How is it even possible?
Headphones can provide excellent sound quality, but the soundstage remains in the head or very close to it unlike with speakers. Solutions exist to simulate surround sound on headphones but they all fail to deliver the soundstage and immersion of real speakers, with the exception of costly solutions based on measurements.
It is possible to simulate speakers in rooms on headphones so that it sounds indistinguishable from real speakers. The challenge is that every human being perceives the sound from the very same speaker differently due to the differences in anatomy, characterized by the head-related transfer function (HRTF). Another challenge is that every human being perceives the sound from the very same headphones differently caused by the different shapes of our outer ears, characterized by the headphone transfer function (HpTF).
For realistic virtual surround sound on headphones, both HRTF and HpTF need to be considered.
What is HRTF and HpTF anyway?
The HRTF characterizes how your ears receive a sound from a point in space, altered by the head, auricle and ear canal. HRTF are highly individual as is the shape of our ears.
The HpTF characterizes how your ears receive a sound from the headphone drivers, altered by the auricle and ear canal. HpTF differ significantly between individuals for the very same headphones and depend strongly on the headphone model.
How does it work?
Based on your head size, face width and neck length myHRTF computes the most common HRTF and HpTF for your headphone model. The best matching filter set is then identified easily by listening using the online calibration guide - it requires no more than your headphones.
This process includes the precise equalization (EQ) of your headphones from 10 Hz to 20,000 Hz, unleashing their true pontential.
How does it sound?
With myHRTF Personalized Filters your headphones sound like a state-of-the-art surround sound system in an acoustically treated room, with a wide and deep soundstage in front and sound effects in all directions, combined with an ultra-low and clean bass range.
On top of it, you can try wide stereo and crosstalk-free reproduction by mouse click. We can also teleport you to a virtual concert hall. See below for details.
For stereo music, we are convinced that myHRTF Personalized Filters sound even better than real speakers, not considering the visceral impact of ultra-low bass. In fact, this is the driving motivation for us to invent myHRTF Personalized Filters. See below for details.
Speaker Angle
The standard speaker angle for stereo sound reproduction is 30° to each side of the listener, resulting in a total span of 60°. Some experts promote a speaker angel of 45° to each side for a substantial increase in soundstage width and envelopment. However, speakers at this angle tend to show the so-called hole in the middle: the virtual center speaker (phantom center) appears less defined or even dissolves to the sides entirely.
With myHRTF Personalized Filters you can select between standard (60°) and wide (90°) speaker span by mouse click. Many pop, rock and electronic music recordings sound much more fun with speakers at 90°, and the phantom center is almost as clear and defined as with the standard span of 60°...promised!
Crosstalk Cancellation
In speaker-based sound reproduction each ear receives the sound from both left and right speakers, referred to as stereo crosstalk. For some recording techniques such as XY and MS, this crosstalk is required during reproduction. Other recording techniques such as ORTF and NOS contain crosstalk naturally, for them additional crosstalk from speakers is neither required nor desireable. Many Jazz and classical music recordings fall into this category.
In order to avoid unneccessery crosstalk, crosstalk-free sound reproduction was invented and published under different names such as transaural stereo, stereo dipole and Ambiophonics. With myHRTF Personalized Filters you can choose between standard and crosstalk-free sound reproduction by mouse click. In contrast to speaker-based crosstalk cancellation, myHRTF crosstalk-free filters provide virtually perfect crosstalk cancellation without any drawbacks whatsoever.
For suitable recordings, crosstalk-free sound reproduction provides for a wider and deeper soundstage with a more natural presentation of the acoustics of the recording venue.
Virtual Acoustics
The typical reverberation time of dedicated listening rooms ranges between 300 ms and 400 ms. This is far too short to create the sense of space and envelopment that can be experienced in large venues such as concert halls and churches. Headphones can provide this experience quite easily as binaural recordings can show.
myHRTF Personalized Filters virtual acoustics add the spaceiousness and envelopment of large spaces to the music and turn your headphones into a concert hall or church by mouse click.