14 DAY TRIAL // Undoubtedly, you have at least heard about the next generation of headphones: surround, 5.1, stuff like that. Most of the people in sound tech were amazed when this issue first hit the chalkboards: was that 5.1 thingie possible for headphones as well? And if it was, was it going to really work and produce true surround environments? The fact is that this was a real thing, not a dream-of design and surround headphones quickly emerged on the market, much to the public's delight.
Now it's time for a serious bang from the headphones' inventor itself, the Beyerdynamic Company. And when I say bang, believe me it's true: the company with its 82 years-experience in the audio field has managed to finalize researches and to actually put in production the first portable 5.1 headphones amplifier/mixing system. Headzone (this is the name of the new-born star) acts also as a control room simulator, allowing you to tweak a lot of parameters you'd have to take care of in the real life: number of speakers and their placement in the room, the acoustic properties and the size of the room itself, distance between the listener and the sound sources and so on. The ultrasonic headtracking system can tell Headzone what the position of your head actually is, so the device can react such as to re-create the exact acoustic dynamics one would meet in reality; Headzone will replicate the positions of the virtual speakers so the relative position and movement of the source-listener couple will result in an adequate signal distribution - the listener will receive a sound extremely close to the real life response.
The constant adaptation of the signal levels which simulates the "moving" sound source is the key element in the inner working of the Headzone: traditional headphones, even the 5.1 ones will have the sound source in exactly the same place (relative to your ears) as you turn your head; well, this is what Beyerdynamic has accomplished: assuming you are listening to some audio content and the "sweet spot" (the place where the audio is heard best in its entirety) is just in front of your forehead, turning your head 90 degrees to the left will result in you actually hearing the sound somewhere just outside your right ear - exactly as if you were turning away from a person which speaks to you on the sidewalk. Well?
Even more, the applications of such a device as the Headzone are extending far into the highly-professional field: 5.1 surround studio or broadcast monitoring has never been easier! Adding the fact that the Headzone will provide real life-like sound distribution will result in a more accurate data-interpretation from the sound engineers and technicians. Being so small and lightweight, the Headzone can be extremely easy carried away to where the events take place so you'll have a full surround control room at hand in any second! Finally, Headzone means a tremendous advantage for the games-sound developers: imagine the real potential of a sound-creation team working for games whose audio replicates real-life positioning and dynamics according to the relative movement of the camera/player in the game-world! Having 5.1 surround sound coming from speakers that DON'T MOVE along with the listener is the breakthrough Beyerdynamic have managed to transform in physical, touchable reality.
Finally, ASIO and WDM integrated drivers and support for Win2000/XP and Mac OS X (apple Core Audio supported), 5.1 Firewire digital input and 6 analog Audio inputs and user presets which can easily be saved make the Headzone a device with full connectivity to any PC or Mac anywhere. Adding the adored DT 880 PRO studio headphones (250 ohms) with integrated ultrasonic exciters to the package will sure make the interest in Beyerdynamic's Headzone rise to the sky and above; I can barely wait to see what the professionals will have to say about it!
Photos courtesy of: Beyerdynamic
