<p>When you wear headphones for listening to music you hear the music inside your head. Even when you hold the two speakers at the same distance from your ears the music is still heard inside your head. If you hold one speaker further or lower from your head though, it seems the music is still playing inside your head (except when one instrument is heard only on one speaker of the headphones; then that particular sound is heard outside your head, at the place where the speaker is where that particular sound comes from), but in a different part of it, i.e. not in the center. So when are sounds heard <strong>inside</strong> your head and others <strong>outside</strong> (for example a knock on the door) yourself (your head)?</p>

<p>It's nice playing with this! Take two loudspeakers (with equal volume), and move them around your head. The sound will travel around, in mysterious ways, in your head, dependent on how you move the speakers. It leaves your head when both spekers are on one side of your head. Try it!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-22T19:35:20.740Z
While lacking the *proper* scientific terminology, this question clearly describes issues associated with the [externalization of sound images](https://www.pa.msu.edu/acoustics/andrew.pdf).
StrongBad
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-23T06:47:01.133Z
@StrongBad Thank you for pointing that out. I have retracted my close vote :)
Robin Kramer-ten Have
<hearing>
Why do you hear music inside your head when wearing headphones, even when you hold the phones some distance from your head?
Deschele Schilder
# Why do you hear music inside your head when wearing headphones, even when you hold the phones some distance from your head?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-19)

When you wear headphones for listening to music you hear the music inside your head. Even when you hold the two speakers at the same distance from your ears the music is still heard inside your head. If you hold one speaker further or lower from your head though, it seems the music is still playing inside your head (except when one instrument is heard only on one speaker of the headphones; then that particular sound is heard outside your head, at the place where the speaker is where that particular sound comes from), but in a different part of it, i.e. not in the center. So when are sounds heard **inside** your head and others **outside** (for example a knock on the door) yourself (your head)?

It's nice playing with this! Take two loudspeakers (with equal volume), and move them around your head. The sound will travel around, in mysterious ways, in your head, dependent on how you move the speakers. It leaves your head when both spekers are on one side of your head. Try it!

**Tags:** hearing

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: While lacking the *proper* scientific terminology, this question clearly describes issues associated with the [externalization of sound images](https://www.pa.msu.edu/acoustics/andrew.pdf).  
> **username_2**: @username_1 Thank you for pointing that out. I have retracted my close vote :)  

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## 0 answers

