Headphone listening: Stereo or Prologic II music

[RCduck7]

I know i don't use a decent headphone amp for my Grado headphones, i don't listen through a headphone that much. But when i do, i have the possibility to do that through my Yamaha AV receiver. For normal listening through speakers i prefer stereo through my dedicated stereo amp over the prologic II music setting on the AV amp. But when i do use headphones i prefer the Prologic II music setting over stereo. I found the sound image better with PL II music, better placement and less coming from Left and Right compared to stereo. The Lavry engeneering brand thinks that normal stereo through a headphone can sound wrong compared to speaker listening. That's why they have an image control on some of their DAC's that will benefit headphones most of all but also speakers.

What is your experience? Or should a dedicated headphone amp would make all the diference?

 

[Thaiman]

Hi, sorry I haven't a clue but

Where did you bought your Thailand silk interconnects from? and How much (sorry if I am be too nosy)

thx

TM

 

[idc]

That is interesting about Lavry and stereo imagining. I'll go and read up on that. I have started a thread in the headphones section of the forum about good amps to listen to headphones from and started it off with a Yamaha amp. Would you add your amp with its model number and details to that thanks.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Which Yamaha receiver is it? I'd be surprised if it was outputting Pro-Logic II over headphones, as of course PLII usually processes a stereo signal into multichannel. If you then listen to that output in stereo, you should be getting a lot less of the sound, not more, unless of course the amplifier supports Dolby Headphone or has a proprietary system for creating surround effects in stereo, usually using phase effects to give the illusion of surround.

 

[RCduck7]

Thaiman:

Hi, sorry I haven't a clue but

Where did you bought your Thailand silk interconnects from? and How much (sorry if I am be too nosy)

thx

TM

They are isolation transformers for the mains departement, not interconnects.

My interconnects are from AG Audio, got them from Ebay.

http://www.s-arrowcables.com/agaudioebay.html

 

[RCduck7]

Andrew Everard:Which Yamaha receiver is it? I'd be surprised if it was outputting Pro-Logic II over headphones, as of course PLII usually processes a stereo signal into multichannel. If you then listen to that output in stereo, you should be getting a lot less of the sound, not more, unless of course the amplifier supports Dolby Headphone or has a proprietary system for creating surround effects in stereo, usually using phase effects to give the illusion of surround.

I use a more then 5 year old Yamaha RX-V640RDS for Belgium (guess they are the same in England). I don't know if it is supposed to output other formats then stereo over headphones properly, i doubt but it's a big difference i hear when i switch from stereo to PL II music.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Then I'd suggest you're getting left and right minus common centre channel information...

 

[RCduck7]

I just read a dutch internet review comparing the Sennheiser HD800 to the Grado GS1000i. I also use a grado but not this expensive one. Bottom line is that the main difference between Sennheiser and Grado is that with the Sennheiser it is as if you hear music as if you were sitting on the 2nd or 3rd row of a live performance, with the Grado it is as if you are on the stage between the the players and instruments. I love the Grado sound but if the review is right, maybe that's why i mentioned earlier that with stereo i hear more Left & Right sounds and i prefer the PL II music setting as a result?