Thanks for the review on the Headzone in the current mag, I've been waiting a while for feedback on this unit. Could the reviewer please say how the Headzone surround experience compares to Dolby Headphone (which you can get for about £200, or even included on some receivers). Are we talking night and day difference or just a bit better. In particular how is the centre channel; with dolby headphone the centre speaker is never more than an inch or so away from your head and it takes a while to psycologically adjust to this when listening to dialogue and "pushing" it back to the images on the screen. How would you compare the overall surround effect/quality to a mid range 5.1 system, and what was it like for listing to 2 channel cd's on?
The price of £2,000 is ludicrous and is more or less the same as the professional unit they were selling for a year before they released the Headzone Home. There will probably be an updated version in a year or so with decoding for the new HD sound formats, so I can't see too many people buying this. It should also be wireless with the option to add wired cans.
With two very young children, my tower speakers are in storage, so I use and really enjoy wireless Dolby Headphone for the way it immerses you in a movie by cutting off the outside world. It's not as good as full on 5.1, but it's a damned sight better than low volume 5.1. I also find I remember a lot more about movies several weeks later than I would have with my 5.1 system, purely because it is so immersive.
There must be a market out there for high quality headphone surround for apartment dwellers and late night listeners. I'd love to get a better system than Dolby Headphone, but the Headzone is crazy money. There is another product from Smyth Virtual Surround (SVS) that is supposed to be fantastic but it hasn't come to market yet; there was supposed to be a US$500 Yamaha licensed product (YSV-1) but it never appeared, apart from some CES appearances. Here's hoping it's still somewhere on the horizon.
Having said that, there has been very little interest/publicity in Dolby Headphone in Ireland/UK and most people have had to source their processing units from Europe for the Philips, and Japan for the Pioneer.
The price of £2,000 is ludicrous and is more or less the same as the professional unit they were selling for a year before they released the Headzone Home. There will probably be an updated version in a year or so with decoding for the new HD sound formats, so I can't see too many people buying this. It should also be wireless with the option to add wired cans.
With two very young children, my tower speakers are in storage, so I use and really enjoy wireless Dolby Headphone for the way it immerses you in a movie by cutting off the outside world. It's not as good as full on 5.1, but it's a damned sight better than low volume 5.1. I also find I remember a lot more about movies several weeks later than I would have with my 5.1 system, purely because it is so immersive.
There must be a market out there for high quality headphone surround for apartment dwellers and late night listeners. I'd love to get a better system than Dolby Headphone, but the Headzone is crazy money. There is another product from Smyth Virtual Surround (SVS) that is supposed to be fantastic but it hasn't come to market yet; there was supposed to be a US$500 Yamaha licensed product (YSV-1) but it never appeared, apart from some CES appearances. Here's hoping it's still somewhere on the horizon.
Having said that, there has been very little interest/publicity in Dolby Headphone in Ireland/UK and most people have had to source their processing units from Europe for the Philips, and Japan for the Pioneer.
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