As a newbie, I may be missing the answer to this question in postings on cross feed, etc., so please excuse if I'm plowing sold ground with this question.
I have just gotten interested in headphone listening and also in the concept of binaural recordings. It seems logical that an appropriately directional recording of the sound field at each ear, listened to on playback by reproducing each recorded channel right at the respective ear through 'phones, should mimic the live auditional experience most accurately--all the natural differences in amplitude, timing, phasing, directionality, etc., between the two ears of the live listener reproduced by the 'phones in a way that should sound "real".
Only problem is that when I listen to binaural recordings, they don't sound real. There is too much separation between the channels, pretty much as with non-binaural source material. The two channels seem completely isolated from each other and the music sounds as though it's emanating from a point just forward of the center of my head, very unnatural and disappointing. Sometimes an instrument will be heard loudly from one ear and be literally inaudible in the other one, something that just would not happen in listening to live music. I would assume this to be due to the use of excessively directional mikes, more directional than human ears. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.
[I must say here that I do not understand in the first place what it is about live listening, or listening to stereo music through speakers, that causes the perception of the music source's being located in front of the listener instead of inside his head; positioning to the left or the right is easy to understand, but why the left-right deployment of instruments is perceived as being across the stage with live music or speakers, and why the line seems to extend right through the head, from one ear to the other, with headphones, is a mystery to me. Sounds with equal intensity and timing should be perceived merely as being centered, with depth information completely ambiguous as to the source's location, anywhere from ahead, to inside the head, to behind the head for that matter. But there's no question that if I'm listening to, say, orchestral music thru 'phones while sitting in front of my speakers as they're playing the same music, the apparent location of the orchestra changes markedly when I take the 'phones off, from right inside my head with them on to out in front of me when they're off.]
So my question is whether some mixing of the two channels' signals before they get to their respective cans might help to introduce some depth to the listening experience. If so, is there a device available to accomplish this? Is there a DIY plan?
