[ProAudio] stereo perception through headphones
Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
proaudio at baileyzone.net
Thu Jan 30 11:20:39 EST 2020
EG:
FWIW, I don't use headphones (cans) for recording & mixing unless the
situation demands it (some live events, etc). I always prefer "known"
speakers. The reason; headphones can fool your ears for a host of
reasons. That said, I will often check things with cans as well as play
a mix in mono and check that situation with cans as well. Mixes intended
for AM radio are often separate mixes that are always mono.
My $0.02
Cheers!
Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
www.baileyzone.net
On 1/15/2020 11:20 AM, egosfield via ProAudio wrote:
> Since the list has been quiet -- I hope this is not inappropriate:
>
> I am unable to perceive a virtual soundstage when monitoring stereo
> tracks through headphones. I wonder how common this is.
> I use them for tracking, but not for mixing or aesthetic editing.
> I can form a subjective impression of the timbre of instruments,
> distance from and characteristics of microphones, timbre of room
> reflections, sometimes the size of the room, depending on apparent
> reverb characteristics.
> But central signals always feel like they are in the center of my
> head, and the subjective image extends outward from my head like a
> figure of 8 microphone with lobes parallel to the soundstage - mickey
> mouse ears. I have tried various HRTF modifications with no
> significant help. I still perceive central images in the center of my
> head, and the virtual soundstage is never in front of me.
>
> I had assumed that this was my own neuro-cognitive 'deficiency', like
> people who are unable to free view stereo image pairs (which i do
> easily, wall eyed or cross eyed) or who can not in fact perceive
> visual stereoscopic information at all and do not see
> stereoscopically (there is up to low double digit prevalence of this
> in the gen pop).
>
> But a good friend who is a well respected designer of high fidelity
> equipment has the same response.
>
> I have Stax, Etymotics, Sennheiser HD580, and AKG 240 'phones and my
> 'soundstage' experience is the same through all of them. Lots of
> detail, of variably contoured frequency response, but no 'real'
> soundstage.
> Yet i see headphones commonly evaluated for "sound stage" and people
> report hearing a virtual performance space in front of them.
>
> I am also unable to perceive effective binaural imaging -- central
> images remain in the center of my head, although more lateral content
> seems more peripheral, and only the lateral virtual sources seem
> anywhere slightly forward of my head.
>
> I'm now old enough to have lost hearing above 14kHz, but i had the
> same headphone experience when I was in my 20s and could hear
> television CRT synch tones. I have no problem with stereo localization
> with speaker playback, and can easily distinguish the type of spatial
> clues provided by coincident microphone techniques vs. those of near
> coincident (ORTF, NOS etc.) with time of flight differences included.
> I remember (and saved) the long discussion here about coincident vs.
> near coincident techniques. I prefer near-coincident aesthetically if
> there is any depth in the array of performers.
>
> I haven't found a good discussion of this kind of 'deficiency' in
> easily available neurological or audio sources. I checked a few texts
> I own on audio perception (Berg "The Physics of Sound", Butler "The
> Musician's Guide to Perception and Cognition", McAdams ed. "Thinking
> in Sound - the cognitive psychology of human audition" but found no
> relevant discussion of headphone soundstage reproduction of stereo
> music (although Butler comes with a CD of examples utilizing headphone
> playback for examples of perceptual issues in tone localization). The
> ENT literature I have access to is even less relevant.
>
> I'm trying to find out if my deficiency is relatively common, and
> other folks just report as headphone 'soundstage' a level of
> perception that I consider inadequate to deserve that description,
> Can someone point me to a discussion of such variability in stereo
> depth perception through headphones? I suppose the people who create
> HRTFs have done a bunch of work on it.
>
> I can also note that in the past, i had a "Professional" (HA!) Sony
> Walkman cassette deck that sounded reasonable through headphones, but
> when used as a line in to a good stereo system for speaker playback
> showed unacceptable and easily perceived flutter. My ear/brain system
> was somehow canceling or ignoring the flutter when listening through
> headphones.
>
> If this is not appropriate to the list, the moderator can just delete it.
>
> Considering how many people use earbuds for their music listening
> these days (and mp3 files). I hope this issue has been address
> technically somewhere.
>
> best wishes to all,
>
> eg
>
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