# DTS Announces Headphone:X Partnership and It's First DTS:X Title



## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

This week, DTS continued an aggressive push of DTS:X. In a matter of days we’ve seen the first DTS:X title announced and a partnership attached to its innovative headphone-oriented spin on this exciting new audio codec.










One of the great joys of a true surround experience (or, in the case of DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, a true immersive sound audio experience) is the magical feeling ignited by sonic immersion. To this day, I still marvel at the mood altering, smile inducing, power of my dedicated theater space, and I’m sure the vast majority of you feel the same way. The only downside, to truly nit-pick, is that the experience is chained to my theater room. I can’t take it on the road or move it from room to room. It’s legitimately locked-down inside a chamber of light-absorbing darkness, hidden deep within the bowels of my home.

This brings me to DTS’s latest announcement: Headphone:X and Samsung TVs. 

Yes friendly readers, it’s exactly what’s implied by the name…a DTS-X experience for headphones matched with Samsung televisions; immersive audio wrapped-up in a virtualized eleven-channel surround experience. With Headphone:X, DTS has managed to turn ordinary headphones into an auditory delight that has sound appearing to come from behind you, in front, to the sides, and from above.

The question is: Do you believe it’s possible to pull-off true immersion with a pair of headphones? Speaking from firsthand experience, I’m pleased to report that DTS appears to have created a fairly unique headphone capability. Using my trusted Grado Labs Prestige headphones, I listened to a Headphone:X voice demo featuring call-outs from each of eleven channels. It’s a head turner for sure, especially when the voice is coming from rear surround and rear height positions. So much so, that it gave me the urge to look behind me and completely delivered the appearance of coming from a distant rear channel speaker. A second demo paired the technology with a musical track composed by Hans Zimmer. In this case, the effect was minimized, as the vibrant track appeared to be much more stereoesque in its presentation (that being said, it’s not entirely clear how much of the track was meant to incorporate rear channel qualities). Nevertheless, Headphone:X is entirely intriguing and promising for folks looking for immersive sound that can be moved outside of the home theater environment.

DTS is rolling out this new technology with Samsung, which is offering Headphone:X on approximately 40 different television models. If you’re a Samsung owner, check the list of television models at the bottom of this article. Perhaps you might be lucky enough to invite a late night immersive surround experience to your bedroom while your spouse or children happily sleep!

As I alluded to earlier, DTS also announced its first-ever DTS:X Blu-ray title release. It’s in the form of_ Ex Machina_. Fans of the film and those curious to demo this first DTS:X title will need to wait until July 14th for the film’s official disc release.

_Image Credit: DTS_



_DTS Headphone:X technology can be found on the following Samsung TV models: 
UN40JU7100F, UN55JS8500FXZA, UN65JS9500FXZA , UN78JS9100FXZA, UN65JS9000FXZA, UN65JS850DFXZA, UN75JU650DFXZA, UN75JU6500FXZA, UN85JU7100FXZA, UN78JU7500FXZA, UN65JU650DFXZA, UN65JU670DFXZA, UN60JU710DFXZA, UN65JU750DFXZA, UN65JU6500FXZA, UN65JU6700FXZA, UN65JU7100FXZA, UN65JU7500FXZA, UN55JU650DFXZA, UN55JU670DFXZA, UN55JU6500FXZA, UN55JU6700FXZA, UN55JU7100FXZA, UN55JU7500FXZA, UN50JU650DFXZA, UN50JU6500FXZA, UN48JU6700FXZA, UN50JU7100FXZA, UN48JU7500FXZA, UN40JU650DFXZA, UN40JU6500FXZA, UN40HU6950FXZA, UN40JU6700FXZA, UN40JU7100FXZA, UN40JU7500FXZA, UN75J630DAFXZA, UN75J6300AFXZA, UN65J630DAFXZA, UN65J6300AFXZA, UN55J6300AFXZA, UN50J5500AFXZA, UN50J6300AFXZA, UN40J5500AFXZA, UN32J6300AFXZA _


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

*Re: DTS Announces Headphone:X and It's First DTS:X Title*

Luckily, you can go here:

http://listen.dts.com/pages/headphone-x

and listen to a Headphone:X demo.

All you'll need is a pair of headphones plugged into your computer.

Check it out. Pretty cool tech!


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

*Re: DTS Announces Headphone:X and It's First DTS:X Title*

DTS: Headphone X has already made its debut on Blu-ray on the Mockingjay Part 1 movie. Pretty awesome and I truly hope they implement it more onto discs!

I also have the entire Interstellar Soundtrack downloaded in DTS: Headphone X (code came free with my super-duper deluxe version of the OST) on my phone, as well. Amazing!


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

I don't know but I think a big part of this is cues from your brain. If you listen to the X demos with no picture you can't tell if the sound is panning in front or behind or if it's high or low. With your eyes open or the video your brain places the sound where it needs to be.

I'm going to try this again with better headphones. I guess I just do not see this as a big deal. You can find 3D headphone sound stuff on Youtube... How is DTS X different?


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Honestly, it may not be any different other than that fact that it has one of two mainstream audio names behind it, DTS. However, that being said, listening to the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in DTS Headphone X track really sounded a whole lot closer to the surround sound reproduced in my home theater. This makes me particularly happy because I watch a lot of movies at night with headphones on, so having this an option is a huge win for me.

Also listening to the Z+ applications/music, like Interstellar, on your iOS or Android devices bring a whole lot of depth, layering, and dimensionality to the music that is otherwise lost. Is it easy to pinpoint which direction sound is coming from? Not usually, but it is a whole lot more immersive. And that was one of the biggest reasons why surround sound was created anyway, right?


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Jon Liu said:


> Honestly, it may not be any different other than that fact that it has one of two mainstream audio names behind it, DTS. However, that being said, listening to the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in DTS Headphone X track really sounded a whole lot closer to the surround sound reproduced in my home theater. This makes me particularly happy because I watch a lot of movies at night with headphones on, so having this an option is a huge win for me.
> 
> Also listening to the Z+ applications/music, like Interstellar, on your iOS or Android devices bring a whole lot of depth, layering, and dimensionality to the music that is otherwise lost. Is it easy to pinpoint which direction sound is coming from? Not usually, but it is a whole lot more immersive. And that was one of the biggest reasons why surround sound was created anyway, right?


I need to checkout Mockingjay... I think the perceived immersion will really be dependent on the quality of headphone being used.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

*Re: DTS Announces Headphone:X and It's First DTS:X Title*



Todd Anderson said:


> Luckily, you can go here:
> 
> http://listen.dts.com/pages/headphone-x
> 
> ...


i must be missing something.... in order to listen to DTS X do you not need some kind of software decoder either on your soundcard or player ??


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

Best thing i can find.

In a nut shell it seems like DTS X fakes the tonal quality of the other channel in order to trick the brain into thinking it's coming from another channel.


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