MaxWide

Wide Sound Stage Headphone Audio

  • Creates theater sound from regular stereo source
  • Equalization by VIR Filter®
  • Compatible with all headphones and earphones

Nearly all media are intended to be reproduced by speakers. However, when played back using headphones/earphones, the sound stage becomes narrower which spoils the enjoyment of action movies and music concerts. Eilex MaxWide widens the sound as if the listener is sitting in the movie theater or concert hall.

Eilex MaxWide creates sound stages of different sizes by changing its parameters. By preparing several different sizes, the user can select the most suitable mode for the program.

Eilex MaxWide carries 20-section VIR Filters for EQing. VIR20 has higher resolution than 4K-tap FIR filter to provide precision. It helps to correct the tonal aberration by a noise reduction process.

Eilex MaxWide is applicable for all headphone and earphone audio, including high-end headphones, smartphones, tablets and TV headphones.

CONTENTS:

1. Problems of Headphone Reproduction of Concerts and Movie Content

When concerts and movie content are reproduced by headphones the sound scale noticeably reduces compared to the sound we experience at concert halls and theaters. But, the same materials can be reproduced with proper scale in larger home theaters. The main reason for this difference is that almost all media are mastered to be reproduced with speakers, not with headphones.

As a result, the sound reproduced by headphones dramatically reduces the distance to the actors on the screen or singers on the stage, as if they are right in front of your face. The sound image shrinks to a minimum.

Eilex MaxWide solves these problems and provides a properly-sized sound stage in headphones and earphones.

2. Eilex MaxWide Solution

Eilex MaxWide can be tuned to mimic the sound of desired hall or theater size by the combination of the following four parameters:

  1. Distance to the stage/screen
  2. Width of the stage/screen
  3. Size of the hall/theater (width and depth)
  4. Propagation time of the initial reflection

Distance to the stage/screen moves vocals and dialogue away from your head. At the same time the width of the stage is added.

The size of the hall/theater is adjusted by setting the propagation time of simulated reflected sound.

The propagation time of the initial reflection depends on the size of the hall/theater. It should be adjusted after the size of the hall/theater is determined.

Eilex MaxWide is effective even on monaural sources.

3. Sound Improvement by Eilex MaxWide

To optimize the performance of individual headphones, Eilex MaxWide integrates a custom EQ. The custom EQ also corrects deteriorated sound caused by active noise reduction.

The custom EQ uses Eilex VIR filter. The built-in 20-section VIR filter (5.6MIPS @44.1KHz) outperforms 4K-tap FIR filter (176MIPS @44.1KHz) to realize the complex filtering.

VIR filter evenly covers the very low frequency range where FIR filters lose resolution.

4. Compatibility

Eilex MaxWide is compatible with:

  • Regular CD and all digitally compressed audio including MP3 and AAC. (Note: Eilex Harmony and Eilex Focus improve the sound quality of all lossy digitally compressed audio.)
  • 2-ch source down-mixed from multi-channel materials. (Mostly movies.)
  • Monaural materials
  • Noise cancelling type headphones
  • Tone control
  • Equalizers (parametric and graphic)
  • Preset EQ (such as classical, jazz, vocal, etc.). Not recommended other than for marketing reasons.
  • Hi-Res audio. (Note: Eilex HD Remaster creates Hi-Res audio from regular materials in real-time.)

Eilex MaxWide is not compatible with:

  • 3D or surround pre-processed materials within the audio players.
  • Headphones which have 3D or surround processes internally.