Best Audio Quality for Headphones

[milos.kovacevic99]

Hello,

What should i change on VLC Media Player to get Best Audio Quality for Headphones?

Best regards,

Milos

[Hitchhiker]

Hit Ctrl + P to open prefs and then click "All" at the bottom to open the Advanced menu. In the Search field top left type "head" (without quotes) and then click "Headphone effect" in the left hand panel. In the right hand panel the figure "10" represents the distance between the left speaker and the listener in meters. You can reduce or increase that figure to your liking.

The option to "Compensate delay" can be employed to compensate between speech and lip movement when watching a movie. There's also an option to disable Dolby Surround, but it's not recommended to use it.

In the left hand panel "Spatialaudio" is also an option if the playback is stereo. Checkmark "Headphones mode" to enable it. Similarly if you have an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) on your system you can enable that as well. More on that subject here: https://3diosound.com/blogs/learn-about ... at-is-hrtf

After making your choices, save and then exit vlc and restart.

EDIT: forgot to add menu screenshot.


(click to enlarge)

[Lotesdelere]

Disable time stretching in the audio preferences in Menu Tools -> Preferences -> Audio
Use a faster resampler or no resampler at all in Menu Tools -> Preferences (Show Settings = ALL) -> Audio -> Audio Resampler

After the changes save the preferences then exit and restart VLC.

[jayR]

It depends on what headphones and DAC/HA you use!
My main gear is 130db SNR DAC/HA with closed back planar magnetic high resolution headphones. On this setting, I increase equalizer band 32Hz at 2.0db, 63Hz at 5.4db, 125Hz at 3.2db, 250Hz at 0.6db, 4KHz at 0.9db, 8KHz at 3.2db and 16KHz at 5.6db. This will depend on your headphones and DAC's ability. Yes, VLC offers best sound quality for my high end gears. I tested a dozen other media players. Their quality is no good.

[jayR]

PS: Other bands are all 0db. No change.

[milos.kovacevic99]

Hello,

Thank you for answering. Should i change from flat to headphone effect in Tools(Effecets and Filters)? Which audio resampler should i choose: Secret Rabbit Code(libsamplerate), nearest neighbour audio resampler, Speex resampler or automatic.

Best regards,

Milos

[Lotesdelere]

With good headphones, no equalization should be needed. But it obviously depends on your hardware, your ears and your taste.
No resampler at all should give the best audio quality to avoid ringing and harmonics:
https://src.infinitewave.ca

[jayR]

Even with big diaphragm headphones, low frequency sound is weak! So boost of low frequency sound is needed to have balanced sound level. This problem is more acutely audible with high resolution headphones. Too much equalization also distorts sound. So small increase will do the job.

[jayR]

PS: My hearing decreases rapidly at around 14khz. So I need to boost high frequency as well. You can download Marchand Function Generator Lite to test your hearing ability at high frequency range. So it depends on your gear and your hearing range. I use all other options as VLC default. Audio output device is Windows Multimedia Device output.

[milos.kovacevic99]

Thanks for answers