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On 2011-05-08 (ScottDorsey) said:
Though one would expect a pair of really good electrostatic
headphones to be superior to any speaker, this is not necessarily
true. WHY, I don't know.
Why?
Because recordings that are miked and mixed for stereo are done so
with the intention of playing them back in a room with speakers. So
there are room effects and crosstalk (well, crosstalk is a horribly
oversimplified way of thinking about it) created, rather than each
channel directly going into individual ears.
If you could simulate those effects (and there are devices out there
like the Sennheiser Lucas and its successors which do some of that),
then you would be able to get more realistic playback of stereo
recordings through headphones.
RIght, and then the "emulations" present their own issues.
THis is also why, for forms of music William doesn't
normally listen to, where the recording process is another
major creative element it's difficult as well to mix on
phones. EFfects such as artificial reverbs, etc. are more
difficult to judge. You think the signal is too wet on
phones, and then find that it could be "wetter" whence
listening on your chosen playback system. As with speakers
one learns to judge using a given set of phones after
awhile.
Actually, the same thing occurs with the kinds of music I do listen to. As
an amateur recordist, I quickly learned that headphone listening produces a
much more spacious effect than speakers (this is /inherent/ in headphone
listening), and made sure I miked for exaggerated ambience.
This is but one example of why headphone listening is not the same as
speaker listening.
Many years ago, I built the Ben what's-his-name crosstalk generator for
headphone listening. It worked pretty well. As far as I know, no one
currently makes such a product.