[Blackmore]

Hey man, if you want a real soundstage GO TO THE LIVE SHOW, YEAH!

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobxMcCarthy Hi, I've been into audio equipment for a while. I have two Athena towers in my living room and a host of headphones in my bedroom.. But none of the headphones I've tried gave me the impression of a "real" soundstage. It always sounds as if the singer is somewhere up infront of me just a few inches infront of the headband and that the stage doesn't really extend very far past the headphones themselves. I get a completely different feel when I'm listening to my speaker setup. It's as if the performers are infront of me, I can pinpoint the singer, the drummer, even where the guitar player is standing when he shuffels his feet. It's so much more entertaining than listening on headphones. I'm starting to think that I may have made a mistake when I recabled and put one of the drivers in reverse phase. I would think this kind of mistake would be very obvious (but is there any way to test it?) So far all I have in my posession are Sony MDR-V600's Recabled Beyer 770's and koss Ksc75's. I've listened to grados (60 80 125) and sennheiser (580 650 a while back) but was never really impressed by the soundstage presented. Am I just never going to be satisfied with headphones in this aspect?

 

[Nomad]

The problem is that most of albums are recorded for speakers. There are some ways to create soundstage on headphones (diffuse field, angled drivers, drivers fairly far away...) but they are somehow limited.

Now try a nice binaural recording with some UE10s (almost no soundstage with stereo recordings like any IEM on the actual market). You will be surprised.

It would be so great to have on every classical/jazz CD a dual side/layer CD with a stereo one and another binaural one...

 

[RnB180]

IMO I do not believe headphones will give you the realistic placement of sound stage as speakers can, simply because of the way the sound is delivered to your ears. Speakers can create a tangible sound stage outside of the head while most headphones will deliver a sound stage inside the head or very close proximity around the head.

you can try akg k1000s, if you want something different from the headphone soundstage. I do not own them, but judging from the design of the ear speakers, they would most likely be closer to speaker soundstage than most headphones.

 

[Zenja]

Also try out Dolby Headphone. I discovered it a couple of days of ago with my MS-1's and I think it works really well. The results probably vary with different headphones though, and I'm sure it comes down to listener preference.

I'm resorting to using WinDVD for the Dolby Headphone support for now until the plugin for foobar is updated for 0.9. I don't use it 100% of the time but it's really nice to put it on for a while.

 

[Leopold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobxMcCarthy It always sounds as if the singer is somewhere up infront of me just a few inches infront of the headband and that the stage doesn't really extend very far past the headphones themselves.

I don't share your impression. Sure, with speakers the soundstage is projected more in front of you, with headphones you almost become part of the soundstage itself in many recordings.

It is the confined nature of your headphone impression I can't relate to at all, the soundstage extends in all directions far beyond the speakers or phones. Also, I find it much easier to get a good feeling of the room acoustics in the recording with headphones due to lack of interference with the acoustics of the listening room.

As previously mentioned it is important to allow yourself some time to adapt to the headphone experience. Each phone has its own signature that your brain needs to learn and then discard as non-information. Then the magic appears.

 

[RobxMcCarthy]

I'm not saying there's NO sound stage in headphones. I'm saying that in EVERY pair of headphones I've had the singer sounds like he's sitting on my forehead. It's distracting. When I sit down to listen to my speakers I can just sit there and feel like I'm enjoying a live show. With headphones it always feels like I'm listening to a recording. that's the main difference.

 

[riker1384]

In addition to binaural recordings, there's a technique called "holophony." I don't know how it works, as the site is pooly translated. Google it. There are a few samples. It's startling.

 

[Scotty757]

I mean, thats just the way things are. Stereo is heightened in headphones (especially without crossfeed), and the more visceral effects of the music can be felt through speakers not headphones.

I guess what I'm saying is if you want detail and immediacy, listen to headphones. If youre looking for soundstage and impact, listen to speakers. I think there's room in the world for both!