There has been debate over whether headphones or loudspeakers are the more effective monitoring system. However, little discussion has been conducted regarding the effectiveness of the two systems in the context of mixing and music production tasks. This study aimed to examine how the two monitoring systems would influence users performance in production tasks. An experiment was designed in which the subject was asked to match the boost level of a given frequency band in a reference recording until the boost sounded identical to the reference. A group of six audio engineering graduate students completed the experiment using headphones and loudspeakers. Subjects adjustment levels across eight frequency bands were collected. Results suggest that both monitoring systems were equally effective for energy matching in specific frequency bands. Future research is called for with more subjects with diverse levels of expertise in various production-oriented tasks to better understand the potential effect of each playback system.
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https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22752
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