Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

Post Reply
Mustang Martigan
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:30 pm
Location: BOSTON, MA

Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition

Post by Mustang Martigan » Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:44 am

I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones and have been thinking about buying the Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition, but I've read mixed reviews. Although the Headphone Edition seems to receive a bit higher praise than the Speaker Edition.

I demoed Reference 3 (for Headphones) a while back and don't remember there being that big of a difference; definitely not a couple hundred dollar difference. I also picked a bad time to activate the demo.. I had a family issue which left me with far less time to try it out than I would have liked.

Then again, maybe I had it setup incorrectly? Or it was because I didn't send my phones in for calibration? Sonarworks says that when using non-calibrated phones there's a +/- 3.0 margin of error (I forget the value that goes along with that stat); it drops to +/- 0.5 when calibrated.

Or maybe I’m just making excuses cuz I can't afford a decent pair of monitors/room treatment. My budget is only $200; if I was to buy monitors I'd want to wait til I could afford a quality pair, instead of buying crap ones just to have them. The issue is that I've had a hell of a time saving. I wanted this to be a cheap alternative that would yield results close to that of a monitor setup. I'm writing “close” cuz I know it'll never be as good.

I'm just curious how others feel about the software. Thanks.

User avatar
darjama
tinnitus
Posts: 1011
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:11 pm
Location: East SF Bay

Re: Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition

Post by darjama » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:43 am

Don't have experience w. Sonarworks, but check out Morphit by Toneboosters. Cheaper by far and the demo can be used indefinitely if you don't mind it not saving settings:

https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_morphit_v1.html

Pretty useful IMO when mixing on headphones. You can "correct" for your current headphones, or use the "simulate" feature to make it sound like something from their extensive headphone list or some modeled environments. The "general diffuse field" is fairly similar to listening in my car, which I often find revealing.

Mustang Martigan
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:30 pm
Location: BOSTON, MA

Re: Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition

Post by Mustang Martigan » Wed Nov 28, 2018 2:54 pm

darjama wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:43 am
Don't have experience w. Sonarworks, but check out Morphit by Toneboosters. Cheaper by far and the demo can be used indefinitely if you don't mind it not saving settings:

https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_morphit_v1.html

Pretty useful IMO when mixing on headphones. You can "correct" for your current headphones, or use the "simulate" feature to make it sound like something from their extensive headphone list or some modeled environments. The "general diffuse field" is fairly similar to listening in my car, which I often find revealing.
I'll have to check that out. Does Morphit flatten the frequency like the sonarworks reference or does it just emulate different listening environments?

User avatar
darjama
tinnitus
Posts: 1011
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:11 pm
Location: East SF Bay

Re: Sonarworks Reference 4 Headphone Edition

Post by darjama » Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:12 pm

Morphit's Correct mode does the flattening, Simulate does the emulation.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 61 guests