AdamCalifornia
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- Jul 29, 2005
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Quote:
Obviously listening thru headphones to anything is not natural and is (after a while) fatiguing.
Let's consider a trivial example:
You're listening to a classical music, say Beethoven's adagio.
Then you switch to a heavy metal Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest or to some extreme metal crap.
Assume that you're listening to both the classical and heavy metal music pieces equally loud.
The sound of heavy metal music will 'hurt' (ringing, pulsations etc) your ears much faster.
There are several reasons - Heavy metal is much more intense
( eg. onslaught of guitars, Duelling guitatrists etc.) than the classical music.
But I think that the main reason is the distortion introduced in heavy metal music on purpose.
Once I've watched a DVD with Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi said that
they introduced the distortion so that the sound was bigger!!!
This fact is known and nothing is new here.
Again, compare listening to, say, Chopin piano music and Judas Priest's "Painkiller'.
I can listen to Chopin music, say for 1 hour without any break
(although there's some mild fatigue due to the headphone listening).
Now try to listen to "Painkiller" and other heavy metal intense AND distorted music
for one hour straight. - I can't do this!
A final note. You cannot listen to heavy metal quietly. It makes no sense!
It's like kissing a woman thru the window glass!
I am not talking about extremely or very loud listening, but it's got to be loud.
I'll hear you on the Heavy Metal
Side of the Moon
Originally Posted by Seidhepriest /img/forum/go_quote.gif There're several parts of the problem... 1. Companding ("compression" is used more often, but the real term is companding - compression/expanding) of CD masters, with volume pushed into oblivion. This is pretty much digital square distortion applied to a CD master, and that is what makes a record most irritating, by destroying dynamics. 2. The "superstereo" effect that is created when a speaker-stereo record is played through headphones, with unnatural separation of both channels. This inevitably makes speaker-stereo (not binaural) records fatiguing when played through headphones. Special crossfeed (a la Blumlein shuffle) is required for "speaker-stereo" played through headphones. There's BS2B, with plugins for Foobar2000/Winamp. It was made specifically to prevent listening fatigue with headphones. 3. The proximity of headphones to tympanic membranes and the principle of sound pressure changes happening in the ears or next to the ears, make them much more fatiguing than speakers, sound from which is dampened by air and by human head. Sound waves generated next to the ear instead of out "in the open". It's way easier to get deafened by mixing in headphones than with speakers. It's also way more fatiguing to mix in headphones. It's mostly parts 1 and 2 which make headphones hurt. Part 3 is directly linked to 1 & 2 (listeners turn the volume up when not hearing something clearly). As for high-frequency distortion products, most headphones are already equalised to simulate high-frequency dampening by the ear pinnae and to prevent skull bone resonation. By the Headroom measurements, Grado headphones aren't though. But they're also the most rock-friendly by sounding... Unnatural sounding is also fatiguing. So "dark" headphones wouldn't be the solution, rather ones with a gentle sounding (like the old K-240 Monitor) and clear imaging. Anything that doesn't reproduce the music close to how it sounds naturally is fatiguing (one has to "listen through" instead of "listening to"), anything un-truthful. The most un-tiring, pleasant sounding is natural sounding. |
Obviously listening thru headphones to anything is not natural and is (after a while) fatiguing.
Let's consider a trivial example:
You're listening to a classical music, say Beethoven's adagio.
Then you switch to a heavy metal Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest or to some extreme metal crap.
Assume that you're listening to both the classical and heavy metal music pieces equally loud.
The sound of heavy metal music will 'hurt' (ringing, pulsations etc) your ears much faster.
There are several reasons - Heavy metal is much more intense
( eg. onslaught of guitars, Duelling guitatrists etc.) than the classical music.
But I think that the main reason is the distortion introduced in heavy metal music on purpose.
Once I've watched a DVD with Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi said that
they introduced the distortion so that the sound was bigger!!!
This fact is known and nothing is new here.
Again, compare listening to, say, Chopin piano music and Judas Priest's "Painkiller'.
I can listen to Chopin music, say for 1 hour without any break
(although there's some mild fatigue due to the headphone listening).
Now try to listen to "Painkiller" and other heavy metal intense AND distorted music
for one hour straight. - I can't do this!
A final note. You cannot listen to heavy metal quietly. It makes no sense!
It's like kissing a woman thru the window glass!
I am not talking about extremely or very loud listening, but it's got to be loud.
I'll hear you on the Heavy Metal