7.1 binaural sound setting for Audeze LCD-GX headphones (or similar)

[JeanIbarz]

Hi,

I've been fine-tuning a setting for my Audeze LCD-GX headphones for a year and for which I obtained an absolutely stunning result.

I had it tested by a few people at work and around me and most find the rendering of the headphones much better with my setting than the sound of the original headphones, without setting.

Long story short, I use a binaural reproduction technique. I measured with DIY stereo microphones, small electret capsules at 1€ stuck on a foam earplug and soldered on a jack cable connected to the sound card. Everything is inserted into the ears as deep as possible using a stetoscope that I bought myself and which allows me to check the correct positioning of the microphones at the bottom of the ear canal.

Then I measured with a JBL studio loudspeaker placed in my room the head + room filter, called BRIR (Binaural Room Impulse Response), for the 7 possible positions of a loudspeaker in a 7.1 configuration, i.e. 14 filters (a filter for each ear and for each position).

I then did various equalizations to compensate for the response of the headphones and a very long adjustment over several iterations and over a period of about 1 year, over which I tried to adjust the response to get the best possible sound.

I'll spare you the details but the placebo effect, enormous difficulty in identifying the problematic parts of the frequency response that need to be adjusted and by how much, it took me 1 year to arrive at a satisfactory adjustment and validated by outsiders.

If you have Windows and an Audeze LCD-GX headset or any other headset with a fairly similar frequency response (if not, you can try but you will probably have to adjust the response...), I would like to share with you the setting that I obtained and you will find the instructions to install the software and apply these settings, search the repository "audeze-lcg-gx" on repository or send me a PM.

It is enough to install a free software (EqualizerAPO) if you have a 7.1 sound card, and if you do not have one you will have to install a second free software (Voicemeeter Banana) which serves as a virtual 7.1 sound card, necessary to capture the audio channels in movies/games/etc., then process them by EqualizerAPO and redirect the 2 channels obtained in-fine to your stereo sound card.

Small note: binaural reproduction is quite sensitive and the result may be more or less good depending on the similarity between your ears and mine, and the similarity between the frequency response of your headphones and mine.

Don't hesitate if you have any questions,
Best regards,
Jean Ibarz

 

[12th Monkey]

Link deleted, please refer to forum rule about not trying to drive traffic to other sites. People can PM you if interested.

 

[nopiano]

I’m obviously easily confused, because I thought binaural meant two speakers - that is, left and right in a set of headphones.

 

[JeanIbarz]

Hello,

No problem, let me clarify binaural audio reproduction for you. It's a technique that captures and plays back sound in a way that mimics how humans naturally hear in a 3D environment. We use two microphones, one for each ear, to record the sound as we would experience it.
Although binaural recording involves just two mics (left and right), it can still create a multi-channel audio experience. This is because our brain interprets the differences in time, intensity, and frequency between both ears to pinpoint sound sources in a space. By using special filters and processing, we can simulate surround sound with multiple channels using only two audio channels in headphones.

In my initial post, I mentioned creating a 7.1 surround sound simulation using binaural techniques and stereo headphones, but if I wanted to I could have measured 33 different virtual loudspeakers positions in order to simulate a 33 channels surround system.

I have added two screenshots of the audio flow: filtering the 8 channels using the 14 BRIR filters in one file, and in the other file the stereo downmixing to left/right ear channels.

I hope this clears up any confusion about binaural audio reproduction!