Seems like lower quality headphones have the same effect but they need to be loud. I got a higher quality pair and even at low volume the effect seems like it’s not coming from something sitting on my ear but actually coming from inside my head.
In: 7
Your ears and brain locate the direction of sound by picking up on subtle things like how long it takes a sound to reach your ears and the tones of a sound.
Headphones provide sound to your ears instantly.
GOOD headphones also provide a deep, full sounding tone with lots of detail.
In nature, the only way to hear deep full sounds with lots of detail is to be very close to the sound source.
So with instant sound delivery to both ears, and an unnatural amount of detail and tone that headphones deliver, your brain calculation essentially determines the sound can only be coming from a space between your ears.
This is the same reason that [holophonic recordings](https://youtu.be/IUDTlvagjJA) sound so realistic.
Because they use the same headphone delivery method, but insert timing and tonal cues into the recording itself, to trick your brain into hearing sounds *all around you* instead of just sounds being piped into your head.
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