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milotrain t1_ivbcw0z wrote

Depends on what my goal is. Enjoyment? Sure. Reference? Almost never.

As far as function, it's hard to do much better in a cost/performance model than the Etymotic ER4XR with comply tips. Especially when they go on one of their sub $200 sales.

But... compared to my reference speaker system I've not found a headphone system that can match, and that's troublesome because I need to work on headphones sometimes to match into the stage. Closest I can get there is currently HD800s + Smyth A16, but they are shit for isolation. Working on tuning in a pair of Aeon 2 Noirs with the Smyth but I'm not sure if it's going to work out.

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goozercrew t1_ivbjped wrote

What are you doing?

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milotrain t1_ivbpa5z wrote

Mixing for TV and film.

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goozercrew t1_ivbploy wrote

Sweet man. I'm happy for you that sounds cool.

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milotrain t1_ivcjnb7 wrote

Thanks, it's a really cool job. Long hours, and can suck pretty hard but on balance it's great.

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School-Tricky t1_ivcli6s wrote

Just out of curiosity, what does the A16 do for the staging and imaging? I’m trying to read this product page but it doesn’t make much sense

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milotrain t1_ivco1f7 wrote

The short story is that you stick microphones in your ears, and it tones out a room, then you put on headphones (without taking the microphones out) and it tones out the cans. It then does a fairly complex FFT to make the two mach with an incoming signal. It has a testing mode where you are supposed to guess if you have headphones on or if it's the speakers playing, for the first 15min or so of this test everyone I know has gotten it wrong at least 50% of the time, it's that good.

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School-Tricky t1_ivcpe0a wrote

That sounds fantastic! So it can theoretically bridge the tonal gap between any monitor and headphone? That must sound amazing with the HD800S

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milotrain t1_ivcs7kp wrote

Yes, and yes. There are limitations, low frequency isn't perfect (obviously it's not moving the air that big drivers are, so you don't "feel" the bass the same). And you can't EQ a headphone to do "everything" as all headphones have a limitation but the HD800s are pretty close. Smyth also recommends STAX.

Also, if this isn't obvious, it does all of this at a 7.1.2 soundfield, so you can feed it a dolby atmos mix (or DTS:X) and you hear the full surround mix, with location accuracy. There is also a head tracking feature so you can turn your head and the "room" stays where it is.

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School-Tricky t1_ivctd1n wrote

Thanks for all the information! I’m going to look into this further. The spatial aspects are very intriguing to me.

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milotrain t1_ivcukx2 wrote

It's very cool. It works best if you have access to a great sounding room to model.

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