Binaural room impulse responses are important for auralization as well as for objective research in room acoustics. In geometrical room simulation methods, obtaining such responses is easily achieved by convolving each computed reflection tap with a corresponding pre-measured angle-dependent head-related impulse response. Unfortunately, employing such an approach in wave based methods is challenging due to temporal overlap of room reflections in the calculated response. One alternative is to physically embed a listener geometry in the grid. Whilst this method is straightforward, it requires voxelization of a geometrically complex object. Furthermore, with non-conformal boundary conditions, the voxelized geometry is sample-rate dependent, meaning that numerical consistency is compromised. In this paper, we discuss the merits and drawbacks of embedding different listener geometries in the grid, ranging from a simple rigid sphere to a fully featured laser-scan of a Kemar mannikin. We then introduce a parametric model of a human listener whose head related effects are structurally approximated by digital filters. The model is applied to simulated results in order to extrapolate a binaural response from a single pressure-velocity receiver, without the need to embed any objects in the grid. A comparative analysis of the two methods is presented, and results are discussed in light of room acoustics modeling.