[RICKYJ]

I have noticed that some of the pioneer receivers ie 812 and 912 are advertised with phones surround. I wondered if any one had tried this function out, and whether it is any good. Also could anyone with the higher receivers (eg 1011, 2011, AX3, AX5i) confirm whether they have this function, or how they fair with headphones for movies.

Maybe other manufacturers have these sort of options, so am open to other suggestions, about the receiver, but currently favouring the AX3, as my purchase.

I only ask, as I am looking at moving in to a flat in the near future (and will be replacing my old Sony amp almost immediately, if not before), and it will probably mean I need to use the headphones for some of the listening, so as not to annoy the neighbours.

Any feedback will be greatly received.

Ricky

[alexs2]

If you mean things like SRS and Dolby Headphone....they're OK but basically amount to a DSP option to try and deliver some ambience and front/rear type information from 2 channel headphones.
I've tried both of these,and really prefer to switch them off when using headphones.
By all means buy a better receiver/amp,but I think that DSP modes for headphone use detract quite lot from sound quality.

[NicolasB]

Well, to offer a completely contrary view, I think Dolby Headphone is rather good.

When you think about it, you only actually have two ears. If you can accurately reproduce at the ear what is supposed to be happening then you can reproduce any sound perfectly - and indeed do a much BETTER job of it than even a large number of discrete speakers. You can even achieve effects that are quite impossible with speakers, like having someone whisper directly into the listener's ear. You can't make speakers position a sound closer to you than the speakers are.

Granted, Dolby Headphone can't achieve all this.

Instead of being a recording directly designed for Headphone listening, it attempts to reproduce, through headphones, what you would hear if you were listening to the original 5.1 recording over speakers - including not just the actual 5 channels of direct sound, but also wall reflections from the virtual room that the virtual speakers are sitting in. Inevitably this is less convincing than real speakers in a real room would be.

Advantages:

• No problems with room acoustics.
• You don't deafen the neighbours in the way you would with speakers.
• You don't get quite the same all-the-sound-is-inside-your-head feeling that you get with normal headphone listening.
• In terms of purity - lack of distortion, neutrality, clearness - the quality you get from a pair of headphones is vastly much greater than you would get from a set of speakers that cost the same amount of money.

Disadvantages:

• Not as persuasive as real speakers.
• Front to back positioning is not that great (although front-to-back pans are detectable, and left to right pans very clear).

How good the headphone output is will vary a lot from device to device. I once made a side-by-side comparison between Sennheiser HD600 'phones plugged into a Denon A1SR using Dolby Headphone, and the same device driving B&W Nautilus 805/HTM1/CDM SNT speakers (with a REL sub, I think). The heaphones won absolutely hands down. No contest at all.

[alexs2]

Nice one,Nic....it does just go to show though how one man's food can be another's poison!....I dont personally like a lot of DSP which is'nt very well implemented and leads to gritty sound etc....having said that,a lot of people DO like Dolby headphone and SRS,and again,being honest,what they both do is quite remarkable in terms of results with 2 speakers effectively.

Just not for me thanks.

[NicolasB]

I dont personally like a lot of DSP which is'nt very well implemented and leads to gritty sound etc.

I think many people's perception of "DSP modes" is based on an unrepresentative sample. If you're talking about things like "Disco", "Hall", "Party", etc. then I agree: they suck. I cannot understand why anybody would want to use them.

By contrast, using Dolby PLII on a stereo signal that has a Dolby Surround rear channel matrixed into it actually sounds rather good - certainly better than the same signal played over two speakers. Logic 7 is (in many people's opinion) better still. For a plain stereo signal, the Trifield mode that you find on Meridian processors is very effective. If I owned a Meridian proc I doubt I would ever listen to stereo music any other way.

I don't think it's entirely fair to talk about "DSP modes" as if they were all much the same thing.

in terms of results with 2 speakers effectively

Well, that's kind of the point, innit: headphones are NOT "2 speakers effectively". Anybody who has ever listened to a really good binaural recording will appreciate that.

[alexs2]

Nic,I think you'll know from previous posts that I do know what amounts to badly implemented DSP,and you'll also remember that the processor I use for CD input into my Tag is very heavily DSP reliant,for upsampling and interpolating CD to 24/96,and I really don't see how you manage to extrapolate what I said to tar all "DSP modes" with the same brush.

As for binaural recordings,of course you're correct,but that wasn't what the thread was about.