Ancient obsevation....
When I was a teen I listened to headphones as a way to listen to music (way to loud) and not disturb my parents.
I got accustomed to the headphone sound over years. It took a while, but I got used to the head in the middle of the music feeling. Its much easier to afford a high quality headphone (Sennheiser/Grado) and a headphone amp than a preamp/amp/speakers of similar quality. Add to that the masking of external noise and removing the echo of the room from the equation and you can get a very good sound easily.
My Sennheiser headphones and DIY headphone amp easily beat almost any speaker for detail and musicality. And the downside, the only downside is that the image places me the listener inside a sphere of sound.
When experimenting with speakers you undoubtedly are driving your amplifier far less hard with your ears that close. It could be that you are still operating in your amps Class A limits at such low wattage.
AND at low volumes you are exciting room resonances far less.
Headphone lovers talk about Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) algorithms to simulate the effects of ear pinnae, head size, and listening environment. In some cases they actually add reverb because many listeners need a small amount of reverb to feel like they are in a room.
Then there's the simple crossfeed circuits that blend the left/right channel to reduce the "headphone" effect.
If you like the sound of speakers with reduced crossfeeding, get some Sennheisers.
Some of the better sound cards have licensed algorithms for doing 5.1 channel movie sound into headphones. Anyone hear a good one?
When I was a teen I listened to headphones as a way to listen to music (way to loud) and not disturb my parents.
I got accustomed to the headphone sound over years. It took a while, but I got used to the head in the middle of the music feeling. Its much easier to afford a high quality headphone (Sennheiser/Grado) and a headphone amp than a preamp/amp/speakers of similar quality. Add to that the masking of external noise and removing the echo of the room from the equation and you can get a very good sound easily.
My Sennheiser headphones and DIY headphone amp easily beat almost any speaker for detail and musicality. And the downside, the only downside is that the image places me the listener inside a sphere of sound.
When experimenting with speakers you undoubtedly are driving your amplifier far less hard with your ears that close. It could be that you are still operating in your amps Class A limits at such low wattage.
AND at low volumes you are exciting room resonances far less.
Headphone lovers talk about Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) algorithms to simulate the effects of ear pinnae, head size, and listening environment. In some cases they actually add reverb because many listeners need a small amount of reverb to feel like they are in a room.
Then there's the simple crossfeed circuits that blend the left/right channel to reduce the "headphone" effect.
If you like the sound of speakers with reduced crossfeeding, get some Sennheisers.
Some of the better sound cards have licensed algorithms for doing 5.1 channel movie sound into headphones. Anyone hear a good one?
poldus said:
I got it from a sony monitor that was being sold for parts. The monitor actually seemed to work fine, but I'm more worried about getting the yss901 working then saving the monitor. I don't even own a soldering gun, so this is gonna be a real learning experience. If anybody has some recommendations, I'd appreciate them. I guess the yss901 is smd/smt so its gonna be really tight work. I really want to invest some time though. There are so many things I would like to be able to mod. One of which is my JVC xp-A1010. I would love to be able to hook into it and run digital(processed) out to my panny sa-xr25. I'm wondering if maybe that is overkill, cause it sounds pretty amazing running analog right now. It just would be nice to eliminate the d/a in the jvc and a/d in the panny and run pure digital, if it is even possible.
Thats a nice pair of ax-1's you got there! I just l picked up an A3090, its nice having the amplification in the same box, but I prefer the jvc's processing. I'm using the yam for the side channels right now. The yamahas are beasts, mine weighs a ton. Thanks for posting the pics. What are those esl's?
Daveis said:
Thanks for the info. There is something to be said for headphones, but personally they are not for me. I never have liked them even if they are comfortable. I just don't like having anything attached to my head.
sunshinedawq:
Are you using the digital or the analog output from your source into the jvc?
Do you have the yss901 chip´s operating instructions? Cause I found them in pdf format, even though all that digital parlance escapes my comprehension. I guess it´s not as simple as: find the digital input and output to the chip, hook up and there you go.
The esl´s are quad-57 but I´ve reverted to my diy speakers since the 57´s take too much space in the room and the sonic advantage is not that big.
Daveis: I haven´t used headphones in years but I´d like to give them a try, at least for comparative purposes. Who knows, I might be in for a surprise. Mind, I have misgivings about having the front sounds inside my head in the long run,since I listen for many hours a day, even though headphones do excell in other areas. I guess no system is perfect so we are doomed with eternal insatisfaction
Are you using the digital or the analog output from your source into the jvc?
