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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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Headphoneus Supremus: A British ingredient in our rockin' international gumbo.
I too love my speakers.... But I couldn't bring myself to part with my cans either.
I love to listen with speakers but sometimes it's just too impractical to have them on. Take now for instance, It's 5am and I can't sleep as I have some HTML coding I should be getting on with. Anyway, i'd love to put my speakers on but somehow I don't think my old man would be too impressed, seeing as this is the only day of the week that he get to lie in.
So the Grado SR60's are on. Plugged into the Pre-Amp and the Naim CD player is on. Now be under no illusions, the sound is fantastic and i'm really enjoying the music. Also just had a hour or so of listening to the very fine brodcast from BBC Radio 2 which was also great. I'd put my Stax Lambda Nova's on but then i'd never get anything done or even get back to sleep.
One of the things that I like about 'phones is that you can monitor whatever you you want at whatever time of the day/night and nobody gets their door down about the noise.
Don't know about anybody else, but I often record new discs to MD and listen to them on the way to work - 1hour journey. This gives me time to listen to it and get used to what the disc is about, then when I get some quality time i'll listen to the best tracks through the speakers to really soak up the sound and hear it at it's best.
Sure speakers are great and more often than not (to me) give a more satisfying sound but they are not as practical. So lets all say a big hooray for cans and bring em on. The more the merrier.
BTW, I'm sat here at 5am on a Sunday Morning, funnily enough listening to "Sunday Morning Comin Down" from the Austin Sessions from Kris Kristofferson.
Sound As Ever
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Mick - TEAM FM
Digital front end: Krell MD10 / Krell Studio DAC, Sony D777es DAB Tuner, Theta TLC Analog front end: EAR834p MM/MC Phono Stage - Pro-Ject RPM9/9c Carbon arm/Ortofon Rohmann MC - Rega Planar 3/RB300/Sumiko BPS - Pioneer PL-L1000 Linear Tracker/AT110e MM - Audiolab 8000T Tuner Recording: Sony JA30ES MD - Pioneer PDR04 - 2 x TEAC V6030s Amplification: Audiolab 8000Q Pre - 2 x Tubetech Genesis Monoblocks - 2 x Rotel RB970bx SS Monoblock Amps Speakers: ProAc Response 1SC - Spendor SP3/1 - Quad 77-10L - KEF Q15.2 - Target R4 Stands - QED Genesis Silver Spiral Phones: Sugden Headmaster Amp - AKG K1000 - Beyer DT531 - Senn HD25 PX200 MX500 HD470 HD580 HD600 - Grado SR60 - Stax Lamda Nova - Stax Sr001 - Shure E2c - Sony MDR-W08 EX71sp CD3000 - Koss "The Plug" - Etymotic ER4P Portable:Sony DE-J955 - Panasonic SLCT790 - Sony MZR30 37 900 909 N10 D33 D35 D141 D190 WMEX631 - iRiver iMP-550 - Headsave META42 Transit amp - Headroom 'original' Airhead amp HT System: Pioneer DV717 - Philips DVDR880 - AE Aego P5 Sub/Sat system - LG 28"
No, No I dont like that all benG. I will agree however that speakers are flawed. And i think headphones posess the capability to be more real than speakers through binaural... But nothing will ever match the bass you feel around you that speakers have, not even the 7506's. All in all i think that the short term solution to sounding the most real (barring price) is a good pair of speakers.
Contributor Headphoneus Supremus: Headphone audiophiles are practically the stuff of legend.
I like speakers as well, but it's going to take a decent amount of money and work to get my speaker system up to my headphone system. But I will do it, eventually. There are a few problems, as I see it, w/ headphones:
1) Lack of body impact from bass
2) Lack of huge soundstages
3) Small
I think 3) is actually the most important, in terms of convincing you you are listening to something real. When you go to a concert or performance, things sound, well... big, life-sized. When you listen to headphones, you can always tell you're listening to a point-source, in comparison to what you'd get in real life. Speakers are physically big enough to convey that sense of scale and presence.
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"It was another baffling case. But then, you don't hire a private eye for the easy ones." - Tracer Bullet
Headphoneus Supremus: Why is there a chaplain standing over his wallet?
Originally posted by dhwilkin I like speakers as well, but it's going to take a decent amount of money and work to get my speaker system up to my headphone system. But I will do it, eventually. There are a few problems, as I see it, w/ headphones:
1) Lack of body impact from bass
2) Lack of huge soundstages
3) Small
The main problem to me is not the size of the soundstage, but its location: in the middle of my head. Under other circumstances, a clear voice speaking there would indicate a need for psychiatric care. It's just not a place that sound is supposed to originate from.
With regard to bass, I have had some interesting experiences in tube rolling the ZOTL. With the right tubes in the ZOTL, the HD-600 can send deep bass that feels like its going right down your back (we're talking normal listening levels, not ear damage blasting). There's some serious bass impact possible with cans that I just hadn't heard before.
Originally posted by Vertigo-1 I find myself enjoying my speakers much more than my headphones as well. More likely than not I'll probably drop the whole headphone thing soon as well and downgrade.
Same here Vert. I've sold most my my headphone gear already but it's quite a bad hobby finding myself spending 3 times more money then I would with headphones.
It's just not a place that sound is supposed to originate from.
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