MStager
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2016
- Posts
- 14
- Likes
- 13
Soundstage in headphones?
You jest. What soundstage?
There really isn't any.
The stereo spread is completely artificial.
The left channel feeds only the left ear and right only the right ear.
Listening to speakers, there is a semblance of a natural soundstage where the music is in front of you,
When a musician is on way on the left or right, you hear him/her as in live performance.
Through headphones, the pure left and pure right reproduction is completely artificial and often
uncomfortable to listen to. You do get a good center image without the blurring of speakers where,
even if you are dead center and equidistant from each cabinet, the right ear hears the signal from
the left and vice versa. Try listening to a singer or musician in the center with a record jacket,
edge to your nose, and you'll hear the center image with far greater focus since you are reducing
the time offset reaching your ears from opposite speakers.
Since this leakage doesn't occur in cans, the center is perfectly defined, but as the music moves away
from the center, the perspective becomes exaggerated and at the extreme, hard right or left, becomes
completely unnatural and uncomfortable to listen to. Of course there are binaural recordings which
are recorded specifically to be listened through headphones and some of these sound spectacular
.
But normal stereo?
Not so good - and often unlistenable.
That is the elephant in the room nobody talks about.
Simple fix?
A separation control to allow you to cross-pan the stereo signal.
You'd be surprised how close to mono you have to blend before you get a realistic soundstage.
The music becomes much more real and natural, often amazingly so.
Marc Stager
Stager Sound Systems,
New York City
You jest. What soundstage?
There really isn't any.
The stereo spread is completely artificial.
The left channel feeds only the left ear and right only the right ear.
Listening to speakers, there is a semblance of a natural soundstage where the music is in front of you,
When a musician is on way on the left or right, you hear him/her as in live performance.
Through headphones, the pure left and pure right reproduction is completely artificial and often
uncomfortable to listen to. You do get a good center image without the blurring of speakers where,
even if you are dead center and equidistant from each cabinet, the right ear hears the signal from
the left and vice versa. Try listening to a singer or musician in the center with a record jacket,
edge to your nose, and you'll hear the center image with far greater focus since you are reducing
the time offset reaching your ears from opposite speakers.
Since this leakage doesn't occur in cans, the center is perfectly defined, but as the music moves away
from the center, the perspective becomes exaggerated and at the extreme, hard right or left, becomes
completely unnatural and uncomfortable to listen to. Of course there are binaural recordings which
are recorded specifically to be listened through headphones and some of these sound spectacular
.
But normal stereo?
Not so good - and often unlistenable.
That is the elephant in the room nobody talks about.
Simple fix?
A separation control to allow you to cross-pan the stereo signal.
You'd be surprised how close to mono you have to blend before you get a realistic soundstage.
The music becomes much more real and natural, often amazingly so.
Marc Stager
Stager Sound Systems,
New York City