Do you have the yss901 chip´s operating instructions? Cause I found them in pdf format, even though all that digital parlance escapes my comprehension. I guess it´s not as simple as: find the digital input and output to the chip, hook up and there you go.
The esl´s are quad-57 but I´ve reverted to my diy speakers since the 57´s take too much space in the room and the sonic advantage is not that big.
Daveis: I haven´t used headphones in years but I´d like to give them a try, at least for comparative purposes. Who knows, I might be in for a surprise. Mind, I have misgivings about having the front sounds inside my head in the long run,since I listen for many hours a day, even though headphones do excell in other areas. I guess no system is perfect so we are doomed with eternal insatisfaction
I'm using coaxial digital into my sa-xr45 for my mains(with barrier) and my source also has synced optical and analog outs. I use the optical to go to the jvc and the thru optical on the Jvc to go to the a3090. I haven't experimented with the analog outs, was thinking of maybe picking up a lexicon for those. I have the pdf for the yss901, thanks. i really don't understand it all either. I think there is a digin, digout, a clock and a sync, but I have no idea how to mate these with the panny sa-xr45, but I know fcserei has done just this, so its possible. Its just whether I'm capable enough to follow his instructions.
Some details:
First the panasonic xr-25/45. The big chip on the right is the 6 channel TI equibit modulator on the main amp board. You will ned to cut the traces at the red X, and the necessary signals and the flow is marked with an arrow:
Also the +5V, Gnd and reset signals are coming from this board.
First the panasonic xr-25/45. The big chip on the right is the 6 channel TI equibit modulator on the main amp board. You will ned to cut the traces at the red X, and the necessary signals and the flow is marked with an arrow:
Also the +5V, Gnd and reset signals are coming from this board.
Attachments
The 901 board preparation:
I found it best to cut the board small to include only the necessary part. If you leave the board as it is, you have to remove the PS parts, because they are very noisy.
On this board you will have to lift a couple of legs of the 901 chip, because the trace is inaccessible in any other way. To connect to the panasonic, I've used the original CN402 connector. It has all the power connections, and enough free legs to accommodate the necessary signals.
I found it best to cut the board small to include only the necessary part. If you leave the board as it is, you have to remove the PS parts, because they are very noisy.
On this board you will have to lift a couple of legs of the 901 chip, because the trace is inaccessible in any other way. To connect to the panasonic, I've used the original CN402 connector. It has all the power connections, and enough free legs to accommodate the necessary signals.
Attachments
yss901
would be interesting to get the impulse responses of yss901 (left In to left Out, left In to right Out)
If anybody having this chip could provide it, we could implement same transfert functions into a convolution software and easily make listenings. (is yss901 completly equivalent to stereo dipole ?)
Thanks for any info
would be interesting to get the impulse responses of yss901 (left In to left Out, left In to right Out)
If anybody having this chip could provide it, we could implement same transfert functions into a convolution software and easily make listenings. (is yss901 completly equivalent to stereo dipole ?)
Thanks for any info
poldus said:fcserei: this is probably a stupid question, but then I am oblivious of everything digital. Can the yss board not be made to plug into the amp´s digital input as an external device? I don´t think i would dare to tinker into my yamaha amp even if I knew what to do
That can be done, you can use the onboard AD/DA of the chip. The op-amp and IIC controlled tone/volume chip in front of the AD and after the DA is a low quality one using a single (and very noisy) +5V power supply on board. If you use it within a pre-amp, you can bypass those and connect directly to the analog in/out pins of the chip, but it can not handle long interconnects alone.
That was how I used the board originally, within the XP-a1010 with analog or digital in and analog out.
So, it can be done as long as you use the yss´analog out but not the digital out because then we need some signals that can only be retrieved from the amp´s innards. Is that it?
Also, how do select between the different speaker positioning angles (CSEL ) without the controls and menu on the sony screen?
Thanks for your help.
Also, how do select between the different speaker positioning angles (CSEL ) without the controls and menu on the sony screen?
Thanks for your help.
I think I'm in way over my head. I'm not even sure what questions to ask. I guess the first would be: have you chosen to connect to legs in some places and traces in others just for convenience? Is it possible to make a sketch of your circuit including which legs and traces are used so I know what goes where?
One thing that´s keeping me from attempting this route right now (other than the technical difficulty) is the fact that sacd would suffer a/d-d/a conversion. Fcserei could explain wether the convenience of ditching the physical barrier offsets the potential loss in sound quality when using analog inputs. If it does then I might consider it. Also, using the creative 2000 board might be easier to implement for the non digital-savvy?