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2 Channel user reviews vs Headphone user reviews


Cogito

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2 hours ago, Cogito said:


Thanks for the clarification.

 


Human anatomy is designed to specially locate the sources of sounds in all directions. With headphones, all the sounds originate at the ears. All the spacial clues are permanently lost. Sound stage is pretty much restricted between the ears. A two channel system aided by an acoustically treated room can provide the spacial clues of the stage in front of the listener. Sound stage can be 10-15 behind the speakers and extend beyond the speakers sideways.

Well, the spatial cues of the circumstance of the original recording are permanently imprinted on the signal.

The spatial cues for the listening environment are added to the recording as it was originally made with ITS own ambience and timing.

 

The key is how the original recording is made.   If you listen to a true stereo recording, then the headphones can come somewhat close to the original environment during where the recording was made.   Likewise, a very carefully controlled/designed listening environment can also produce reasonably plausible/similar results.  If some kind of crazy mixing is done, then you get whatever the person did the mixdown created -- along with some randomization because of mixing the various phasing and timing of the signals being mixed.  Hopefully, the person doing the mix is good at dealing with these matters.

 

Likewise, the person setting up/owning the listening environment needs to consider the effects of their own environment.   People spend a lot of time/effort trying to control the result of the behavior/timing/levels put-out by the speakers along with the additional room ambience/timing.

 

Hopefully, the environment where one listens is the most enjoyable for that person.   Because of all of the variables in all of the situations, a recording will never precisely match the original performance.   Perfect reproduction just doesn't normally happen.   Enjoyable reproduction should hopefully be the focus.

 

There are things missing from headphones, but I could swear that with  headphones that go all the way down to 5Hz, I 'feel' the bass -- I dont' know how, but the true, very low bass does produce some kind of feeling, but NOT as good/much as the pressure against the whole body.

 

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Cogito said:


Think about it this way.

 

Stereo recordings are made with two mics. Your 2-channel system speakers are reproducing the sounds each mic heard. If the speakers are spaced right next to each other, you will not hear any soundstage.  Move the speakers few feet apart and you start perceiving the soundstage.  This demonstrates that the presence of spacial clues in the source material is not enough to create the sound stage, sound must emanate from a similar position as the mics recording them. There is no way to mimic the position of the mics with headphones.

 

But the speakers aren't mimicking the recording studio.  The positioning of the speakers&local room create their own sound environment on top of the recording.

Depending on the mics, you can come really close to the same positioning as on a head, and there have even been 'head simulators.'

I used to do real, true stereo recording, and believe me -- the real ambience is mostly preserved.  If you don't use a 'head simulator', you still get REALLY GOOD stereo with good ambience, if done correctly.   Again, you can get MORE ambience and room effects (speaker placement), but that isn't what was in the studio.

 

If a recordist is really ham-handed and has bad mic positioning, then the stereo image can be really strange, but it WILL be preserved.

When stuff is mixed as in multi-mic and multilayer like in a lot of pop stuff, then there is some kind of stereo image, mostly based on signal levels, and then a reall good recordist can do some stuff to create a fake stereo image.   However, headphones DO preserve whatever image where the recording was made.

 

If you want MORE room effects or additional aspects of stereo image, then use the speakers.

 

Both headphones and speakers can produce pretty impressive results.   One problem with me -- I like more realistic sound levels, and playing more realistic levels where I live would get me evicted pretty quickly.

 

 

 

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42 minutes ago, audiobomber said:

I agree, binaural can do soundstage. Stereo headphones can't even come close. 

Binaural often uses headphones to play...

Headphones show  the recording, but not much else (good headphones.)

Speakers give you extra room effects and has to deal with larger scale physics of moving a diaphragm (usually.)  There are some

mitigations for the weight of the diaphragm (including having none at all.)  Feedback can help, but some people feel like there

are negative effects to that.   Cannot make everyone happy all of the  time.


It is okay to like whatever you like - in my case, I need to hear the audio and NOTHING else.   Room effects add

confusion for me.   This is why often, in a recording situation, BOTH headphones and speakers are used.  Each has

an advantage.   Adding room effects and time delays add a layer of confusion when listening to the details in

the audio.


Back in the day, I would listen for enjoyment, and whatever changes that a room and speakers can cause were

not 'hurtful'.   Some day, if I had reason to listen to speakers, I would.  But, now, I hear practically everything on

the recording (bass included.)  Nothing extra.

 

ADD-ON:   Most of the time, any allusion to realism isn't really operative unless a stereo (or whatever 2 or 3mic technique) miced recording.  However, even then, when I did it, typically two mics approx the distance between ears.   The mics essentially hear the sound in the recording environment.   Doing multiple (>2 or 3) mics, than realism mostly goes out the window, unless some recording engineer is a genius in getting the phasing and gains all matched up.   You can still get reasonable stereo images, but realism isn't going to be very possible.

 

A 'good sound' is possible in an artifical (inside the electronics) environment, and if the placement of the speakers in the listening environment gives whatever desirable effect, then that is a good thing.

 

 

 

 

 

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