████ █████████ ███ ███ █uestion of mixing in headphones is something I've gotten wrong for years and only recently started understanding.

The problem with mixing in headphones isn't that headphone mixes sound bad on speakers — it's that headphones create a specific stereo image that doesn't translate to how people actually listen to music in the real world. In headphones, the stereo field is inside your head. On speakers, it's in the room. These are fundamentally different spatial experiences, and the decisions you make in one context don't automatically work in the other.

The practical advice I've heard is to do your rough mix in headphones, check it on speakers, then finalize on speakers. The headphone pass gives you a certain clarity on individual elements; the speaker pass tells you how the elements work together in a space.

I'd add: reference your mixes on the worst speakers you have. If it sounds good on a phone speaker or a small Bluetooth, it'll translate everywhere.