Loudspeakers vs headphones - Page 5

Don't get me wrong if I had Quad or Top End Maggie money, I'd own speakers.

 

But it doesn't take that either and it's not like Stax are cheap. I won't get into specifics but you can do an amp and speakers for under $2k that will give you a perspective unavailable from phones with enough else going on to convince if that's your preference.

I'm currently in the process of building a decent budget for some home hi-fi loudspeakers. While I adore the headphone auditory experience, I prefer loudspeaker listening for many reasons. One of my main reasons has to be the fact that most of the time headphones convey sound as if they were in your head, while loudspeakers engulf you in sound.

 

Generally speaking, I believe headphone listening is much more preferred and popular due to how accessible it is among consumers. It's a bang-for-the-buck, plain and simple.

 

Destroysall.

The only things that are better about headphones is that nobody else can hear them, also they give a more "intimate" experience...

 

If I lived in a detached house I would certainly rather have a massive hifi system with a treated room etc.... But because that is not possible headphones are the best way to get good sound quality without getting evicted from my flat also.

Perhaps this is far from HI-EnD sound but if i compare my X-fi Titanium + Logitech Z-5500 vs my cowon i9 + Fiio E17 + Sennheiser 380, i personally enjoy more the speakers due to the fact they are 5.1 (and i game a lot) and also becouse My head is not carring extra weight.

 

However, due to the fact i cant use them too loud, i many times find myself using the headphones (and ofc i cant bring with me the Z-5500 on a trip).

 

Ir you have the proper settings for a speaker system (room dimensions, stuff like that), i personally belive speakers are supirior in feeling, inferior in quality (its just that you dont have time to look for the quality most of them time with good speakers).

 

Perhaps my setups are a bit too low end to really notice the diffrence, hard to say.

Edited by catspaw - 12/3/12 at 3:18am

If I didn't live with a bunch of people while i'm studying, I'd be more likely to spend on some really nice speakers. But, seeing as i'm up late, and speakers are loud and annoy other people, headphones will do. Not to mention, spend a couple of grand on headphones and you get something special, spend a couple of grand on speakers and you get 'nice' speakers. And speakers are only a tiny part of the equation, if you're going to go all out on headphones, you buy gear, connect it all, burn it in, proceed to sit anywhere, and enjoy. Speakers, you need to select gear, make sure it all plays nice together, then make sure that gear plays nice with your room, if not, enjoy average sound or $$$ fixing your room so you can sit in one place and enjoy musical nirvana. Not to mention that if you want to lie down, it comes at the cost of your audio nirvana. Can't count the times I've lied down on the couch, closed my eyes & drifted off into the music from cans.

And for gaming, the ATH 7000's come out to play, no speaker system could come close. Nothing like being able to hear the footsteps of someone running behind you, or around a corner 30ft away. Speakers just can't come close to nice wide open cans for twitch gaming. That hyper detailed presentation with a decently wide soundstage is really, really nice. Not to mention the hassle of setting up a 5.1 setup for my computer, would be a nightmare.

Then there's the slam vs detail aspect I guess, Speakers do bass that you feel, which makes the music have that much more body and physicality, my my lcd-s do bass well, and as far as headphones I've tried, they have the most 'physical' presentation i've heard from cans. But while I appreciate it, and my ears certainly feel it, I don't feel it in my gut, i'm having a party in my head (and a little bit off to each side), and my body's not invited.
Edited by rasatouche - 12/3/12 at 10:38am

 

First, as another poster suggested... www.avsforum.com for anything relating to audio or video not headphone related.

 

Secondly, there are far more people that can not only afford a serious hi-fi headphone setup; but live in an area where they can listen to them at the volume level they want to without disturbing others.

 

Due to personal circumstances I no longer live in a freestanding home with a $15,000 home audio system. Even if I still had my setup I would not be able to listen to it at the levels I would like to; the HSU subs I had would alone get the cops called in my apartment complex. Furthermore, unless you have a dedicated symmetrical sound treated room; headphones can easily create a better experience (Especially in the realm of 2 channel audio). I have heard HD800's with a Schiit Asgard and Schiit Bifrost (Total cost ~$2200); and aside from the body shaking base my old system could produce, it was definitely on par if not superior is some instances.

 

So all in all price to performance ratio couples with the ability to use them at virtually any volume level in a town home, condo, apartment, dorm etc... make them superior to a vast number of people. Now if you have unlimited funds, live in a private residence with a dedicated A/V room; obviously loud speakers are the path to sonic nirvana.

I think anyone who can afford a dedicated room with no limitation on playback volumes will prefer speakers. The experience is just better in all aspects if you can afford it.

Having said that, I feel headphones can give me similar detail and intimacy/emotion from the playback at a far lower price. If I were to put a dollar value on it, I'd say you have to pay up to 5-10x the amount to get the same level of these aspects from speaker systems (though they do come with other pluses).

 

As an analogy, if I wanted to go fast from destination A to B, a motorbike can do it a lot faster at a lower price point than a car.. but I wouldn't take the motorbike if I could live with the car. :)

I find that with the equipment I have (fairly high end headphone set up and quite a decent in room 2-channel set up ) the headphone gear outperforms the loudspeaker gear in small ensemble music while the loudspeaker gear outperforms the headphones with large scale orchestral music, opera, etc. and, also, anything with a significant <40Hz component for my subwoofer.

 

Since my music collection is about evenly divided between small and large scale types of music, I rely equally heavily on each listening mode.  I wouldn't want to be without either.

A good stereo set up in a treated room exceeds the listening experience of any headphone set up Ive heard.

 

I take that back. I said that before I re cabled my Q701 for direct to driver dual entry. After modding they now beat my speakers, apart from the lack of palpable bass.

Recable a headphone to dual entry doesn't make any sort of difference to sound unless your using some out of this earth cable.

 

Better cable + Balanced instead of single ended + bypassing multiple short bits of cable and solders + bypassing the headband + bypassing the mini XLR = A huge difference in sound. at least this is my experience. Unless you have heard the difference between stock AKG X701 cans vs those with this mod I humbly suggest that you do not know what you are talking about.

 

To me this has made enough difference to make my AKG Q701 headphones more pleasurable to listen to than my Dynaudio speakers. To you it may not make "any sort of difference", but that is fine, as long as you are not talking about the kind of "re-cabling" which only involves plugging a better cable into the mini XLR. This could potentially improve the sound somewhat but it does not address the issues that the direct to driver dual entry mod does.

Basically IMO

Speakers: More expensive, better sound stage, bass you can truly feel, not private
Headphones: More bang for buck, More intimate, Private

 

I have heard most of the can's available under the sun as well performing a lot of mod's on them, I have heard all the K/Q70X range as well as playing around with drivers, physically modding the shell and of course turn it into a dual entry using some Crystal Piccolino for fun, there is a saying that Uncle Erik once said in one of the older K701 threads and I strongly agree, you can recable/ mod all you want with all your effort but it ain't going to fix that artificial mid range problem the K/Q70X exhibits. But this is imho, taking the cables within the headband that goes to the drivers back to the single ended side where the mini-xlr is does not offer a night and day difference actually little to no difference, unless there was damage originally. As I said imo, there is no difference between going from single-sided entry to dual entry sound wise, unless your using some out of this world cable or an extremely expensive balanced amplifier.