Do headphones sound better when the drivers are further away from the ears?

[71 dB]

I suspect that people who claim to get “speaker-like” soundstage with headphones don’t really know what a speaker system sounds like. Most of them when asked say that they don’t have speakers, only headphones.

I used to listen to mostly speakers and I certainly know what high quality speaker systems sound like. Discovering crossfeed 12-13 years ago revolutionized my headphone listening. Nowadays maybe 80 % of my music listening is with headphones and maybe 20 % with speakers.

 

[chezzer]

Why oh why oh why, please just kill me now