Monitoring via Headphones Speaker vs Master

[Ken Newton]

Hello, when I’m either listening to tracks, or recording a new track,  prior to the mastering process, does it make a difference if I use Speakers or Master as the output?  It doesn’t seem to matter, but is either one better for monitoring, via headphones by the way.  Thanks.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Ken Newton
Forgot to mention something

[reginaldStjohn]

I don't know what you mean by "Speakers or Master".  Usually Master is a bus that you have created where all your audio goes before it goes out to the HW outputs. Speakers are things that are attached to your interface that actually produce the sound that is routed to the HW outputs.  

If you don't use a master bus that is fine. People use master busses so they can apply compression or other effects, volume automation etc. to the whole mix.

[57Gregy]

If the Master bus is the last stop of all tracks and busses before going to the Main output (Speaker), then it shouldn't matter. They should be identical.