Listening to stereo music through headphones has never sounded quite right to me. The extreme stereo separation can cause headaches for me when using headphones for more than an hour. Some people report experiencing “pressure” in their ears when using headphones This discomfort could simply be due to how unnatural headphone listening is; no sound from the left channel makes it to your right ear and vice versa. There are some tricks that can be used to get rid of these problems but before I show you how you can try out these tricks let’s get into the math and science behind head related transfer function (HRTF) and how they are used to simulate the way sound travels to our ears resulting in a better listening experience when using headphones with stereo content or even create what is known as virtual surround sound. Continue reading Head Related Transfer Functions and Headphone Listening →