Many folks, especially home theater enthusiasts, enjoy listening to the audio tracks of movies in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel output. All well and good, until you decide to watch a movie while the rest of the family is in the next room playing Monopoly. You decide to don your headphones. The sound typically associated with headphones is not always too good. A great quality set of phones can deliver rich musical sounds, but even these can fall apart when trying to deliver movie quality sound.
Headphones deliver sound through the left and right channel.
Essentially, this is great for stereo. Still, when your ear hears the sound, it feels as if it comes from the center of you head. Now, try to listen to sound mixed for two front, two back, and a center speaker. It seems to come out as a sort of bland monotone. Here's where it all gets good.