General Interest

Title: Earbuds, Equalization and Headphones
Author: Michael Hoffman
A survey and review of earbud (and some non-earbud) headphones and their features with tips on improving sound.

Title: Taking Audio in Another Direction
Author: John Sunier
Sunier takes on the Audio Police to champion binaural recordings and equalization for headphone listening.

Title: A Dialectic of Audible Space
Author: Ian Stevenson
A free ranging discussion of some aspects of the use of space in musical performance. There is a strong belief on the behalf of contemporary composers that space can be effectively and meaningfully employed as a composition tool.

Title: Seven Darn Fine Reasons to Own a Headphone System Too!
Author: Doug Schneider
Although some people use headphones exclusively, this article is for those people who have a full home system, because a supplementary headphone system can add enjoyment to the music-listening experience and take you places your home system won’t allow.

Title: Headsets Improve Productivity
Author: Karl Leif Bates
Employees who are allowed to wear personal stereo headsets show higher productivity, better attitudes and greater satisfaction with the workplace.

Title: A Bicyclist’s Sense Of Hearing: How Important?
Author: John S. Allen
Laws banning headphone use by bicyclists are based on inaccurate ideas about headphone design. These laws outlaw the special advantages of headphones for bicyclists, particularly for two-way communication. Furthermore, the bicyclist is unusual among vehicle operators in having good use of the sense of hearing.

Title: Spatial Sound – An Overview (1996)
Author: Kimmo Vennonen
Spatial sound is at the point now of a having sufficient technological tools to solve most of the problems.

Title: Thoughts And Processes Relating To Recording And Mixing With Headphones
Author: LXH2
How to make final mixes in headphones so that they sound accurate on a variety of playback systems. The advantages to mixing in headphones are many, but can result in mixes with poor sound when played back over loudspeakers, if not done correctly. The author gives tips and techniques for successful mixing in headphones and details the construction and use of a binaural “roving mike” for the tracking process and a tunable bass filter for recording different sources with strong bass content.

Title: Binaural In-Depth
Author: John Sunier
A primer on binaural recordings. The author discusses the history of binaural recordings, the current status of the binaural industry, d-i-y binaural recordings and audio equipment for binaural listening.

Title: Depth Perception in Headphones
Author: Ron Soh
The author discusses how to identify depth cues in music heard through headphones (without the use of a virtualizer). Even though the soundstage in headphones is apparently in a direct line between the ears, good recordings often contain enough acoustic information for the listener to locate audio sources spatially. The article also provides an ear-training tutorial using selections from commercially available CDs.