As a longtime headphone user, I have recently been trying to optimise my Roon setup for headphones to create a more “speaker-like” experience when I am away from my main system (Smyth Realiser A16). Based on recent feedback from fellow Realiser owners, I can also recommend trying the Virtuoso app (Windows and Apple OSX) which uses the same headphone convolution files as Roon but adds sophisticated binaural processing and handles multichannel surround effectively. This has been developed by the Applied Psychoacoustics Lab (APL) at the University of Huddersfield.
I have tested this with Roon on both stereo and Qobuz 5.1 multichannel music with excellent results. The test version is free and the full version costs $99. Not quite a Smyth Realiser, but fantastic value for the money, and far better than Roon’s “old school” crossfeed processor. For more details, check their website APL VIRTUOSO the Binaural Translator for Immersive Audio .
I just checked the CanOpener site at CanOpener Studio — by Goodhertz, Inc.. It is now a plugin for ProTools and similar studio software, although you can use it for music with a Mac if you buy Audio Hijack as well (which allows you to stream Tidal, Roon, Spotify etc. via CanOpener). I may give it a try, although my initial reaction to the product is that it is totally focused on crossfeed, rather than HRTF based binaural (i.e. recreating real rooms and speakers via your headphones, usually with a head-tracker).
Until I tested Virtuoso, I was only aware of two systems that successfully used HRTF binaural techniques to recreate the speaker/room experience. By far the best is the Smyth Realiser A16 (which I own). This takes measurements of your ear’s audio responses using microphones, as well as recreating the frequency, timing and phase responses of real speaker/room interfaces and provides a very compelling illusion of the real thing, with up to 16 surround channels. However, it is now very expensive. There was also a (now defunct) product called Out Of Your Head, which apparently used reverse-engineered files from the Smyth A8. This is no longer functional for current Macs but apparently worked quite well with Roon in the past.
Virtuoso provides some aspects of the Smyth offering (including 16 channel virtual surround), but at a far cheaper cost, and works on a normal Mac or PC without additional hardware (although you can add a cheap head-tracker). For me, it is now a go-to listening tool with Roon whenever I am away from my main system, and just have a laptop available. A 14 day test is free, so you can decide for yourself whether it is worthwhile. For those with access to Qobuz (which I think is still unavailable in South Africa), the 5.1 version of the St Matthew Passion conducted by Rene Jacobs is absolutely stunning using Roon and Virtuoso into headphones.
Good question. This took me some time to get right, but if you are running Roon on a Mac or PC, the integration is fairly easy. You install both Virtuoso and an additional audio routing software (I am using Blackhole 16ch). Launch Roon and Virtuoso and then enable Blackhole as an audio endpoint.
Then you open Virtuoso / Options / Audio Settings and set up Blackhole as the input and your normal USB based DAC as the output (I haven’t tried networked DACs yet). I have also set up Virtuoso to handle my 5.1 and 7.1 surround music files (as well as Qobuz 5.1).
After that, you will need to decide which HRTF and speaker settings work best for you (a lot depends on how your ears respond to the configuration). The Active Perception Lab at the University of Antwerp offer a personalised HRTF plus a headtracker for €200 (https://www.earfish.eu), but I found one of the 3 standard HRTFs in Virtuoso worked OK for me.
I am fairly sure this solution will still work when I return home and revert to using the Mac as an endpoint (my main Core is on ROCK). In any event, the Virtuoso test version is free for 14 days, so you can decide for yourself.
Having spent the last few days testing Virtuoso, I can confirm that it is surprisingly effective, both on headphones and also Shure earbuds, where the soundstage is quite transformed. I found that most of the benefits seem to be with stereo and mono classical recordings, where the “in the head” experience of many headphones is largely removed, and replaced with quite a convincing binaural soundstage. I also had a brief test with Apple Music on a Mac - the system was able to play 7.1.4 Atmos through headphones and isolate each virtual speaker. So far, for $99, this seems like an audio bargain for Roon headphone lovers.
Update. APL have a Black Friday sale on the latest release of Virtuoso emulation software - now $79, including simulation of 11 loudspeakers, including ATC, Dutch & Dutch, Genelec and others. It handles 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos from Apple Music, as well as 5.1 surround music tracks from Qobuz, and 7.1 movies from Netflix etc. However, as yet, there is no upmixer, so stereo sound will still be stereo, with the added acoustic of one of the standard listening rooms plus the selected speaker EQ (see below).
