Originally Posted By: BlueAttitude
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud


What I don’t get is this. With my monitors I’m hearing, for example, a left pan in both ears while with phones I only hear it in the left ear. From my perspective this alone “colors” the sound differently, i.e., a different soundstage than what I would hear through speakers.

Bud


Bud, the phones I use are open back design. That’s the type mentioned in the article that Joe posted the link to as well.

With them being open back you do actually hear the left pan in the right ear, etc. Not the same as you would with monitors mind you, but much more than you would with closed back phones (or ear buds).

So open back phones are the best for mixing, no good for recording through a microphone however, because you would get the bleed from the phones into the mic.


Open back vs closed back phones should make absolutely no difference on Pan perception or cross talk unless there is something wrong with the headphones or they don’t have similar frequency response specs. With open back phones you do get a sense of the room you are listening in from the lack of isolating aspect of open back phones. But the room sensation is from sound sources not originating at the phones themselves.

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