Dolby Headphones (1 Viewer)

[DanielSmi]

I tried it out for about 10 minutes and I didn't think it was that great, I mean I guess it's better than regular stereo for headphones but it didn't create the "illusion" of 5.1 as it stated it would. For example in Pearl Harbor when some went across the screen from FL to C to FR, it sounded fine with speakers but when I put on the headphones it seemed to jump from left to right and not in time with what was happening on the screen. But they said it was experimental so I hope it gets better but even if it did I don't think it will be adopted very well because I just takes up unnecessary space, and I didn't put all this money into my system so that I could put on a pair of headphones. If it needs to be quiet when I play a movie all activate Midnight mode or just not watch it at all, or wait till later to play it. They say it doesn't need a special decoder but the Denon 5803 has the Dolby Headphone logo on it's front panel and no other receiver does is that just because it came out after the format did, or does it have something special that no other processor has for DH (Dobly Headphones).

What were you impressions with DH, did you find it satisfactory , did you think it was better than 5.1 and your gonna sell your system and just watch Pearl Harbor everyday for the rest of your life because it so good. Or did you think DH was as bad as the overacting in that movie?

Another thing I noticed was that on the couple scenes I watched some of them seemed as if their voices were recored in a studio and the dialogue didn't sound natural. Like on the second disc where the girl (Eveleyn)asks Major Jackson if see can be in the radio tower when the give the reports on the Doolittle project for voice sounded very unatural might have been my heaphones but I doubt it. Did anyone else notice this?

Daniel Smith

 

[DanielSmi]

C'mon someone has to have an opinion on this.

Daniel Smith

 

[Thomas_Berg]

i think it's a pretty cool little DSP myself. when i watch movies with my Sennheiser HD580's, i always turn on the DH processing. IMO, if you have a good set of cans, it's easily an upgrade from listening in plain 2-ch stereo. of course it will never compete with a true 5.1 setup, but that's because it was never intended to do so. i'm pretty sure it was created for headphone users to get a little more transparency out of their listening, not as a substitute to watching in 5.1.

i think this comparison is similar to comparing straight 2-ch vs 3-channel phantom mode. no, the phantom mode is not as good as using a center channel, but it does increase the listening experience. it was never intended to replace using a center-- it just helps you get more out of what you have.

anyways, i like DH. other opinions?

 

[AaronBatiuk]

Sony's receivers don't have "Dolby Headphone" - just another licensing fee to pay - but they do have something called "Headphone Theatre". I suppose that this is just Sony's own proprietary version of the same idea. I agree with you both that it is better than just 2 ch stereo, but doesn't compare to a real multi-channel speaker setup. Part of the reason is that they can't realistically create virtual front speakers that sound like they are in front of you (instead of inside your head a'la normal headphone listening), without having the sound from virtual rear speakers 'bleed' into them. Your brain just wouldn't know the difference between the fronts and the rears in the absence of the normal directional cues like head movement and so on. So they leave the front soundstage fairly 'flat', and create only virtual surround speakers. It's an improvement, but not spectacular.