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<p><font face="Arial">EG:</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">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.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">My $0.02<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">Cheers!</font><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.baileyzone.net">www.baileyzone.net</a></pre>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/15/2020 11:20 AM, egosfield via
ProAudio wrote:<br>
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<font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Since
the list has been quiet -- I hope this is not inappropriate:<br>
<br>
I am unable to perceive a virtual soundstage when monitoring
stereo tracks through headphones. I wonder how common this
is.<br>
I use them for tracking, but not for mixing or aesthetic
editing.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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 </font></font><font
size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font
size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">(there
is up to low double digit prevalence of this in the gen
pop)</font></font>.<br>
<br>
But a good friend who is a well respected designer of high
fidelity equipment has the same response.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
Yet i see headphones commonly evaluated for "sound stage" and
people report hearing a virtual performance space in front of
them.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
</font></font><br>
<font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font
size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">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.<br>
<br>
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,<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
If this is not appropriate to the list, the moderator can
just delete it. <br>
<br>
Considering how many people use earbuds for their music
listening these days (and mp3 files). I hope this issue
has been address technically somewhere.<br>
<br>
best wishes to all,<br>
<br>
eg<br>
</font></font></font></font> <br>
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