You have two ears, right? But when you listen to your stereo, everything comes from right in front of you. When you listen to stereo sound with headphones the problem gets even worse: everything is inside your head! This may be a thrill to some, but it's not the sound your ears were intended to hear. You can hear not only left and right, but front and back, up and down, and any combination of these.
Have you ever been taking a walk in the park or somewhere outdoors and heard the birds in the trees above you? Did it ever occur to you how you could tell a bird singing in a tree from a bird on the ground? Some surround sound systems promise a 3-D experience and only deliver two-thirds of what they offer. Surround sound is a plane: left-right, front-back. and with all that, it still requires 4 channels (or more)!
Binaural sound is inherently different. It uses only two channels and plays over ordinary stereo headphones. You might be tempted to say that binaural is just stereo, but that would be a mistake. The difference between stereo and binaural is the differnece between a line of sound and a continuous space. You put your headphones on and you're automatically transported to the very spot where the recording was made. Want to learn more or order some binaural recordings? check the Binaural Source.
