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You can simulate virtual sound sources anywhere. Having direct access to the ear signals, as you have with headphone listening, gives a lot of freedom when it comes to applying digital filters to shape the sound. When you use headphones, you get rid of all the room coloration and you tend to get a very big sound stage-even though it’s basically inside your head. Many people like the sound of headphones, and many even prefer it to speakers. But it’s possible to think one step further than this.Ĭross-feed: Loudspeaker simulation using headphones Whereas with headphones, we usually just send the left channel to the left ear and the right channel to the right ear for the simple reason that we have two audio channels and two ears. The fundamental difference between loudspeaker and headphone playback is that with loudspeakers, the sound from one channel reaches both ears (as you can see in Figure 1a below). When you sit in the sweet spot, the loudspeakers are typically 45–60 degrees apart in a normal stereo setup. In loudspeaker playback, the sound stage is naturally rendered between the loudspeakers. And when an instrument is playing only in one channel, you get the uncomfortable sensation that the instrument is playing just next to your ear.
![sound from both headphones and speakers sound from both headphones and speakers](https://www.icellway.com/Content/upload/2019378869/201904032253279428563.jpg)
When you listen to music using headphones, you will notice that sound can generally be perceived as coming from inside your head.
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Why headphones are incompatible with stereo
#Sound from both headphones and speakers upgrade#
In this post, I’ll be examining why music sounds different on headphones, and look into a technology that can upgrade headphone sound quality by several notches. Otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing the boom in headphone sales that we’ve been seeing the past few years (although it’s worth pointing out that some retail stores keep mirrors next to the headphone displays for customers who care more about looks than sound). That isn’t to say you can’t still get great sound from headphones. Have you ever wondered why music sounds so different on headphones compared to loudspeakers? It’s because, by design, headphones are not technically compatible with the stereophonic system.