Weiss Enginering Ltd.
DSP501/DSP502
2.3.10
The Crosstalk Cancellation (XTC)
The XTC processing is a special kind of filtering which allows to reduce the crosstalk between the left speaker
and the right ear and between the right speaker and the left ear.
Thus the playback resembles a playback via headphones (where that crosstalk is close to zero), but speak-
ers are used and thus the problems with headphone playback (e.g. in-head localization) are avoided.
the XTC plugin is
selected
→
enable is highlited in
red
→
Distance between
speaker centers
→
in meters
Distance listener
→
to baseline between
speakers
Listener’s head
width
→
Mid frequency
attenuation
→
High frequeny
attenuation
→
Figure 12: XTC plugin
With the XTC playback the listeners gets a live-like listening experience. The sound stage extends beyond
the speakers and even becomes 3-dimensional with certain recordings. The best suited recordings are
those made with a dummy head (binaural recordings) and live recordings also are often suited very well.
The dummy head is a plastic model of a human head with microphones in its ears. This head is placed in
the concert hall in order to record the performance in a 2-channel manner.
XTC works best if the speakers are fairly close to each other compared to the listener distance. Set the
geometry of your setup with the Distance Speakers and Distance Listener faders. If the geometry is not
very well suited for the XTC playback, the background of the two fader sections turns yellow.
The XTC may still work but may be compromised. Note, the listener distance is the distance between lis-
tener and the baseline between the speakers.
Also set your head width with the appropriate fader. This value is not that critical. 15cm is a typical head
width.
With the Attenuation parameters set the XTC for best performance. Start the Attenuation BP fader at the
left and move it to the right for an optimal setting. Around -5dB is a typical value for a good performance.
The
Attenuation HP
you may set to the same value as the
Attenuation BP
or experiment with its setting. The
Attenuation HP
controls the XTC of the high frequency band, so changes may be more difficult to notice.
The
Attenuation BP
controls the mid frequency band.
The low frequencies are not crosstalk cancelled at all. After setting all parameters you may switch back
and forth between XTC on and off to check the effect. You may notice a loss in the low frequency band
when switching on the XTC. This can be compensated with the EQ plugin. E.g. boost the low frequencies
at around 150Hz with a peaking filter at
Q
around 1.4 and a boost of a few dBs.
2.3.11
Crossfeed Headphone
The Crossfeed Headphone plugin is designed to enhance the playback via headphones. Its usage is espe-
cially recommended when listening to audio with high channel separation. Furthermore it creates a more
User Manual and
14
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