Headphone/monitors for rich sound

[strabes]

Appreciate that if you can elaborate more about the Enhancer, where should I put it in the signal chain? Thanks in advance.

The name "Enhancer" is misleading. It's a stereo widener block so the first requirement is that you're monitoring in stereo, like with headphones or studio monitors. If you're using a separate audio interface you'll need to run two lines to the audio interface: left and right, and hard pan them in your interface's mixer settings. The second requirement is that there are no mono or summing blocks after the Enhancer block, so the stereo image is preserved. It's easiest to just put it last, right before your output block. There are different widening types in the block that use different techniques to achieve additional stereo width. Some are mono compatible and therefore less wide (modern, stereoizer), whereas the classic mode is a Haas effect which delays one side of the stereo image a few milliseconds. It's not mono compatible but results in the widest sound.

For maximum width I run two slightly different amps/cabs hard panned, with all stereo wet effects (sometimes before the amps, sometimes after), and the Enhancer block on classic mode at around 60% on both parameters IIRC. The result is a super wide image which is a joy to practice with on headphones/monitors because it makes so much space down the middle of my mix for other instruments. I also use this setup live with IEMs for the same reasons.

 

[Lewis Liu]

The name "Enhancer" is misleading. It's a stereo widener block so the first requirement is that you're monitoring in stereo, like with headphones or studio monitors. If you're using a separate audio interface you'll need to run two lines to the audio interface: left and right, and hard pan them in your interface's mixer settings. The second requirement is that there are no mono or summing blocks after the Enhancer block, so the stereo image is preserved. It's easiest to just put it last, right before your output block. There are different widening types in the block that use different techniques to achieve additional stereo width. Some are mono compatible and therefore less wide (modern, stereoizer), whereas the classic mode is a Haas effect which delays one side of the stereo image a few milliseconds. It's not mono compatible but results in the widest sound.

For maximum width I run two slightly different amps/cabs hard panned, with all stereo wet effects (sometimes before the amps, sometimes after), and the Enhancer block on classic mode at around 60% on both parameters IIRC. The result is a super wide image which is a joy to practice with on headphones/monitors because it makes so much space down the middle of my mix for other instruments. I also use this setup live with IEMs for the same reasons.

Many thanks Strabes, this is by far the clearest explanation re the Enhancer block, I will do some experiment once I finished my business trip. That's just interesting.

 

[Bungholio]

Yeah how is the aXv series? i am thinking of getting the a4v's ( i currently use 7 inch monitors but theyre too much for my room) and then sending a calibraiton profile directly on the monitors dsp so i dont have to ever use sonarworks in plugin or standalone version. Currently i use an ir of the correction profile. but it still takes 1 block more .

How do you find the sound on your a7v's.

I love the A7V's. My room isn't very big either (maybe 12' x15') and I don't find them to be too much. I previously was using the T5V's, which are dang good for the money, but the A7V's just sound more rich and detailed. When I was using the T5V's, I also ran a subwoofer at a very low level just to give a little more representation of the low end. I don't need to use the sub with the A7V's. Not that they're too bassy, it's just it seems easier to pick out the different frequency ranges on the A7V's (if that even makes sense). Also love the fact that I can load the calibration file on the Adams and listen without having to run Sonarworks.