HeadPlug

Crossfeed plugin for headphone users (windows XP bugfix)

This is a simple DSP plugin for WinAmp.



It's intended to use when listening to music (or any other sound) via headphones.

It tries to remove the over emphasis of the stereo effect and make the 'sound-stage' a little more natural.



If you can't imagine what that's supposed to sound just give it a try, maybe you'll like it.



Don't expect any reasonable effect when using with large stereo speakers.

Staff review

Kinda hard to explain how this alters the sound... it's best to check it out as the author says. Allows for the saving of presets.

Comments

excellent! - Recently got a set of Grado headphones, and was noticing the extreme left/right on some tracks. This plug-in dropped it down to an acceptable level; the sound is more "live", "warm", "fuzzy". Good stuff! - December 23, 2008 by Joshua Thomas

Exactly what I was looking for - For the most part, I usually don't have a problem with stereo sources and headphones, but I just recently purchased Paul Desmond's album "Bossa Antigua" -- beautiful music, but it was mixed with each instrument practically panned 100% either Left or Right. It quickly started to give me a headache. Having known about headphone amps with crossfeed features, I searched WinAmp for a crossfeed plug-in and was very happy to find this! 4.5 Stars.Loses half star because I wish it had a better upper range boost to compensate for some of the loss created by the crossfeed. It doesn't really sound too bad though, and with some sources it might actually sound good. I guess I can use another DSP to do small adjustments as needed... - September 26, 2007 by Stephen Daniels

perfect - The effect seems subtle at first, but once you've listened with it on for some time, you can't live without it. Default settings are good. - January 30, 2006 by Shaun Hill

Awesome! - great plugin! it definetly fixes up your headphone audio! - January 14, 2006 by ben lewis

use it to believe it - You really have to use it to believe it. really don't know what the software does but its does magic I can say, its nice to use it and listen on headphone. - July 7, 2005 by Anand VVN

Excellent - So far the best headphone fix I found. Period. The sound is homehow altered, slightly "warmer" and "fuzzier" I feel, but generally it makes the headphone listening much more pleasant and less fatique. The customization needs some time, my best results are based on slightly larger delay and less crosfeed power with higher treble cutoff. - April 29, 2005 by Arnold Rimmer

rechecked n loved it - after goin through other use remarks i tried this with a better headphone. wow, sound did improved more than i thought. well sorry "Paul Groke", 4 not checkin u r plugin out carefully. this time i tried 2 tweak this plugin n found a good result. as far as resource eatin is conserned, it wasn't much 4 P4 presscott CPUs. this plugin needs 2 be tried 4 sometime 2 get used 2. i was able 2 listen 2 Hard Rock 4 continous 5hrs while doin my work (plugins like DFX is really hard 2 bear 4 long time). - April 14, 2005 by Aniruddha Biswas

perfect crossfeed plug - I've been using a DIY headphone amp with a built-in crossfeed filter, and I've really gotten addicted to it. But, I was feeling like I wanted to get the extra circuitry out of my amp. Now I can do it without giving up the crossfeed! This plugin is awesome. If you listen to winamp on headphones, you owe it to yourself to try this out. Some people might find the effect subtle at first, but give yourself time to get used to it. You'll never go back! - April 7, 2005 by Karl Gruenewald

Excellent, does exactly what it should! - even with the default settings, I found this plugin to make my music really stand out with headphones, I can never see any reason not to use this plugin, as it makes the music standout more vividly, and clearer, I love it. - March 5, 2005 by Jason Hixon

A Superb Plugin! - This is the plugin I've been waiting for. It is very subtle, but that is the point. Anyone who uses headphones will appreciate this plugin. It mimics the crossover functionality found in many high-end headphone amplifiers, and even surpasses them with quite a high degree of adjustability. I like to use this inline with enhancement DSPs such as DFX or Izotope Ozone. HeadPlug sits at the end of the chain and makes everything sound a bit more natural. I've run a digital recording studio for 10 years, and I can tell you that this is the real deal. Thanks Paul, keep up the great work! - January 13, 2005 by William French

Excellent - HeadPlug DEFINATELY helps with the spatial "flatness" found on most music designed for speaker systems. It's acoustic model does a superb job of simulating the effect of speakers on the sound and helps put spatially arranged tracks back where they belong in the virtual sound field. - November 23, 2004 by JohnMichael OBrien

not bad... - for those of you out there who own a worthy enough set of headphones, check out this plugin. labtec headphone guy, try getting some sennheisers... then you might feel differently. - October 22, 2004 by Nolan Ryan

Wt the hell is this? - Hi guys i m an audiophile. When i 1st heard about this plugin i thought it'd end my everlastin quest 4 a kick ass plugin 4 headphones. Sorry "Paul Groke" u r plugin's a bullshit. Wt it does is only eats up CPU when C/F Treble Cutoff is high (mines a p4 prescott 2.4 GHz, 1 Mb L2 Catche). There is no( yah absolutely nil ) improvement after usin this fuckin plugin ( i gotta labtec headphone). So plz don't make such shits Mr Paul Groke n others. guys better try wave surround. Well 1 star 4 u r effort Mr. Paul Groke. Thx 4 buggin me - October 6, 2004 by e _

subtle is the way to go! - The less processing done on the data, the better. The alterations done by this plugin are supposed to be subtle, because otherwise, our brains would be as confused by the unreal "spatiality" as they are by the direct stereo provided by headphones. The only thing I've found comparable to this plugin is Wavearts' WaveSurround, which not only is *very* expensive, but also requires AdaptX (more $$). Keep up the good work! - September 4, 2004 by Aniruddha Biswas

Eh, largely useless. - I've downloaded the plugin, and I must say that it makes no audible difference in the stereo music I've listened to using my headphones, and the sliders seem to be there only for show, though the C/F Treble Cutoff will result in marginally higher CPU usage if lowered. The plugin's all but useless for streaming files, like SPC's, NSF's, and the like. If the plugin is used for these filetypes, Winamp's CPU usage will shoot up, and if the C/F Treble Cutoff is low enough, it'll lock the system up solid. I hate to give the plugin such a low score, since it's exactly what I've been looking for, but it just doesn't do a bit of good. - August 28, 2004 by Aaron Miller

Mekon - Really liked the sound through my laptop speakers. Nice open sound with the default settings. Can't say that I understood the various settings apart from output gain. Tried the original version. Only worked with Apollo. Now all OK with the bugfix. Goes well with WA504. - August 24, 2004 by Anthonius Runeblaze

XP freeze/crash bug fixed - XP freeze/crash bug fixed. Nothing more to say. (I don't like rating my own plugin -- I'll give me a 4 this time. A "no rating" option would help here...) - July 28, 2004 by Tony Bryan

bug reports - hi guys! strange thing, the plugin works for me and for several other people, using winamp 2.91, winamp 5.03c and apollo-audio-player, and even winamp 5 in combination with WINE. so this puzzles me a little. if you want this fixed, please mail me a more detailed error-description. i could then send you a debug-version, so when it crashes it would print out where - which would help me to find any possible errors. also please tell me what operating system you use, how much RAM, what CPU (and if it's overclocked or not),... bye, Paul - July 17, 2004 by Paul Groke

crashie - I'd like to see this working, since I listen a lot to music using headphones. It crashed when I tried to open the config... - July 16, 2004 by Paul Groke

Never had a chance - Sorry man, just downloaded this plug-in coz i\'m listening to my winamp via earphones in the office, unfortunately it never got started. Winamp 5.03a crashed when I used this plugin... hope you fix it. - July 15, 2004 by Siebe .