headphones

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What music do you like listening to on headphones and why? Do you ever pick anything out to listen to simply because it sounds good through headphones?

― Damian (Damian), Friday, 27 September 2002 10:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

two extremes - carefully produced, highly detailed things and all out mind boggling noise.

― jon (jon), Friday, 27 September 2002 10:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Complex, highly detailed stuff, mostly. Especially if it has muddy production (i.e, chaos) on the drums.

Most all-out banging stuff sounds better on large speakers though. Nothing beats feeling the bass resonate in your chest.

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 27 September 2002 10:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

everything i get I listen to both speakers and headphones at least once. I find the quieter it is the more likely it is that i will listen to it on headphones.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 27 September 2002 10:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

What music do you like listening to on headphones and why?

I listen to music only through headphones. I can't understand why anybody would want to do otherwise.

― Vic Funk, Friday, 27 September 2002 11:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Headphones are excellent for listening to almost anything, as long as you don't want/need/miss a booming bass response. Bringing the stereo effect right in close like that can really make a difference with some records (here I'm thinking Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, but you could mention hundreds of others). That said, one of the two primary reasons I have tinnitus and significant hearing loss (can hardly make out what my wife is saying if she's more than two feet away in a crowded restaurant) is listening to music on headphones way too loud from age 12 to age 32 or so. If you love music enough to want to enjoy it decently the rest of your life, watch the volume knob. (The other main reason? A Mekons show at the Exit/Inn in Nashville in the late '80s--that accursed fiddle.)

― Lee G (Lee G), Friday, 27 September 2002 12:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

listening to music at home on headphones can be ace but usually just makes me paranoid. one of the worst things in the world is when you've got your eyes shut, deep in the music and you open them and someone's standing there talking/staring at you and they have been for five minutes. they laugh at you thinking it's funny but you just want to hit them or run away.

― michael wells (michael w.), Friday, 27 September 2002 12:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

Another thing you lose with headphones are any spatial effects that would be engendered by interference between the left and right channels - entirely divorcing the stereo channels from one another (i.e. yr right ear's hearing nothing from the left channel with headphones on) does mean a loss of acoustic space. Though the 'artificial' space inside yr head might be preferable to the soundfield produced by speakers playing back in yr bedroom.

Of course, with binaurally-recorded material, headphones are the *only* way to hear the captured acoustic.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 27 September 2002 12:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

''I listen to music only through headphones. I can't understand why anybody would want to do otherwise.''

er, becuz speakers can bring certain things out in the music that headphones cannot.

if a rec is really dense then i need both as i can't pick as much up if i listen to headphones.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 27 September 2002 12:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

''listening to music at home on headphones can be ace but usually just makes me paranoid. one of the worst things in the world is when you've got your eyes shut, deep in the music and you open them and someone's standing there talking/staring at you and they have been for five minutes.''

haha...lock your room silly.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 27 September 2002 12:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dispite its increbily dirty home production Elevator's Parts 1-3 was made to listen to on headphones. Rick plays with the pan knob enough to make me dizzy at times. Since Im stuck with headphones at work I'd rather use speakers when i get the chance.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 27 September 2002 13:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

I generally prefer listening through speakers, because I think it allows the mixing of the left and right channels in a more natural way and the feeling of listening is closer to a live experience. However, sometimes headphones allow you to hear detail more clearly, so they can be nice for dense productions where there are lots of odd little sounds buried in the mix (e.g., last year's Circulatory System CD is great on headphones).

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 27 September 2002 13:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

But Julio, if you lock your door there's the chance that you'll be lying there enjoying a record while your flatmate bangs at your door screaming "Oh God, get out, the apartment is on fire, run, the building next door exploded and smallpox-infected zombies are climbing out of its basement..."

(Or just, like, "Dude, your girlfriend dropped by, open the door and let her in.")

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 27 September 2002 15:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

I listen to music only through headphones. I can't understand why anybody would want to do otherwise.

oh, i dunno. listening to music with other people in the room, for one thing.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 27 September 2002 16:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

''But Julio, if you lock your door there's the chance that you'll be lying there enjoying a record while your flatmate bangs at your door screaming "Oh God, get out, the apartment is on fire, run, the building next door exploded and smallpox-infected zombies are climbing out of its basement..."''

its a risk you have to take.

''(Or just, like, "Dude, your girlfriend dropped by, open the door and let her in.")''

ah, but i don't have a girlfriend but yes you have a point there.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 27 September 2002 18:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

I found out last week that a disc i'd pegged as passive-listening headphone music - gas's "pop" - works far better as active-listening speakers music: depending on exactly where i am on the room, i hear noticeably different sounds. even lying on my bed and rolling over from right to left, i noticed all kindsa space-specific micro hooks and rhythms

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 27 September 2002 19:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

my ill silver aiwas got busted, does anyone want to sell me a pair of used ones for less than thirty bucks so i dont have to hit up the snobby hi fi store again??

― simon trife (simon_tr), Friday, 27 September 2002 19:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/cowfish/sadsimon.jpg

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Friday, 27 September 2002 21:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Some of the best music listening I did was in my last two years of high school on the school bus each morning and afternoon w/ my MiniDisc and Grado headphones (which, you know, are ugly and cheap looking as fuck, but very good sounding).

I can't remember much of what I listened to, probably it was mostly indie pop rubbish w/ bits of Dischord punk and Rephlex-y IDM stuff, but yeah, I'd just kind of drift into this half-sleep state where I was conscious of everything around me, but curiously dreamy as well and I'd become aware of very subtle musical details that would otherwise fly right past me (particularly on my cheap stereo speakers!)

― OCP (OCP), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah increasingly i'm coming around to the opinion that the best way to listen to music is through headphones,i always find that i notice things i wouldn't normally notice...having said that,i can't really listen to music all that loud on speakers all that often for fear of disturbing people...

― robin (robin), Saturday, 28 September 2002 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

like the picture mitch!

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 28 September 2002 19:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

thanks jel, i'm still waiting for simon to respond angrily tho

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Saturday, 28 September 2002 20:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think there's something wrong with my ears - these ear bud things I've got in really begin to hurt after twenty minutes or so.

Mitch, you almost had me sold but the deal breaker was the eyes. They need more of that 'hundred window panes' shiny trembliness.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 29 September 2002 21:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Headphones are great when I'm editing or listening to mixes but I really don't like them much otherwise. I'd much rather listen through speakers. I don't like not being able to hear what's going on around me, and also minor flaws (eg imperfections from vinyl) are less obvious (and therefore less irritating to me) than on headphones. Plus it's all too easy to up the volume to damaging levels without realising it.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 30 September 2002 03:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've had about 3 close calls with cars on my walk to work since getting noise-cancelling headphones, but they make everything sound so much nicer that I'm loathe to give them up for the commute. They're the only kind I've ever used which actually really have bass!

Kim, what type of earbuds do you have that hurt your ears? Some kinds are better than others; ovbiously, the nicer the rubber cushion around the edges, the easier they are to wear.

― lyra (lyra), Monday, 30 September 2002 03:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Well, my Naim 101 preamp doesn't have a headphone output, and can't really see buying a headphone amp (and headphones) when I have the, ahem, competent performance of my Linn Kabers to tempt me, so no headphones, thanx.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 30 September 2002 03:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Riding on a bike through the woods with headphones one is ace! Or just walking in public, it brings a whole different aspect to the music. But when at home I prefer speakers.

Resident's Eskimo is made to be listened to on headphones.

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 30 September 2002 03:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

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