HydrogenAudio

Hosted Forums => foobar2000 => Support - (fb2k) => Topic started by: JILost721 on 2022-01-21 17:37:36

Title: No Equalizer plugin affectingfrequencies 8khz and above
Post by: JILost721 on 2022-01-21 17:37:36
* Most recent foobar2000
* Fresh "portable" install, Full, not from Microsoft Store, no additional components
* All default settings in foobar2000
* Fresh laptop reboot
* Any input file format
* Any output device in foobar2000 (Preferences: Output)
* Windows 11, up to date
* "Enhance Audio" in Windows Settings turned on or off
* Any output format in Windows Settings
* Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones capable of high frequencies
* Built-in sound device with (Windows Settings says) up-to-date drivers
* All other DSP Equalizer components in foobar2000 exhibit  this behavior
* iTunes (most recent version, not Microsoft Store) equalizer affects all frequencies
* Winamp (most recent version, winamp.com) equalizer mysteriously affects no frequencies
* Goove Music has the same problem; adjusting "high" in the equalizer only changes overall volume
Title: Re: No Equalizer plugin affectingfrequencies 8khz and above
Post by: kode54 on 2022-01-22 00:51:36
Please note, WH-1000XM4 will only be using 44100Hz stereo AAC under Windows 11, and SBC under older versions of Windows that didn't support AAC over Bluetooth. If you want high frequency content that the speakers are most certainly incapable of reproducing, you need an external Bluetooth device that transmits LDAC. Also, most likely, the only one I know of, needs you to feed it with an S/PDIF signal from an S/PDIF interface to produce greater than 44100Hz. Conveniently, the Bluetooth transmitter has a USB interface, but it doesn't support High Resolution or frequency audio.
Title: Re: No Equalizer plugin affectingfrequencies 8khz and above
Post by: JILost721 on 2022-01-22 11:04:47
Please note, WH-1000XM4 will only be using 44100Hz stereo AAC under Windows 11, and SBC under older versions of Windows that didn't support AAC over Bluetooth. If you want high frequency content that the speakers are most certainly incapable of reproducing, you need an external Bluetooth device that transmits LDAC. Also, most likely, the only one I know of, needs you to feed it with an S/PDIF signal from an S/PDIF interface to produce greater than 44100Hz. Conveniently, the Bluetooth transmitter has a USB interface, but it doesn't support High Resolution or frequency audio.

I'm not looking to reproduce frequencies greater than 44khz, though. The vast majority of the content I listen to was either ripped from a CD (and thus cuts off at 44khz max) or cuts off around 32khz. The issue I'm having is that even though the headphones are certain reproducing frequencies above 8khz (as indicated by adjusting higher sliders in iTunes and hearing conspicuous differences), the foobar2000 Equalizer DSPs are not making any difference 8khz and above (even though the music clearly contains them). This is an issue for me because many of the input formats of files I listen to (an easy one being MIDI files with SoundFonts) are not supported by iTunes. I would honestly prefer to use foobar2000 exclusively, but most of my mp3/aac library is in the iCloud.
Title: Re: No Equalizer plugin affectingfrequencies 8khz and above
Post by: kode54 on 2022-01-23 07:43:18
Also note, that some OS settings may be stuffing the sound device into "communications" mode, in which the WH-1000XM4 is limited to 16kHz mono, both ways. If you're at all using the microphone input, it's limited in this way.

Conversely, Airpods Pro are limited to 24 kHz mono both ways in communications mode. They run at 48 kHz stereo in AAC output mode.

Edit: I did a dum above. You can see the result below.
Title: Re: No Equalizer plugin affectingfrequencies 8khz and above
Post by: JILost721 on 2022-01-23 15:35:47
Also note, that some OS settings may be stuffing the sound device into "communications" mode, in which the WH-1000XM4 is limited to 16kHz mono, both ways. If you're at all using the microphone input, it's limited in this way.

Conversely, iPods Pro are limited to 24 kHz mono both ways in communications mode. They run at 48 kHz stereo in AAC output mode.

Again, I'm definitely hearing the higher frequencies through the headphones, as iTunes' equalizer is affecting them as it should. Also, the weird limit I'm experiencing with foobar2000's equalizer is 8khz, not 16. I can definitely hear the higher frequencies when I listen to things in foobar -- with or without the eq dsp -- but the sliders in the eq aren't changing anything about the output at those frequencies. For a clear example: If I turn every slider all the way down, I can still hear content 8khz and above and the sliders for those frequencies do nothing. This also happens with the Graphic Equalizer component.

I don't think it's in "communications" mode, because I'm still hearing stereo sound.