castleofargh
Sound Science Forum Moderator
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Not sure I agree with that. I can imagine how being farther from the driver could allow more of the outer ear to reflect sound and give enough cues for its actual distance and position, but that would suggest anchoring sounds near that driver. In term of distance it sure beats feeling sounds inside our head, but it's also not the best we can experience.Something to understand befor you heading further.
"Headstage", i call it that way ^^, in headphones is mostly due to the distance of driver <-> eardrum and the cup size between or/and opening of the pads.
This creates the reverb of the "sound waves bouncing off the walls".
So one could assume that the bigger the cups = the bigger is the "headstage".
But it ain't that easy, as usual. ^^
That's the reason why it's gonna be a tough race trying to find a headphone with similar "headstage" of the K702.
Don't hang on it and be open minded.
All the best on your journey.
May great sound be with you.
IMO some lucky match of FR with certain panning directions could result in feeling sounds at an even bigger distance. I get that with many sounds on the sides with the HD800. I don't happen to feel anything special in front of me(depth) on that headphone, while others do describe big perceived distances at the front too.
But then again, we can think of headstage in many ways, the feeling of being surrounded by the bass is something that always impresses me, and some tiny IEMs gave me that. The feeling of hearing some sounds at a bigger distance on the sides, or in front, or maybe both. The sense that some instruments are above or below us(what I consistently think of as a mistake with basic stereo albums, but others think that's what shows the best 3D soundstage). Or just the impression that a sound source has an origin as small as a dot instead of getting a larger blob as the perceived source.
Being isolated from our environment seems to confuse us enough to degrade spatial placement somehow. I don't think many people have their biggest feeling of space with sealed IEM or closed back headphones. So I think we at least have a consensus on that.
I’ve read arguments like your own, or people saying that the size of the driver helps, but I don't feel the same general agreement when it comes to actual experiences.
Of course I wouldn't be so insecure if we were using custom HRTF processing, or binaural audio recorded at our own ears. Then we could confirm exactly how much impact everything has based on ”natural” hearing, but I do not know how well that could translate to the more typical(bad) way to use headphones with stereo albums.