Headphones lack the phantom-center timbre notch because no interaural crosstalk exists.

Evidence

Phantom center. The phantom center experience in loudspeakers does not exist in headphones since there is no interaural crosstalk between the left and right ears. The steep notch that can occur at 2 kHz while sitting in the sweet spot between two loudspeakers is not present in headphone listening and should produce a more neutral timbre (see Section 4.3.2). The Dolby Atmos mixing process allows for optional binaural processing of LCR channels for headphone playback. It is intended to simulate the locations and timbre of loudspeakers over headphones including the interaural crosstalk associated with center phantom images and the 2 kHz notch. Many mixers prefer to leave it turned off (King et al., 2023). — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1673

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why the 2 kHz phantom-center notch is a loudspeaker-only artifact absent in headphone listening.