You bring up some good points! I'll reply to your quote:
If the OS has this Plug and Play recognition, I think it would be awesome if the DPS Plugin could take advantage of the system's knowledge of the headset and automatically select the best profile for it, based on the hardware specs being presented. Just an idea that would be cool to see in some future release.
That would certainly work for USB devices that state their model number as part of their audio driver. However most folks connect their devices via the analog connections or via some other audio device driver.
If the device doesn't already have a custom profile created, perhaps the DPS Plugin could initiate a backend Internet search (or maybe your own compiled database... maybe some companies could work with you on this??) to acquire it's specs, and from there select a fitting "Universal" profile, or the profile of a similar device.
Would this be at all possible? If so, this would be an opportunity for Bongiovi Acoustics to develop additional relationships with audio hardware makers, distributors and vendors.
The profile creation process requires us to have the actual device in front of us so we can listen to it and make adjustments based on what our ears tell us. We approach the tuning process like we approach mixing or mastering a music recording. No audio engineer could ever mix a record based on a description of the tracks! The same would apply to creating profiles. No technical data that any analysis provides could make it so a profile can be generated without human ears getting involved. Much of the profile creation process revolves around the intuitive nature of "feeling" how the device responds to transients at various frequencies, the mechanical capabilities of the device and how other psycho-acoustic elements come into play to deliver a more exciting and enjoyable listening experience for that device.
We are approaching this situation a few ways:
1) Citiy Profiles Our research shows at any given profile for any given device will work very well on other devices. However the degree to which they work on other devices is subjective. That is why we have created the "Cities" profiles (replacing the Universal moniker in the iTunes plugin) as a place to start if your device is not in the list of devices we have created profiles for. We gave the profiles names of cities to encourage our users to experiment. In many cases the difference between one of the City or Universal profiles and once created specifically for the device is quite small. This is especially true of inexpensive audio devices. The higher the quality of device, the more necessary a custom profile becomes to enact an improvement in the listening situation. We always encourage experimentation! Your ears are always right.
2) Acquiring new devices to tune We are actively pursuing relationships with manufacturers to acquire new devices to tune. We also keep our user's requests in mind when choosing the next device to tune.
3) Create your own profiles! We know there are a lot of talented audiophiles out there who could create wonderful profiles for the myriad of devices on the market. We are currently devising a method for putting profile creation into our users hands. This is not as simple as it sounds! We would also like to have a way for profile creators to share their profiles with the rest of our community.
Since there are so many possibilities for intelligent profile delivery we are very open to these suggestions. Profiles are the DNA of the DPS organism. This is a very important subject to us and we love to discuss the topic! We want everyone to understand the nature of this beast...
