, but on a song like Get To Know the Woman, I'm hearing a 3D effect on the backing harmonies. Does this reflect what one would hear with the spatializer.

[maggie]

I have a now unfortunately no longer produced pair of Phillips virtual surround earbuds which I have been buying several times over the years for between $10 and $25. I am now on my last pair unfortunately. They are far from the best for fidelity, but on certain songs they produce an interesting 3D effect, especially on Sunflower. I don't know if I'm getting the matrixed layer or not, but on a song like Get To Know the Woman, I'm hearing a 3D effect on the backing harmonies. Does this reflect what one would hear with the spatializer.

I'm probably making some technical errors/oversimplifications here, so bear with me.

Decoding the matrix surround information on albums like Sunflower requires a piece of dedicated hardware, a decoder. As far as I know, no-one has come up with a different means of decoding this information. It's a bit like those quad LPs of the same period that used a guide signal to encode four discrete channels into the two stereo channels, relying on a hardware decoder to play them back properly.

There are lots of ways of producing "virtual surround," most of which involve simple software calculations (producing four channels by means of L, R, L minus R, or R minus L, something to that effect). But the cheap earbuds advertising this effect usually just have extra holes or even an extra driver (simple electromagnet) in the back side of the "can" which produces extra "ghost" frequencies around the ear, using the same audio information as the basic stereo channel. Grado headphones, for example, achieve this same effect by having a very porous back. As my spouse has often pointed out, they are actually louder on the outside than they are on the inside.

The result is a crude 3D effect, sound seeming to emanate from beyond your ear. However, if the recording was made with the dummy-head method (i.e., binaural recording) -- records such as Lou Reed's The Bells from 1979 -- the surround effect on even standard headphones can be quite convincing even without the addition of such hardware or software tricks.

[Stephen W. Desper]

I have a now unfortunately no longer produced pair of Phillips virtual surround earbuds which I have been buying several times over the years for between $10 and $25. I am now on my last pair unfortunately. They are far from the best for fidelity, but on certain songs they produce an interesting 3D effect, especially on Sunflower. I don't know if I'm getting the matrixed layer or not, but on a song like Get To Know the Woman, I'm hearing a 3D effect on the backing harmonies. Does this reflect what one would hear with the spatializer.

I'm probably making some technical errors/oversimplifications here, so bear with me.

Decoding the matrix surround information on albums like Sunflower requires a piece of dedicated hardware, a decoder. As far as I know, no-one has come up with a different means of decoding this information. It's a bit like those quad LPs of the same period that used a guide signal to encode four discrete channels into the two stereo channels, relying on a hardware decoder to play them back properly.

There are lots of ways of producing "virtual surround," most of which involve simple software calculations (producing four channels by means of L, R, L minus R, or R minus L, something to that effect). But the cheap earbuds advertising this effect usually just have extra holes or even an extra driver (simple electromagnet) in the back side of the "can" which produces extra "ghost" frequencies around the ear, using the same audio information as the basic stereo channel. Grado headphones, for example, achieve this same effect by having a very porous back. As my spouse has often pointed out, they are actually louder on the outside than they are on the inside.

The result is a crude 3D effect, sound seeming to emanate from beyond your ear. However, if the recording was made with the dummy-head method (i.e., binaural recording) -- records such as Lou Reed's The Bells from 1979 -- the surround effect on even standard headphones can be quite convincing even without the addition of such hardware or software tricks.

COMMENT to Maggie:  Gaming headphones that have multiple drives within the ear cup can be used to give a unique sound to any song, but in the case of Sunflower and others, the sonic scene is different. One of the more successful designs of the past was the Sony MDR series that set off the ear and allowed the pinnae to reflect some information back into the ear. At any rate, any good set of earphones is all you need to fully appreciate any of my recordings.