The updated Virtuoso User Manual now lists the 11 near-field monitor loudspeakers available for emulation as well as the different room options. Amazing value for $79 - this is now my preferred surround headphone processor when I haven’t got access to my Smyth A16. Although it doesn’t approach the fidelity of the A16 with good open headphones like the Sennheiser HD800, it does have much more flexibility, a far better GUI and manual, and even provides a convincing surround speaker emulation on my Shure 1200 electrostatic earbuds (better than the A16). Quote from the User Manual below.
“SPK EQs emulate the complex and unique frequency response of the loudspeakers. Therefore, they allow you to choose virtual loudspeakers with different spectral balances for your monitoring purposes but also can be used for adding a unique tonal colour to your native binaural mix. More headphones and loudspeaker EQs will be added in future updates.
(A) ATC SCM11 (B) ATC SCM7 (C) Barefoot MM45 (D) BW 705 S2 (E) Dutch and Dutch 8C (F) Genelec 8331A (G) Harbeth M30.2 XD (H) Nuemann KH120A (I) PMC6 (J) Q Acoustics 3030i (K) Yamaha HS5
Note: The frequency response of a loudspeaker depends on the frequency and measurement posi- tion and most near-field loudspeakers have limited low-end response. The SPK EQs are designed to emulate only the on-axis response above around 250Hz, thus maintaining the original low-end extension of the default (None) setting.”
Hi Gimlet. Was wondering if you could help me get Roon working with Virtuoso? I only see two channels working in V and in Roon it says 6 channels remixed to 2 channels. Perhaps we could message together when you have time? Thanks in advance !
Hi James. I haven’t used Virtuoso for a while as I have a Smyth Realiser at home - I mainly use Virtuoso when I travel. However, I have just fired it up on my Macbook Pro, and I also got 2 channel sound with Roon!. So then I checked the Audio Midi, Blackhole and Virtuoso settings were correct - see below.
I then checked my Roon signal path again - it was correctly set to 5.1 or 7.1 channels, but was down mixing to stereo because I had the convolution engine modifying my headphone response curve. That only works for stereo, hence the downmixing. I took out the convolution stage, and multi-channel is working correctly - see graphic below (I used an old quad file for testing). Hope this helps. I would be happy to look at your signal path if you still have problems.
Hi and thanks for reply and shots. I’m not seeing channel mapping in my file path? I’m also not familiar with the convolution path.
I’m on an iMac and use Fiio K5 Pro for Dac/Amp. My headphones are plugged into the FiiO K5. I also have Kef desktop speakers hooked up via the RCA outs on back of FiiO K5.
Here are some screenshots. I have the Apple Midi to Blackhole both in and outputs.
Thanks James. Your Virtuoso settings look OK. On the assumption that you already have Audio Midi set up the same as mine, the issue may be in device settings. This is my advanced settings screenshot (for Blackhole, which is the virtual output device in Roon).
Virtuoso recommend buying the supperware head tracker. [Support — Supperware]. Some people on head-fi also recommend the Arduino head tracker. I haven’t used a head tracker with Virtuoso personally, but the feedback on head-fi was fairly positive.
Happy to help. By the way, Virtuoso also works for 5.1 channel surround sound in movies and streamed video. Just download the Netflix 1080p extension for Chrome, and it will automatically pick up any 5.1 surround channels and send them to your headphones via Virtuoso. Same for MUBI streaming in Safari - although for MUBI you don’t need an extension for surround.
If anyone needs to set it up on Windows, you can use https://jackaudio.org. Go to C:\Program Files\JACK2\jack-router\win64\JackRouter.ini and change input and output to the needed number of channels.
Then launch QjackCtl, start server, select Jack ASIO device in Roon and Jack Router device in virtuoso
Start playing something in Roon, go to device setup, Advanced and change Channel Layout to e.g. 5.1. Then go to QjackCtl and open Graph. Connect RAAT Server outputs to Virtuoso inputs and Virtuoso outputs to system playback. Now you should get your Roon audio through virtuoso
