As a video game composer, I’ve been working in my studio composing music for quite a few virtual reality projects lately (as pictured above), so I’ve been thinking a lot about issues related to audio in the VR environment. Those issues include how gamers experience the audio content through various headphone models. In this article, I thought we’d take a look at three newly-announced headphone models that are targeting the VR marketplace, and see what new technologies are being proposed to facilitate the best and most awesome VR audio experiences. So, let’s get started!
The Audeze iSINE Virtual Reality Headphones
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The iSINE Virtual Reality Headphones made their debut in January of this year at the famous Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. These in-ear headphones (pictured right) ship with both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift compatible cables (in addition to a standard audio cable). At first glance the iSINE Virtual Reality Headphones seem to offer no specific or overt accommodation for VR, apart from the handy cables. A quick review of the web site reveals a headphone technology that relies on simply delivering great audio quality that exceeds the capabilities of other competing headphones. However, when we dig a little deeper into the specifications, we see that the core technology of the iSINE headphones has a very specific application in the world of VR audio.
Planar magnetic technology is touted as the driving factor behind the iSINE’s ability to deliver more convincing 3D audio for VR. Most headphones on the market today, from the cheapest to the most high-end audiophile models, deliver their sound by virtue of the most popular driver type: the standard dynamic driver, also known as the moving coil driver. In a standard dynamic headphone design, a wire coil is attached to a diaphragm and suspended in a magnetic field. The audio signal is passed through the coil in the form of a current that causes the coil and the attached diaphragm to vibrate back and forth, generating the sound waves that we hear.
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The Audeze iSINE headphones eschew this type of driver in favor of the less commonly used planar magnetic technology, which you can see in this internal view of the iSINE headphones (pictured left). In the planar magnetic driver configuration, wires are embedded directly within a larger membrane. The embedded wires are surrounded by two sets of oppositely aligned magnets that are pointed at each other, creating a magnetic field. When the audio signal current passes through the wires embedded in the membrane, a second magnetic field is generated. This field reacts to the field created by the magnets and the opposing forces generate vibration in the membrane, which creates the sound we hear.
To visualize this explanation a little better, let’s watch this video from headphones expert Tyll Hertsens (editor at InnerFidelity.com), who takes apart another pair of planar magnetic headphones to show us the inner workings of the technology:
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The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is the solution developed to address the lack of built-in headphones for the HTC Vive. On the surface, the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is a dramatically different solution than the one Bionik devised. As we recall, the Mantis VR consists of a pair of petite headphone cups mounted on short swing-arms that clip to the sides of the PSVR. In contrast, the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap completely replaces the entire head-strap assembly of the Vive with a brand new version. Here’s the instructional video on the installation of the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, produced by the makers of the HTC Vive:
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Source: Gamasutra