On May 14, 5:47*pm, "Phil Allison" wrote:

** 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.

That's why we really should have binaural recordings for headphone
playback. Weren't there stereo-to-pseudo-binaural converters at one
point?