What other gear besides headphones is needed to listen properly to binaural?
No special equipment of any sort is required to enjoy binaural recordings or broadcasts — just a binaural source and a pair of stereo headphones. It is a democratic sort of technology in that regard. High-end components are not needed to appreciate the startling realism of binaural sound; think back to the 1881 Paris experiment — the telephone is far from hi-fi today and you can imagine what it must have been like then! Yet the binaural effect was marvelled at by all subscribers. An extended frequency response is not vital to the binaural effect, although of course the better quality the phones the better the music will sound. The headphone jacks on most components — even high end models — are frequently under-powered since this feature is usually an afterthought of the designers, not a primary function. Many of the better headphones will really sing when they are powered from a dedicated Headphone Amplifier. Some of these use Class A circuitry, which gives the cleanest amplificati
