[porridgecup]

I posted this on another forum, but was regarded as if this were impossible and that I'm just experiencing placebo.
 
I was sitting in a small room with my HE-400i headphones; the door is almost always closed. I normally sit right in front of the door, facing it.

Recently, I left the door open, and I noticed that the bass and sub-bass in songs felt a lot more impactful and "deep". Sure enough, A/Bing with the door opened and closed showed it was definitely not just psychological.
 
The room is about 8 square feet, and my head is about 1-2 feet away from the door. Hard walls and hardwood floor.
 
I don't exactly have an objective way to test or demonstrate it, but I do produce music and have done quite a bit of ear training, and I am 100% sure the low end sounds a lot "cloudier" and stuffier when the door is closed.
 
This has only happened in that really small room. Any larger space, and I haven't noticed any such effect.

Is this a real thing, or am I just crazy? If it is real, do I actually need to get room treatment for small, confined rooms (or just sit in bigger rooms) when using certain headphones?

 

[AutumnCrown]

One way to test it would be to stick your head in a washing machine or something. It would be surprising if you didn't get some effect, considering how much sound open headphones project.

 

[porridgecup]

  It would be surprising if you didn't get some effect, considering how much sound open headphones project.

 
Those were my thoughts, too, but the idea was derided as ridiculous by some other people.

 

[castleofargh]

it's a matter of how loud the sounds reflected from the door and bouncing back into your ear, will be compared to the music coming straight from the headphone to your ears.
in principle any reflection can have an impact, just like temperature change, humidity, air pressure, all of those could be affected by you closing the door(maybe not instantly but in the long run). or maybe even some external noises that get attenuated by the closed door? but are any of those changes reaching the point where you notice them? that's another thing entirely.
 
if you have a microphone (in a headset or something) you could try and measure the 2 situations sending a few stuff into your headphone(or simply using something like Room Eq Wizard to make the frequency analysis more automated). but you would need to keep the mic and headphone at the exact same place for both measures, meaning you can't just have it on your head and pretend like you didn't move too much. that alone makes the experiment more complicated and the result potentially different from your own experience. but if you're curious, and there is a significant low frequency impact, it may be worth trying.

 

[gregorio]

It's more likely that you are hearing reflections of harmonics of the low bass notes and that's what is making them sound clearer. Hard walls and doors would reflect mainly, high, mid and low mid freqs but low freqs would mostly just pass right through. While you'd get some reflections of low freqs with speakers, I'd think you'd have to drive headphones massively hard to get that effect. I'm not saying it's totally impossible, just very unlikely.
 
G

 

[icebear]

... The room is about 8 square feet, and my head is about 1-2 feet away from the door. Hard walls and hardwood floor.
...

That space is about 0.74m², I wouldn't call that a room

.
Another member suggested a test in a washing machine, that might be close.
Get out of there man, before you take on depression or something

 

[porridgecup]

  It's more likely that you are hearing reflections of harmonics of the low bass notes and that's what is making them sound clearer. Hard walls and doors would reflect mainly, high, mid and low mid freqs but low freqs would mostly just pass right through. While you'd get some reflections of low freqs with speakers, I'd think you'd have to drive headphones massively hard to get that effect. I'm not saying it's totally impossible, just very unlikely.
 
G

 
That is very possible. Upon further re-listening, it does seem like the increased impact of instruments like kick drums is coming more from the upper harmonics than the actual low end itself.
 
 

  That space is about 0.74m², I wouldn't call that a room

.
Another member suggested a test in a washing machine, that might be close.
Get out of there man, before you take on depression or something

 
It's a temporary situation; definitely not ideal.

 

[asilker]

Another fun test would be to get some Roxul "safe n sound" insulation and wrap it around you like a U. That stuff sucks up sound like crazy. If it's reflections, and not extra air volume, that's causing this, you'll notice it fast with some Roxul

 

[Spork67]

  One way to test it would be to stick your head in a washing machine or something. ...

Please don't forget to post pix. if you do this.