RRe: [BC] Turntables (WAS:Achieving good S/N)

[Robert Orban]

At 08:12 PM 1/7/2006, you wrote:
>Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 15:58:38 -0800 (PST)
>From: "Harold Hallikainen" <harold at hallikainen.com>
>Subject: Re: [BC] Turntables (WAS:Achieving good S/N)
>To: "Broadcast Radio Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID:
>         <49465.192.168.1.1.1136678318.squirrel at sujan.hallikainen.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
>
>I always thought binaural was interesting. Sorta like putting your ears on
>extension cords. It SEEMS, though, that binaural would not be enough to
>duplicate the original sound. I've always wondered how we can tell if a
>sound is in front of us instead of behind us. We might get some clue from
>echoes. But I think the real way we tell is by slightly turning our head.
>If we turn to the right and the sound gets closer to our left ear
>(measuring time delay) we know the sound is in front of us. If it gets
>closer to the right ear, it's behind us. With binaural headphones, the
>delay does not change as we turn our heads, so the image sort of follows
>us around. Perhaps intelligent binaural headphones exist that detect head
>rotation and adjust audio delays based on head position. Do they?

The equivalent exists in at least one system designed to simulate 5.1 
listening through headphones where the source material was originally 
designed for 5.1-channel loudspeaker playback. There is a positional sensor 
in the phones, which changes parameters in DSP to convert the 5.1 original 
into binaural. I don't remember who the manufacturer(s) are (and am not 
going to take the time to search), but I suspect that Google will come up 
with something. Two possible sources that come to mind are Dolby ("Dolby 
Headphone") and Lake Systems.

Bob Orban