Clicking on this allows you to switch calibration on or off and choose a calibration profile from the three youve most recently used.In fact, Reference has even outlasted the Sony headphones that were supplied with the review copy, and which eventually wore out through daily use For those who havent encountered Reference before, it is a system that applies a detailed EQ curve to the output from your DAW in order to compensate for deficiencies in a specific monitoring chain and environment.Compared with other products that do the same thing, however, it has a unique selling point, in that its intended to correct the frequency response of headphones as well as loudspeakers.
Problems with speaker-based monitoring are mostly caused by standing waves and other acoustic issues in the room, and while equalisation might improve matters for a single listening position, it cant properly solve these problems. Nor can EQ address issues that arise from compromises in speaker design, such as port resonance and crossover distortion. By contrast, headphones remove the acoustic environment as a variable in the monitoring chain, so in principle, even a cheap pair of headphones could be equalised to provide a neutral-sounding monitor system as long as it doesnt suffer from serious distortion or time-domain anomalies and as long as its possible to fathom out what EQ curve to apply. Headphone listening is intrinsically unnatural, so to start with, its not obvious what sort of response we would actually experience as being flat or neutral. Coming up with a meaningful and repeatable measurement of the frequency response of an individual pair of headphones is likewise anything but straightforward, given the complex interactions that take place between drivers, earcups, skull and ears. ![]() If you dont want to send your headphones to Latvia to be measured, you can simply load up the appropriate averaged file for that particular model. This figure has grown steadily, and with the launch of Reference 4, the subject of this review, the library now stands at 101 models. This tally includes pretty much all the current studio models from major manufacturers such as AKG, Audio-Technica, Beyer, Sennheiser, Shure, Sony and Yamaha, plus a good number from the world of hi-fi noise-cancelling phones have even been measured with noise-cancelling both on and off. Whereas the optimum setting introduces only a tiny amount of phase shift, and that below 100Hz, the zero-latency mode brings significant phase shift across the spectrum, but does allow you to use Reference whilst tracking. The upshot of this is that if you have a good pair of headphones and you only use the averaged curve, the effects of Sonarworks correction are not nearly as startling as if you apply an individual profile to cheap headphones. I still felt that Reference 4 made a significant difference to the usability of my Oppo PM-3s, even though the correction curve rarely deviates from the flat by more than 3dB; but with even flatter phones such as my Shure SRH1840s, diminishing returns begin to set in. Ultimately, I do think its worth shelling out the extra to have your own pair of phones measured, but unless youre using neutral open-back headphones costing several hundred pounds, the chances are Reference 4 will still make an appreciable difference even when used with the averaged curves. The cheaper the headphones, the more radical its effect, and in many ways, the brilliant thing about Reference is that it really can convert a sub-100 pair of phones into a genuinely neutral and effective monitoring system. Given that the headphone-only version of Reference retails at well under 100, its a bargain. As before, it offers the choice to apply either a neutral frequency response or one derived from a handful of popular playback systems such as Yamaha NS10s, but in contrast to the ever-growing library of headphone correction curves, the number of simulations on offer hasnt increased at all; nor have Sonarworks explored more adventurous technologies such as crossfeed and HRTF to try to create realistic headphone simulation of speaker listening. ![]() Though it pre-dates the v4 upgrade, Systemwide (see box) is another obvious winner, and the zero-latency option will be useful to anyone whose monitoring limitations cause them to struggle with mic placement and such issues during tracking. I used Reference 3 every day, and I cant offer a higher recommendation for the new version than to say Im sure Ill be doing exactly the same with Reference 4. ![]() Sonarworks Headphone Calibration Files Update To ReferenceSo Sonarworks themselves have come up with an alternative called Standalone, which was introduced as an update to Reference 3 and is included in all versions of Reference 4. Standalone is, in essence, a virtual soundcard that sits between your DAW and the driver for your actual soundcard. Sonarworks Headphone Calibration Files Mac OS Menu BarOnce installed, it mostly stays out of your way, with only a little SW logo in the Mac OS menu bar to remind you of its presence.
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