[Romanee]

I love my speaker setup, and phones cannot reproduce the speaker — much less the live performance — experience, since they cannot move air/sound waves at, on, around and through your body and thus can't be as truly immersive or come as close to simulating the live music experience.

Unfortunately my home environment, like many, includes a spouse who would rather watch TV/Video and chat live-and-on-phone than listen to music … thus phones most of the time (when I can squeak in a little listening time).

Thank goodness that the marvelous mind can work up a nice adjustment to create an enjoyable illusion!

 

[XxATOLxX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanee I love my speaker setup, and phones cannot reproduce the speaker — much less the live performance — experience, since they cannot move air/sound waves at, on, around and through your body and thus can't be as truly immersive or come as close to simulating the live music experience.

What he said.

 

[jagorev]

I owned a rather nice consumer-level nice HT speaker setup, but stopped using it. It just wasn't practical for me with family, neighbors, or SO around. With headphones, I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, at any volume I like.

And I've never heard the resolution level of my HD 600 on any speakers. Also, for me, speakers are less immersive. I feel distracted by other things more easily, while headphones let me get lost in my own little musical world.

 

[eiekal]

Mattigol, get a vasectomy. If you have children after you marry, you'll never be able to afford this hobby. I speak from experiance. I have to buy her something whenever I have to buy something. This means things like fur coats and not audio gear

 

[eiekal]

To many of us have kids. The wives are taking over but how can we stop them? If there was only some way we could work together.

Do you guys remember the Flintstones? I remember Fred and Barney joined the fire department just so they can have a guys nights out. Their worry was that the wives will eventually realize that bedrock was made of stone and there wasn't a reason to HAVE a fire department.

So along these lines, if one of us was a Doctor, he could prescribe me a top of the line audio system to aleaviate some rare brain disorder.

Hrmm we just need one of you to be Doctor and a name for this rare brain disorder..

 

[xUKHCx]

cerebral-audio-philic or CAP for short?

 

[eiekal]

Haha Yeah that works for me

 

[LFF]

I own decent speakers but I also own some kick ass headphones and for me it simply comes down to mood and time of day. I really can't blast my speakers at 2 in the morning while listening to Pink Floyd or Beethoven's 5th. In general, I think I prefer headphones because they seem more intimate and bug less people.

However, for movie watching, nothing beats my home speaker set-up - 3 JBL 4311's f, c, l and 4 electro stat gekko hybrids for surrounds and 1 SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer driven by PS-Audio amps and a THX certified 7.1 reciever.

 

[Gullanian]

I got PMC FB1+ speakers, Cyrus Mono X Preamp and PowerAmp, using PC as source with E-MU 1820 soundcard and a 500GB harddrive to store all my CD's on!

I also have a pair of HD650's.

Listening to the speakers is a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. Your head is free for one! No pressure on the head.

Also when I listen to the 650's, the noise is coming from the left and right. With my speakers the noise is coming from the center left and right. It's really weird (in a good way), some vocalists voices actually come dead center and you wouldn't beleive the sound was coming from the left and right.

My speakers also go louder

Sonically though apart from described I can't detect that much difference between the 650's and speakers.

I find myself using phones the most though, because I can't afford the insurance on taking the speakers and amps down to uni with me.

 

[mulveling]

I have some Polk LSi15 floorstander mains ($1700/pair). Room is not ideal, but on some material they were more enjoyable than the HD650/Zu, HP1000, and K1000 I was using at the time. Those headphones' technical quality was beyond my speakers, but emotionally, they were somewhat dull.

That changed when I got my current L3000 system. It's way more enjoyable than my speakers. It's really hard to put together a complete headphone system that can match the emotional involvement of good speakers, but very worth it once you do.

Currently looking for a speaker upgrade that will at least come close to the L3000 without breaking the bank. The Martin Logan Aeon ($3.3K) and JMLabs Profile ($4K) were not up to the task. Paradigm Reference Studio 100 V3's are also nice but still prefer the L3000. The Legacy Sig III's in an awesome system were certainly better than my L3000 rig, but that system cost a lot more (it's worth it; I just don't have the money to replicate that system

). Considering I find the L3000 more enjoyable than most (if not all) speakers under $3K, they are IMO a bargain.

So to answer the question...I don't know? I just want good audio, I don't care if it's headphone or speaker, and I've heard awesome examples of both

 

[leofahrer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xUKHCx cerebral-audio-philic or CAP for short? x

yeah, that's it! I'd like to have a prescription also

I have to say that since I got my MS2s, I'm beginning to spend a lot of money to try to get my speaker system to only nearly the same level. For now, I use to use my headphones when really listening to the music and am surprised all the time when finding new details on my CDs. My speaker system runs almost all the time when I'm at home. And it is a real joy when watching a movie, even without subwoofer - I don't like those grumpy pals

The problem is: Though my chain is slowly getting quite good, I really can't (and don't want to) afford a decent speaker set, especially considering it had to be five...

Edit:
I guess, if I had a speaker system sounding as good as my cans, I'd still use the cans for deep listening quite often - there is nothing to distract you from enjoying all the detail. But as the speaker system gives you a lot more of space and deep positioning of the musicians, I guess at decent times of the day I'd use the speaker system.

A real patient suffering from CAP can't live with only one system - he has to have very good headphones AND very good speakers

 

[Zanth]

There are plenty of md's on the forums who could prescribe this to alleviate our "neurological" pathology. That said, for you in the US, you'd have to pay for your systems, even when prescribed...

Time to move to Canada!

 

[Erik_C]

A well-set-up 2-channel system, with quality components, will beat headphones every time. Case in point, me. Home system is JM Lab Micro Utopias/Velodyne FSR-18 sub, Antnem preamp. Compared to my travel system of Ety ER-4S (w/ custom molds), SM3V6 amp, and Zen Micro MP3 player, the home speaker system has more realistic everything. Even treble. Things just seem to float in the room in front of me when listening to the speakers. Headphones don't do that.
FYI:
Home:

Up close:

On the go:

-Erik

 

[leofahrer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth There are plenty of md's on the forums who could prescribe this to alleviate our "neurological" pathology. That said, for you in the US, you'd have to pay for your systems, even when prescribed... Time to move to Canada!

...well, to be honest: The last couple of days I've already been thinking about spending my summer holidays in Canada - maybe two weeks of language course and two weeks of biking ... and now I even have another good reason to go there

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erik_C A well-set-up 2-channel system, with quality components, will beat headphones every time. Case in point, me. Home system is JM Lab Micro Utopias/Velodyne FSR-18 sub, Antnem preamp. Compared to my travel system of Ety ER-4S (w/ custom molds), SM3V6 amp, and Zen Micro MP3 player, the home speaker system has more realistic everything. Even treble. Things just seem to float in the room in front of me when listening to the speakers. Headphones don't do that.

Screw the audio system I want your chair!!! I LUST after it! Once I graduate I get it for my office. Graduation present for me!!!