Improving Headphone Listening Comfort

Abstract

The fatigue resulting from prolonged listening to a headphone appears to be related to the in-phase motion of earphone diaphragms that cause the sound to be localized in a single frontal spot within the head, this being entirely unlike what is experienced in the normal listening mode. Out-of-phase connection for some people shifts the sound spot toward the back of the head, but without any apparent effect on comfort or intelligibility in the presence of noise [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 33, 851(A) (1961)]. By analogy with previous loudspeaker listening experiments [IEEE Trans. Audio 11, 88–92 (1963)], the following experiment was performed: A speech signal was split into two equal 90° out-of-phase channels and connected to earphones through a crosscoupling network that restores normal interaural delays. The resulting sound is completely spread within the head. eliminating the oppressive feeling of the usual headphone listening. The effect is demonstrated at the meeting.