Thread: Why do songs sound SO MUCH different though headphones?

Originally Posted by Photolysis

Completely different acoustics basically. A lot more of the sound energy goes into your ear than when listening in a room using loudspeakers, so there'll be less reverberation. Headphones will usually block at least some background and ambient noise, though in a noisy environment the headphone output itself can be masked. Different speakers have different outputs at different frequencies, especially low and high pitches. It's easier to tell differences between the left and right audio channels when listening to headphones.

There's probably a bit of bone conduction when listening to headphones at high volume too, which again, alters how the sound is perceived. Incidentally bone conduction is why our voices sound different to ourselves than to others.

Short: lots of reasons, though it will vary dramatically depending on the equipment you're using and the quality of the music/sound.

So exactly what's already been said in this thread.

Originally Posted by Artelis

So exactly what's already been said in this thread.

Someone already commented on repeat responses.

I have big awesome noise-cancelling headphones, and music sounds great on it. I would practically kill myself if I had to listen to music on crappy little ipod buds again, or anything but cushy, deep sounding earmuff headphones. The experience is like night and day.