Sunflower and the other songs you will find on my website have all been optimized for headphone reproduction WITHOUT ANY DECODER or extra drives.  All you need is a standard pair of phones -- a good pair helps. This is because these albums were recorded in virtual surround via microphone acoustic-derived matrixes and other patented matrix devices at the time of recording. On my website, all the songs in all the study-videos have the playback matrix already applied, so all you need do is listen with a standard headphone to hear both the left to right and front to back dimensions. The headphone experience is one of my favorite ways of appreciating these recordings, so I went to extra lengths making certain the imaging and dimension envelopment was optimized for the renditions of all the songs on my website. There are old and new songs on the website that I believe you will find sound extremely good over your headphones just by plugging them into your computer.  Check it out ~swd  http://swdstudyvideos.com

[maggie]

I have a now unfortunately no longer produced pair of Phillips virtual surround earbuds which I have been buying several times over the years for between $10 and $25. I am now on my last pair unfortunately. They are far from the best for fidelity, but on certain songs they produce an interesting 3D effect, especially on Sunflower. I don't know if I'm getting the matrixed layer or not, but on a song like Get To Know the Woman, I'm hearing a 3D effect on the backing harmonies. Does this reflect what one would hear with the spatializer.

I'm probably making some technical errors/oversimplifications here, so bear with me.

Decoding the matrix surround information on albums like Sunflower requires a piece of dedicated hardware, a decoder. As far as I know, no-one has come up with a different means of decoding this information. It's a bit like those quad LPs of the same period that used a guide signal to encode four discrete channels into the two stereo channels, relying on a hardware decoder to play them back properly.

There are lots of ways of producing "virtual surround," most of which involve simple software calculations (producing four channels by means of L, R, L minus R, or R minus L, something to that effect). But the cheap earbuds advertising this effect usually just have extra holes or even an extra driver (simple electromagnet) in the back side of the "can" which produces extra "ghost" frequencies around the ear, using the same audio information as the basic stereo channel. Grado headphones, for example, achieve this same effect by having a very porous back. As my spouse has often pointed out, they are actually louder on the outside than they are on the inside.

The result is a crude 3D effect, sound seeming to emanate from beyond your ear. However, if the recording was made with the dummy-head method (i.e., binaural recording) -- records such as Lou Reed's The Bells from 1979 -- the surround effect on even standard headphones can be quite convincing even without the addition of such hardware or software tricks.

COMMENT to Maggie:  Gaming headphones that have multiple drives within the ear cup can be used to give a unique sound to any song, but in the case of Sunflower and others, the sonic scene is different. One of the more successful designs of the past was the Sony MDR series that set off the ear and allowed the pinnae to reflect some information back into the ear. At any rate, any good set of earphones is all you need to fully appreciate any of my recordings.

Sunflower and the other songs you will find on my website have all been optimized for headphone reproduction WITHOUT ANY DECODER or extra drives.  All you need is a standard pair of phones -- a good pair helps. This is because these albums were recorded in virtual surround via microphone acoustic-derived matrixes and other patented matrix devices at the time of recording. On my website, all the songs in all the study-videos have the playback matrix already applied, so all you need do is listen with a standard headphone to hear both the left to right and front to back dimensions. The headphone experience is one of my favorite ways of appreciating these recordings, so I went to extra lengths making certain the imaging and dimension envelopment was optimized for the renditions of all the songs on my website. There are old and new songs on the website that I believe you will find sound extremely good over your headphones just by plugging them into your computer.  Check it out ~swd  http://swdstudyvideos.com

Thanks, Stephen. Those videos sound amazing (I've been a fan for a while), and of course your recording and engineering contributions to some of my favorite Beach Boys albums are simply out of this world!

[Stephen W. Desper]

COMMENT to Meggie:   If you are a big headphone fan, you will find the soon-to-be-on-the-market headphones from OSSIC, a new upstart company.

($300 range) The headphones are called OSSIC X - 3D Headphones.  The designers of the headphone have figured out how to EXTERNAIZE the headphone listening experience -- the holy grail of headphone technology. Learn about it at this video >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKHGxVG_7W8.

($1500 range) The other externalized headphone, REALIZER 16, from Smyth Research, is detailed here >>> http://smyth-research.com/downloads/Realiser%20A16%20new%20datasheet.pdf

($5000 range) The first 3D headphone with an externalized presentation is also from Smyth Research, REALIZER 8. It may still be the best one out there, but also the most expensive because it uses STAX Electrostatic Headphones. Read about it at >>> http://smyth-research.com/products_A8.html

It won't be long before the prices come down to something more realistic. Soon headphone listening will not be in the head, but mounting a set of phones onto your head will transport you to an entirely different acoustic environment -- your living room system, a studio system, or the perfect theater sound system. It will be as if you are in the room rather than the room being in you. Exciting stuff !!     ~swd