MyEars Ears-On: Delivering 3D Audio via Stereo Headphones

[Dean478]

Is it possible to use this with applications like Alchemy while using a USB headset?

There are some gaming headphones that do a good job with virtual surround sound, however being USB they bypass the soundcard (and hence Alchemy) which means you can't keep the old surround/EAX effects in older games.

[Dean478]

Doesn't matter anyway. Not a single sound sounds like it's 'infront' when doing hte left ear test. Just sounds like varying loudness in the left ear. Not even distance.

This is with a USB headset in stereo mode.

[exe3]

i'll give it a go, have Creative Fatal1ty headphones (3.5mm jack) and just onboard Realtek HD sound card

With a proper launch in the near future, the eventual plan for MyEars is a yearly subscription around the $60 point - a competitive price considering Dolby Headphones cost in the region of $200.

is that for all MyEars stuff or just the games that don't have the new FMOD? because frankly i'm not paying that no matter how good it is, if it was a one off payment with some good headphones then probably but a yearly subscription for the software alone? get real

/edit

b@stards! i'm a member of EGG, I could've been in that video! T_T oh look it's Dale!

Doesn't matter anyway. Not a single sound sounds like it's 'infront' when doing hte left ear test. Just sounds like varying loudness in the left ear. Not even distance.

yep, getting this as well

screw this I cbf, they all sound like they're coming DIRECTLY from the left, I want my afternoon back

/edit again

I think the problem is with stuff sounding 'in front' of you, the intro voice with her walking behind you was pretty good, but anything with her talking in front of you I don't get it, it comes across as being completely surrounded if you know what I mean

[phx]

One size fits all HRTFs work fine if they are good. The old Aureal cards were fantastic before they got smashed by Creative or NVidia in some **** lawsuit...

[Hashy]

I personally do not see the point of this. I game with headphones (basic Sennheiser PC-131 i think?) and have found they produce a 3D like effect on their own just fine. I found that, with at least CSS & source games, if I changed the sound config from Headphones to 5.1, the 3D effect was even more substantial.

[bundyraider]

screw this I cbf, they all sound like they're coming DIRECTLY from the left, I want my afternoon back

/edit again

I think the problem is with stuff sounding 'in front' of you, the intro voice with her walking behind you was pretty good, but anything with her talking in front of you I don't get it, it comes across as being completely surrounded if you know what I mean

Pretty much my experience too. Just wasted an hour trying to tune this and couldn't get anything to sound like it was coming from anywhere that much forward of my ear line. The end result makes frontal sounds come from inside and top of my head. Rear sounds do seem to work well ,though.

Hate the short samples too. Not long enough to listen too.

Subscribe??????? Like hell. lol

Tell 'em their dreaming.

[exe3]

yea ok I went back, with their test thing I ended up with something that seems decent (haven't tried anything proper yet) except for the left back speaker, that sounds off however it doesn't even look like you can go back and adjust some things, I know it's beta but this thing is pretty poor to be frank

[Dean478]

Yep I'm done trying. Everything sounds from the left ear. Anything "infront" such as the girl speaking at the start sounds in my head.

So we have left = left, front = in my head, rear slightly behind my ear....

This is no different to using a pair of headphones with several drives within the ear peice or Dolby Headphone (and the horrible bathroom effect that comes with it).

[exe3]

just gave Mafia 2 a quick try, i'm getting a bit of a surround feeling but everything sounds muffled, all the sounds are very slightly but very clearly delayed and ultimately it just doesn't sound right, maybe it's a calibration issue but that's hardly my fault given how rubbish the calibration tools are, I reaffirm that this was an epic and utter waste of my afternoon :/ maybe one day they can get this stuff right but not today

[Electrode]

It's very professional and a good effort but the product is weak, the difference is very subtle and your brain adapts quickly. I can't see there being a business model in an online HRTF configuration service.

[jerichosainte]

just gave Mafia 2 a quick try, i'm getting a bit of a surround feeling but everything sounds muffled, all the sounds are very slightly but very clearly delayed and ultimately it just doesn't sound right, maybe it's a calibration issue but that's hardly my fault given how rubbish the calibration tools are, I reaffirm that this was an epic and utter waste of my afternoon :/ maybe one day they can get this stuff right but not today

Yeah I have to agree. The first test to place where the left sounds are coming from is way to touch and go (ended up guessing based on the volume and frequency). Why they put this test at the start looking at all the other tests baffles me, its way more advanced than the following tests. They seriously need to re-work the calibration tools before this will be effective enough to give a better result than 5.1 headphones.

[exe3]

the calibration should have a pleasant sounding continuous tone with a slider for you to move so you can hear the tone go around your head in real time so you can pick the right spots, far too much guess work atm with the 2ms 'snow' sound

a question, is this project just to get virtual 5.1/7.1 surround sound or are they going one step further with true infinite.1 surround sound? it's an epic waste if they're not

[clownius]

got to task 9 and now "Sorry, an error has occured. Please try again."
bug reported, over it already.

[johahn]

Any Audiophiles about to provide a little more technical information on how this works? The company don't provide anything substantial on their site, only marketing spin.

I'm interested but it seems like a total gimmick.

G'day Klas

I am one of the cofounders of the company and was involved in the original research.
Let me briefly try to explain how the technology works.

HRTF is the key to creating high fidelity 3D audio.
Other technologies use "generic" HRTFs because they have no means to measure your HRTFs. Unfortunately, these "generic" HRTFs will not be able to create a realistic 3D space and your sense of "presence" will be significantly degraded. An analogy would be for you to see an optometrist and he prescribes you an "average" set of glasses.

MyEars renders 3D audio using INdividualised HRTFs (Head Related Transfer Functions).

The technology behind MyEars involves a series of listening tasks and based on the results of those tasks we estimate your individualised HRTFs (again, similar to an eye test).
E.g.,
Take the case where we play a sound we thought should appear in front of you, yet you persist in hearing it behind you. This suggests to our algorithm that there was an error in a prior estimation and your profile will be updated accordingly.
In a way, you are "tuning" your own HRTFs.

The science behind MyEars stems from research we did over a decade at ANL (the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory) in the University of Sydney. Simon, CEO/CTO of MyEars, is also an A/Professor and head of ANL.

Simon has created a blog where he discusses the background behind MyEars, it's a great read so do check it out.

http://sonications.posterous.com/

I hope this short summary helps in some way to answering your question on how MyEars work. Rest assured, it's not a gimmick .

Also, Just like to thank everyone for trying out MyEars.
We will have teething problems, even though we had an extensive "pre-beta" period. Nicola, our Technical Lead, goes through all your feedback and bug reports personally.
Bear with us while we iron all the bugs out.

Cheers

Johahn

[Dean478]

Nice to hear from someone involved.Does this mean that the setup process is being looked at also? Or perhaps rather than starting from scratch we are given a profile that works and can simply tailor it to our own perception, rather than just create one entirely?