Nightspore68
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2012
- Posts
- 55
- Likes
- 12
I'm new to this forum and have enjoyed reading all the detailed (and not-so-detailed) reviews of headphones and amps. However, one thing strikes me as a possibly ridiculous indulgence many people here are suffering from - the belief that there is some kind of "sound stage" or imaging that can be enjoyed via headphones. Let me explain why I think that.
Recording sessions use powered monitors for mixing and mastering, to my knowledge. I'm sure headphones are used too, but I don't think it's for positioning sources in the mix. Using these speakers allows the engineers to move sources left to right and front to back, by panning or attenuating respectivelty. Unless they pan a given instrument all the way to the left or right (as heard on so many early Beatles songs), both ears will hear the instrument from both speakers. In fact, even a guitar panned all the way left will still be heard by one's right ear.
Headphones eliminate this desired crossfeed. Your left ear can't hear any of what it was meant to hear from the right monitor or speaker. Instead, that signal from the right speaker goes directly, with no delay and no attenuation, into the right ear only.
I would think this would wreak havoc with the imaging intent of the producers. In fact, I've experienced that it does. On well-recorded albums like Natalie Merchant's Live In Concert, on decent stereos, you can picture where she's standing relative to the other musicians. Trying to listen to this on headphones - actually, I don't think I've tried this example - couldn't possibly capture positioning clues the way speakers will.
Could it?
I know HeadRoom and other amp makers feature a crossfeed circuit to mimic the left-speaker-right-ear / right-speaker-left-ear transmissions and with those, I think it's fair to talk about imaging.
Otherwise, isn't it rubbish?
Looking forward to your views.
Recording sessions use powered monitors for mixing and mastering, to my knowledge. I'm sure headphones are used too, but I don't think it's for positioning sources in the mix. Using these speakers allows the engineers to move sources left to right and front to back, by panning or attenuating respectivelty. Unless they pan a given instrument all the way to the left or right (as heard on so many early Beatles songs), both ears will hear the instrument from both speakers. In fact, even a guitar panned all the way left will still be heard by one's right ear.
Headphones eliminate this desired crossfeed. Your left ear can't hear any of what it was meant to hear from the right monitor or speaker. Instead, that signal from the right speaker goes directly, with no delay and no attenuation, into the right ear only.
I would think this would wreak havoc with the imaging intent of the producers. In fact, I've experienced that it does. On well-recorded albums like Natalie Merchant's Live In Concert, on decent stereos, you can picture where she's standing relative to the other musicians. Trying to listen to this on headphones - actually, I don't think I've tried this example - couldn't possibly capture positioning clues the way speakers will.
Could it?
I know HeadRoom and other amp makers feature a crossfeed circuit to mimic the left-speaker-right-ear / right-speaker-left-ear transmissions and with those, I think it's fair to talk about imaging.
Otherwise, isn't it rubbish?
Looking forward to your views.