# Why do headphone speakers sound 'tinny' when far from the ear? Tags: acoustics, everyday-life - Score: 28 - Views: 4486 - Answers: 3 - Answered: yes - Asked by: Brent Coker (289 rep) - Asked: 2023-08-29 - Edited: 2023-08-29 - Site: physics ## Question For me it is counter-intuitive: I should be hearing more low frequency sounds (bass) at a greater distance from a headphone speaker (like I hear only the bass when standing outside a club), because the bass travels further and high frequency sounds get absorbed easier on the way to the ear. But of course it sounds like the bass is completely absent when headphones are located far from the ear, and it sounds like only the very high frequency sounds survive. What is the physics behind this - why do headphones sound more 'tinny' when distance from the ear is increased? ## Answers ### Answer by niels nielsen (score: 22) The speakers in a headphone couple poorly to 3-dimensional space full of air- that is, there is a severe impedance mismatch between the itsy bitsy speaker cone in the earcup and the air that is more than one cone diameter away from it, for low frequencies. This means if you hold the headphones at arm's length, all