[ProAudio] stereo perception through headphones

[Scott Dorsey]

The HRTF is very specific to the individual.  If your head is shaped
differently than the people whose "standard" HRTFs are in the library,
then you will not get anything useful out of applying their HRTF.  

Tall people and people with long necks whose shoulders will be farther
from their ears have the notch caused by shoulder reflections at a lower 
frequency than "nominal" people and applying a "nominal" HRTF doesn't
do them any good.

A simple shuffler will help reduce the "hole in the middle" effect but it
is still very hard to judge room effects.  Stereo recordings are made with
the expectation that some reverberation from the playback room will be 
added to the recording and that is not present in headphone playback through
a shuffler.

There is a very simple solution for this problem and it is available from
loudspeaker vendors such as Tannoy and Genelec....
--scott