"David Looser"
Some damn idiot wrote:

It's been instructive to see how many people misunderstood what the
original question was trying to solve and they gave obviously useless, if
not misleading, advice. It's never been the same since Eternal
September.

Actually that's untrue, nobody misunderstood the question or gave useless
or misleading advice. And Phil is quite right, the effect of having the
headphones out of phase with each other is not at all subtle, it is at
least as obvious as it would be with speakers. Just because there is no
phase cancellation in the air doesn't mean that the brain is not
immediately aware of the phase difference heard in the two ears.


** I have come across folk with their hi-fi speakers wired out of phase and
gone un-noticed for months or years. Room acoustics and listening position
being critical to observing the fact. However, stereo headphones wired out
of phase is just the weirdest sound and not tolerated by many for long.

Headphone listening is nothing like listening to stereo speakers or natural
sounds in the environment - the outer ears are no longer involved and moving
one's head has no effect on the sound heard. The stereo effect becomes
extreme and the "sound stage" appears to be inside one's head extending left
and right as well. Plus the who damn thing moves about with your head
movements.



..... Phil