Here's Something I Don't Understand about Bass

I love listening to music. For a while I've been trying to decide if I like the little ear-bud headphones, over-the-ear headphones, or big speakers better.

And I realized that big speakers make music that you can feel in your whole body. So how do those ear-bud things do that? When I listen to ear-buds, it doesn't SEEM like something is missing.

Now I'm confused. Does the body compensate for no real bass with fake bass stimuli or something??