Pinky
and The Brain...
No. Just, no. Even in an anechoic chamber with any kind of tweeter you want to use, there will be cross bleed. The direct path, not just reflections, from a speaker to the opposite ear is what you miss out on with headphones or earbuds.
Okay I see what you mean by cross bleed. Of course no earbud or headphones replicate that, which is also why I compared the earbuds to a pair of headphones. So I guess I don't understand why you even mentioned it. Like saying an econo car isn't fast. It's not supposed to be/won't be. But the econo car still gets you from a --> b, and I think that's what some of us are saying here.
Fwiw, I don't find cross bleed to be a significant enough factor to plan for or adjust based on that alone. As someone else mentioned (RFR? Steen?) most playback is on equipment in environments that add more hurtles than they allow subtle things like cross bleed factors in mixing to matter. That's why monitor use, for me, is at the end. But it's rare now I find much wrong with my headphone mixes and it's become more habit than necessity. Mostly, the monitors confirm the lower end is where I want it since the headphones can't replicate the feel of sub frequencies, etc. Monitors are just another source for the mix to verify things, it's definitely not an end-all-be-all. Nor should it be for the reasons previously mentioned (listener playback sources).
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