Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mutato]

I have been using MC 14-16 with my headphones and have been very happy. However, as is prone to happen, curiosity killed the cat. I read about a foobar configuration (1) that uses the dolby headphone (DolbyHph.dll) + channel mixer. It sounds great. Unfortunately, since trying this I cannot go back to how it sounded before since it is too much of an improvement over anything that MC16 currently can provide (crossfeed, isone, bs2p etc).

Ok great, so just use foobar you might say. Yes, but when used to MC16, going to foobar is quite a horrible experience in most regards. Therefore I call out to you and ask if there is any remedy for this situation?

What I've been trying so far is setting up MC16 so that any mp3 I play is opened in foobar instead. This at least allows me to use MC16 to browse my library. One big flaw with this approach is that it doesn't handle playlists well, so you are stuck sending one file at a time to foobar.

1. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/555263/foobar2000-dolby-headphone-config-comment-discuss

[JimH]

Have you tried any of the DSP effects in MC?

[mutato]

Yes, neither DolbyHph.dll, foo_dsp_dolbyhp.dll or foo_channel_mixer.dll are able to be installed.

Granted, JRSS could probably be used to upmix stereo to 6 channals. Now all that would be needed was some way of hooking it up with the dolby headphone .dll.  

Edit: For anyone interested, here's two additional threads discussing this. It seems to have garnered some interest among audiophiles.
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/447089/5-1-headphone-experience-foobar-configuration-for-all-stereo-music-files
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=39404&st=0

[Matt]

I'm a headphone lover.  I also think 2.0 sound can be wonderful on a 5.1 (or more) system.

So I spent some time with Dolby Headphone a few years back, wondering if it'd be worth supporting in Media Center.

This is just my personal opinion, but I really didn't like the sound.  It cooled any personal desire to code support inside Media Center.

[mutato]

I see. Well, I appreciate the frank answer. I think I might've come off a bit biased. It must be a common sight to have people coming here saying "omg, x is the best thing ever plz implement!!".

I will reserve my judgment until further experimentation. Initial testing did seem to bring out the warmth and liveliness from the music. Perhaps if that's to your liking some others might want to give it a try and weigh in!

[tunetyme]

If you are looking for more warmth in you music you might try Izotope's Ozone.  They have a $29 version that can make your MP3 sound like they are played on some of the old tube amps.  I use it and couldn't imagine going back to straight digital music.  I haven't played with headphones that much so I can't comment on that aspect.

Tunetyme