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Pjotr G was right. In a purely theoretical way, headphones blow speakers away in quality terms and ease of use (distortion values are way lower at a normal level, no chance of comb filtering due to reflections on the walls, sounds hits the ear directly, etc...), but phones don't really represent how our hearing works when listening to spatial differences. Room accoustics, diaphony from speakers, yes even the comb filtering, that's how we hear spaces everyday. Those conditions are altered when using headphones.
That's why, if you mix on headphones, and you think you have a nice stereo image, that stereo image collapses when listened on speakers (the equilateral triangle positioning between your head and the speakers was deduced after long testing. You get 60° between your ears and each speaker, with phones that becomes 180°). Also, sounds you hear clearly enough in the mix when listening in phones might get lost in room accoustics.
About phones hurting, well, with good phones and right levels, there is no reason why they should hurt. Just too many people listen to crazy levels in their phones (kinda like the kids you hear from miles away with the "tsss-tsss-tsss" coming out of their walkman phones). Well, ok, usually those people listen to crazy levels on speakers too. They are just plain crazy. I'm running with my phones almost 8 hours a day, and seriously I get a lot of people asking why I wear phones without listening to music. Cuz when I listen, it's not loud at all. Learn to preserve your ears.
About phones not giving enough bass, not true either. Good phones can go as low as good monitors. But yes, in the dance scene, people want to feel the bass also...
All that to say, it's perfectly possible to make good mixes on phones, but it's not ideal. The most important rule is, for a good stereo image, you should mix "too wide" on phones, as the stereo image will certainly collapse on speakers. You just have to get to know how the mix in your phones translates to speakers. And that comes with experience.
Also, on a sidenote, I think it's a very good practice to mix on a reference loudness level. Let me explain. I've got an education of film sound mixing. In film mixing, it's a very common practice to mix at a reference of 85 dB SPL (C weighting if you wanna know). Now the funny part. Some years ago, Tomlinson Holmann (you know the guy, guess what TH means in: THX), together with Dolby Labs, asked lots of sound guys if they found a particular soundtrack too loud, just good or too low. He asked that after they saw a soundtrack mixed at a reference of 85 dB. Almost all people answered it was just good. Their research conducted to a constatation that the reference of 85 dB sounded natural. What is even more striking , is that when you change that reference, you always try to get to that natural level again, unconciously. For example, if you mix at a lower reference, you'll try to mix everything louder.
Now, of course, that was conducted for optimized cinema theaters. At home, you'll have a lot of unwanted things happening, so the reference for home use was lowered to 79 dB SPL.
Now according to Bob Katz (a well known mastering engineer), this is a very good value for mixing and mastering music also.
If you wanna read the full story : http://www.aes.org/technical/docume...ds.cfm?docID=65
Now what I'm wanting to say with this is, you don't have to be a freak about the numbers really, but try to make a reference for yourself, and try to stick to that reference on all your tunes, throughout your mixes (it's ok to crosscheck at lower or louder levels how it translates, but return to your reference as soon as you can, maybe make a little marking on your mixer/amp/speaker volume). This will make your mixes more consistent both in the range of one mix, and your whole repertoire. If you constantly switch volumes, some parts may sound cramped, some may sound lighter. And consistency is what you want to achieve.
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