Hi! Welcome to my second instructable! Don't forget to rate and comment! :D
First off, what is an "acoustic simulator"?
It can be anything to simulate the effect of being in a room, creating an effect of open space, or even give the illusion of hearing sounds from different directions. This is usually achieved through software. Results vary, as there is coloration to the sound and the simulations can be very invasive to listening.
Unlike software implementations, what I will show here is a simple hardware solution to get rid of the "in-head" effect that headphones have. It is not designed to give the illusion that you're in an auditorium with reverb. Rather, it is designed to simulate the feeling of hearing audio in front of you. Its purpose is to improve the soundstage.
The main goal is to reduce fatigue and make headphone listening natural and pleasant.
In this instructable, I will show my build of a Linkwitz crossfeed. This particular design was modified by Chu Moy, the person responsible for the famous "cmoy" headphone amp design. I take no credit for this design, only my simple modifications.
First off, what is an "acoustic simulator"?
It can be anything to simulate the effect of being in a room, creating an effect of open space, or even give the illusion of hearing sounds from different directions. This is usually achieved through software. Results vary, as there is coloration to the sound and the simulations can be very invasive to listening.
Unlike software implementations, what I will show here is a simple hardware solution to get rid of the "in-head" effect that headphones have. It is not designed to give the illusion that you're in an auditorium with reverb. Rather, it is designed to simulate the feeling of hearing audio in front of you. Its purpose is to improve the soundstage.
The main goal is to reduce fatigue and make headphone listening natural and pleasant.
In this instructable, I will show my build of a Linkwitz crossfeed. This particular design was modified by Chu Moy, the person responsible for the famous "cmoy" headphone amp design. I take no credit for this design, only my simple modifications.
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Signing UpStep 1: What is a crossfeed? (Theory)
When you hear sounds panned hard right/left with headphones, you don't hear anything in your other ear. In real life, you always hear sound with both ears. A person speaks to the right of you. Do you only hear them with your right ear?
In reality, you're hearing with both. Your brain recieves signals from both ears and interprets the direction from which the sound is coming from. You may be hearing to the right of you, but your brain also interprets if the sound is close, far, in front of, or behind you. When you listen to audio with headphones, this directional information is lost.
To remedy this, we welcome the crossfeed. A crossfeed circuit bleeds the left and right channels just a bit to give off that lost sense of direction. While it does not give the illusion of surround sound, it does give you the feeling of listening to audio from speakers in front of you rather than through headphones on your ears.
Music from live performances and orchestras sound particularly good with a crossfeed. Mono recordings and music that generally sits "in the middle" will not benefit from a crossfeed much, or at all.
In reality, you're hearing with both. Your brain recieves signals from both ears and interprets the direction from which the sound is coming from. You may be hearing to the right of you, but your brain also interprets if the sound is close, far, in front of, or behind you. When you listen to audio with headphones, this directional information is lost.
To remedy this, we welcome the crossfeed. A crossfeed circuit bleeds the left and right channels just a bit to give off that lost sense of direction. While it does not give the illusion of surround sound, it does give you the feeling of listening to audio from speakers in front of you rather than through headphones on your ears.
Music from live performances and orchestras sound particularly good with a crossfeed. Mono recordings and music that generally sits "in the middle" will not benefit from a crossfeed much, or at all.
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You should be careful with electrolytic capacitors being in the audio path because they have a polarity associated with them. AC signals like audio are moving positive and then negative and then back. Over time, electrolytic capacitors "go bad" when the polarity is backwards. It might not be a problem now, but maybe in the future it will be.
Electrolytic capacitors are mostly used for power sections in a circuit that require filtering. An example is on a power supply to remove noise.
It's pretty awesome that it worked on the first try. That almost never happens. :D
Good luck on your future projects.
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Currently I'm trying to come up with another simple electronics project revolving around audio. If anybody stumbles across this comment, don't be afraid to give ideas. :)
Tell me if he likes it. :]
If you want more options, consider looking in to switching between different R1 resistors. This will enable you to adjust the soundstage to your choosing on the fly.
Thanks for the comment. :)
You get short cables in audio shops, also handsfree kits etc often have odd length cables with them if it's any help...
Maybe I'll replace my input with RCA jacks instead. I see RCA to 3.5mm adapters everyhere.