Speakers vs. Headphones, Have your preferences changed, too? Options

[BearcatSandor]

<cue theremin>

I have the exact same reaction nearly every time I hear the beginning of a particular track by Fila Brazilia over my Sony MDR-V6's.

It's "Feathery Legs" from their Power Clown album, and after the (hysterical) opening dialogue, there's a police siren that pans from channel to channel, and if I'm standing in a room with open windows, I *always* look at the windows, even though I *know* the siren is in the recording.

It's for that same reason that i don't listen to any track with a siren in it while i'm driving. That frantic moment of looking around for the emergency vehicle that's *right there* suddenly is not worth it, and feels kinda dangerous. It gets me every time.

edit: typo and removed extraneous crap

This post has been edited by BearcatSandor: Nov 3 2010, 18:09

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

I thought "studio headphones" were different somehow in the way that studio monitors were different from ..uh...regular listening speakers?

IME neither studio speakers no studio headphones are necessrily that different from other good speakers.

I guess i'm coming from a place where i want things to sound as close to real as i can get. When i'm listening to music i want to be sonicly fooled that i'm there.

Lotsa luck!

I'm always thinking that headphones ought to be able to give you a surround effect.

You can come pretty close to that with binaural recordings.

I've listened to some binarual tracks that sounded really interesting and i think that has a lot of potential for that, but it always feels so nearfield. I have noticed that headphones do probably give me an idea of what telepathy would feel like though. :")

The trouble with binaural recordings is that nobody has come up with a commercially sucessful way to offer most people the listening experience that they want.

[Meeko]

I think this really depends on what each end user can afford to purchase. Living in an apartment, a killer sound system costing hundreds or thousands isn't practical given close proximity of neighbors. Therefore, I get by using a basic system.

xmplay -> Turtle Beach Micro II (usb) -> Panasonic RX-FW39 boombox from the 80s

or

xmplay -> Turtle Beach Micro II (usb) -> Sennheiser PX100


The boombox I got for free and PX100s didn't cost an arm and a leg. If I want background music for working, I'll use the boombox. 3-way, with separate woofer, tweeters, and mids...sounds good enough for me. I don't have supersonic hearing anyway. If I want to critically listen to something, I'll pop on the headset. I don't prefer one to the other for everyday listening. If people have the money and time to invest in a killer high end system then naturally they'll favor that to get their money's worth.

[wave]

No kind of speaker setup can beat that experience for its accurate three-dimensional reproduction of the sound stage (exept maybe holophony, which isn't very common for home application )

...but, we are working at the topic.

Possibly in the next year...
H.
http://www.holophony.net

[DonP]

Yes, with speakers I can tell that this instrument is directly in the front or that instrument is slightly more to the right and so on... that's impossible for me if I listen to the same track with headphones, then the band is just inside my head.

I do get that with binaural recordings, including sounds that stage as above or behind me. As you said, they are pretty rare. Most of what I have is radio drama from ZBS media.

One way that it is less realistic is that if you turn your head the whole world turns with you.

A few years ago one of the headphone companies had something for on the fly conversion from 5.1 to binaural. I don't know anyone who's tried them.

This post has been edited by DonP: Dec 31 2010, 15:03

[DonP]

I thought "studio headphones" were different somehow in the way that studio monitors were different from ..uh...regular listening speakers?

IME neither studio speakers no studio headphones are necessrily that different from other good speakers.

I remember when a lot of brands featured that their phones or speakers were "digital ready," meaning you could listen to CD's on them.

[wave]

I do get that with binaural recordings, including sounds that stage as above or behind me. As you said, they are pretty rare.

...the spatial impression is nearly perfect, exept head movements, as you mentioned.
Still, I would consider the reason for lacking success is the lack of artistic possibilities. Today the recordings a product of art, not a pure dokumentation. The playback at home often sounds much better as the original event.

On the other hand, home playback never can reach the spatial impression of the genuine event. The goal of all development in audio should be reaching both, the true spatial audio of the dummy head recordings as well as all artistic possibilities of traditional studio productions.

..and, of course, without headphones...

[DonP]

(re: binaural)
On the other hand, home playback never can reach the spatial impression of the genuine event.

In the case of dramatic recordings, it can be better than the original event if that means sitting in the audience with all the action on stage. The dummy head can put you in the position of one of the characters, and the setting might change from office to restaurant to city street to whatever. If someone whispers in the character's ear, or a door shuts behind him, that's where you hear it.

If the dummy head is in the audience at a concert trying to give you that spatial sense, then there is at least the possibility of going to the concert and getting those clues directly, with visual reinforcement.

[wave]

In the case of dramatic recordings, it can be better than the original event if that means sitting in the audience with all the action on stage. The dummy head can put you in the position of one of the characters, and the setting might change from office to restaurant to city street to whatever. If someone whispers in the character's ear, or a door shuts behind him, that's where you hear it.

If the dummy head is in the audience at a concert trying to give you that spatial sense, then there is at least the possibility of going to the concert and getting those clues directly, with visual reinforcement.

...that would be impossible with phantom sources. However, at virtual acoustic sources would be possible reaching comparably spatial impression at loudspeakers.

But the at dummy head recording we have no access to any of the source signals, as during studio production. No possibility for compression, equalising and all the other infernal stuff, which can,carefully used, really are improving the perception. Thats the main problem of the dummy head recordings.


H.