this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Headphones

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Plugged in headphones into my laptop and wondered why old Beatles panning was so fucking bad, when I went to test it on my phone and realized that I had mono turned on. Funny I did not even notice considering I obsess over mono vs stereo mixes as a vinyl collector and always search for dedicated mono mixes on Spotify, and I did not even notice the difference with all my stereo tracks being folded. The funny thing is, I think I may enjoy mono more? I find my focus to the core of the song diminished and replaced by my attention pivoting to extra details all over the left and right channels. Should I just return to the cave, or embrace the brave, new world of stereo technology?

Edit: Goddam, the Cranberries sound fucking incredible in stereo

Edit 2: Omg, so do the Cocteau Twins

Edit 3: Cream, Anri, Aphex Twin... so good. Jazz trio and some sixties rock stuff sounds meh however like Kinks and Seeds. Early Dylan sounds awful.

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[–] Quote_a@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I know the feeling. A few months ago I was experimenting with crossfeed, eventually settled on a custom version that was pretty subtle but made it easier to hear stuff panned hard left or hard right. After a couple days of using it I decided it hurt the detail a bit too much and turned it off. Apparently I didn't save my settings after turning it off though, because last week I found out I still had crossfeed on. Presumably it got re-enabled next time I restarted my PC and Peace reloaded the profile. I originally experimented with it in May so I'm pretty sure it's been on that whole time.

Not as big of a difference as mono would be but I still felt like an idiot as soon as I turned it back off. When I originally made my custom commands and did A/B testing I thought I was making a pretty subtle effect, but after months of using it, turning it off felt like getting my ears cleaned out. Huge increase in resolution and the overall presentation/staging feels way more natural. Kinda pissed at myself for taking so long to notice something was wrong.