It is certain that headphones themselves can compress the sound (not just recording.)

I'd like to discuss about this issue, particularly regarding the release of HE-1000, the headphones with incredibly large dynamic range. Some people say this results in softer part being actually softer and louder part being louder. This seems to appear as hiding 'smaller details' because they sound softer compared to other headphones which have less dynamic range, which leads into compression of the sound, making the 'smaller details' louder.

Basically, compressing the sound makes the softer part of music louder while louder part softer, which, technically, brings out details.

That said, I decided to use "night mode" on Jriver, which is a sort of compressor for sound. It is YMMV, but the sound gets more exciting and engaging. I know some of you guys may do not like apply DSP, but for me this is the easiest improvement for HE-1000, and I certainly like the result despite some flaws I heard (such as audible distortion when the sound peaks too long for certain tracks)


That said, this reminds me one of the Skylar Gray's (AudioQuest Nighthawk developer) comments regarding dynamic vs orthos. Bolded by me.

Original : http://www.head-fi.org/t/749762/audioquest-nighthawk-impressions-and-discussion-thread#post_11565430

At this point, however, I have no plans to do a planar since I think there are inherent disadvantages compared to dynamic drivers. For instance, to achieve bass extension, the diaphragm must be very large, necessitating larger/more magnets as well. So there is a weight and size advantage to dynamic headphones in that these can almost always be less. Also, planar diaphragm movement is quite limited, so dynamic range impact will be inferior, in my opinion, to moving coil drivers which can have high excursion. Further, the motion of the super-thin planar membrane can never be pistonic and will inherently exhibit modal break-ups and irregular behavior as it constantly flexes. And because the diaphragm must be tensioned, there will be an unavoidable resonance coloration based on this tension. Then we have the problem of magnets obstructing the wavefront, which regardless of how these elements are shaped or contoured will present another type of coloration. There are also pressure issues with the front cavity which can be fatiguing over time and require more audio quality compromises to overcome. The list goes on. There are many problems with planars that either don't exist with dynamics or can be fairly easily avoided without making serious concessions from a design and audio quality perspective.

If what he says is correct, it can be one of the explanations that people tend to feel orthodynamic headphones bringing more detail than dynamic headphones. It may be because orthodynamic headphones compress the sound more, resulting in softer part getting louder which allows people to hear the details easier.

I am not quite certain this is good thing or not. Probably it's not a good thing because compressed sound is not really a natural, original sound.