system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can headphones deliver decent amounts of bass when normal speakers usually require a large subwoofer to produce the same effect?
gpt
"Normal speakers" are trying to make sound in a room that's many times larger than the tiny space in your ear canal where earbuds are making sound (or the small space inside the headphones where they are making the sound).  Bigger spaces take more energy for the sound to be perceived as at the same "level".