On 30 Mar 2006 05:19:56 -0800, "paul packer"
wrote:

That's interesting. Because listening through headphones is the closest
approximation of being "live in studio" that there is. Much less acoustic
distortion, much more clarity of the sound in the live space.

It does remove a number of traditional problems like room interaction,
airborne vibration etc. Phones are also an easier, less reactive load
for the amp. To call listening through quality headphones "a complete
waste" is of course nonsense. And as for space and ambience, good
phones can certainly provide that. Nope, you're wrong, Mike, and
not--dare I suggest?--for the first time.

There are a couple of reasons why I generally don't care much for
phones (and I had one of the uncontested best phones for a while - the
Stax Gammas, which I sold because I found myself rarely using them).
The main thing is that any type of phones, whether closed, open or
buds, feels "unnatural" to me. It's very difficult to ignore the
fact that I'm wearing them. Part of it is the physical contact that
they make, but part of it is the somewhat hyper-present sound that
doesn't really mimic (to me, at least) the sound that you would
normally hear being presented either live or "in the room" with
speakers.

Now, if I am trying to listen to music on the street, then I would opt
for that sort of presentation because it would be far prefereable to
either forgoing music or using a boombox or other speaker-oriented
system (obviously the sound suffers from non-boundary reinforcement
even with the "best" portable system). If I had to listen to music in
a way not to disturb others, then I would opt for headphones in lieu
of not listening to music at all. Also, there are the rare times that
music is served by the "unnaturalness" of headphones, mostly when they
are designed for that sort of presentation, i.e. electronic music,
music with wild effects, etc.

However, I can understand the appeal that headphones have for some
people, even apart from the practical considerations of using
headphones in situations where they are almost mandatory. Some people
like the upfront and detailed presentation that they offer and those
people can easily overlook/forget the physical aspects of headphones.
There is no right or wrong about the use of headphones.