[pjk1]

I believe speakers win for me but that could be personal preference. I feel like I can hear the little details better with speakers. I have the Abyss AB-1266, LCD3, HE1000 V2 headphones and my speakers are B&W 802 Diamond.

 

[stellarelephant]

I feel like I can hear the little details better with speakers.

It's the tweeters! Headphone drivers just can't reach that high as gracefully...

 

[ProtegeManiac]

It's the tweeters! Headphone drivers just can't reach that high as gracefully...

 
Fullrange drivers typically can't. Even fullrange driver speakers have the same problems as headphone driver response: it either rolls off early, or it's jagged and requires a notch filter as much as an EQ app is useful for a desktop headphone system. Or both.

 

[theveterans]

It's the tweeters! Headphone drivers just can't reach that high as gracefully...

 
It doesn't need to be tweeters. Even midrange details are much better defined by nearfield powered speakers compared to my headphones IMO (AKG K712).

 

[stellarelephant]

Then down low there's the pleasure of actually feeling the bass in your body from speakers...pretty hard for any cans to compete with that. We should probably stop before we get banned lol...

 

[Seamaster]

Then down low there's the pleasure of actually feeling the bass in your body from speakers...pretty hard for any cans to compete with that. We should probably stop before we get banned lol...

Agree, no headphone can pass the chest ponding test.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Then down low there's the pleasure of actually feeling the bass in your body from speakers...pretty hard for any cans to compete with that. We should probably stop before we get banned lol...

 

They can't at all, period. Headphone drivers are delivering the sound from just outside your ears, the soundwaves really aren't going to hit anything but your skull.

 

And don't worry about getting banned, the point is to recognize that speakers and headphones are not without their own compromises. The way you wear a headphone can alter the response or the imaging, but at least you can try how others wear theirs. You can't do that for when speakers are interacting with your room, at least not without targeting the specific issues in that room. That's why there are headphone threads in primarily speaker forums also. You start out there and then discover that your non-dedicated audio room has all these issues, might as well get started on headphones there.

 

Also, no matter how large the soundstage is on a speaker system, it won't be as large as the actual stage unless your listening area is roughly as wide as that stage to begin with. You can simulate Norah Jones in a small hotel jazz bar, but you can't exactly project the same size stage as a symphony in Dresden's opera house or Metallica on their usual stage in nearly all audio rooms out there.

 

[stellarelephant]

Lol I was just kidding about getting banned for dissing headphones. Regarding imaging and soundstage, one situation when I really appreciate headphones is reproducing a live recording done with a stereo microphone pair in a concert hall. Same with recordings made in stereo in smaller spaces, like chamber music for instance. With an open headphone, the sense of space can be insanely immersive, even more than my speaker system.

I think what is going on is that the recording is already chock full of room reflections and spatial cues, and the headphones preserve that sense of space without adding anything. Speakers, as have been mentioned, add the reflections of the listening room to the sound, and this tends to overwhelm the sound of the room that the original performance occurred in. Unless you have an anechoic chamber for a living room, of course!

People praise Grados for rock music. The best thing I ever heard on my SR80Es was Mozart quartets! Sense of space was amazing. People say that these on-ear cans have a tiny soundstage, and they're right. But when the music itself already has a sense of space, they reproduce it impeccably!

 

[5genez]

Lol I was just kidding about getting banned for dissing headphones. Regarding imaging and soundstage, one situation when I really appreciate headphones is reproducing a live recording done with a stereo microphone pair in a concert hall. Same with recordings made in stereo in smaller spaces, like chamber music for instance. With an open headphone, the sense of space can be insanely immersive, even more than my speaker system.

I think what is going on is that the recording is already chock full of room reflections and spatial cues, and the headphones preserve that sense of space without adding anything. Speakers, as have been mentioned, add the reflections of the listening room to the sound, and this tends to overwhelm the sound of the room that the original performance occurred in. Unless you have an anechoic chamber for a living room, of course!

People praise Grados for rock music. The best thing I ever heard on my SR80Es was Mozart quartets! Sense of space was amazing. People say that these on-ear cans have a tiny soundstage, and they're right. But when the music itself already has a sense of space, they reproduce it impeccably!

  That's another subject.  One that got buried after multi channel listening came out.   A simple (but well made) digital time delay feeding amplification going to two good sized rear speakers (not these tiny satellites they use today) - ones  that do not need great tweeters (because the rear of halls reflect midrange and bass)... When set right?...Could ASTOUND you with a sense of sitting in a concert hall.  In the 70's a few companies came along with such devices. They were expensive and many did not understand how to use them.  Sadly,  they were ignored and phased out of the marketing scheme.

 

[canali]

i just hope my focal alpha 50 nearfield monitors will sound sweet.
i've not done any room acoustic treatment either.

steve guttenberg (CNET) says that because they're so close to you (arms length or whatever)
that room treatments are not as important as with other traditional speakers....but then again
these same monitors are often used for mixing, etc...where alot of room treatments DO exist.

https://www.cnet.com/news/leave-it-to-the-french-to-kick-the-sound-of-desktopcomputer-speakers-up-a-notch/

Leave it to the French to kick the sound of desktop/computer speakers up a notch

Focal isn't just a high-end speaker company, they also design studio monitors, the Audiophiliac checks out their affordable Alpha 50 pro speakers.



excerpt:  ''The Alpha 50 tells the truth about the sound of your recordings, so the good ones sound really good; the best stuff is astonishing. Close up, desktop listening minimizes typical room acoustic issues/problems, so you hear a lot more direct, from-the-speaker sound, and with something as tasty as the Alpha 50, that level of quality may come was a big shock. This speaker's low-end bass plumbs deeper than that of my Adam Audio F5s. Listening to A Tribe Called Quest's "The Low-End Theory" was really satisfying, the finely-honed shadings of the weighty bass lines put a big smile on my face.

 

[tgx78]

 
Yep, no headphones can replicate the sheer physicality and soundstage of well positioned maggies.
 
I am a traveler and all my headphones and earphones serve me exceptionally well while I am away from my studio.

 

[stellarelephant]

Best system I ever heard was in a shop in Detroit...Maggies with a sub, just like that pic!  I thought the Crash Test Dummies were right in front of me.  Blew me away.  

 

[theveterans]

  i just hope my focal alpha 50 nearfield monitors will sound sweet.
i've not done any room acoustic treatment either.
 
steve guttenberg (CNET) says that because they're so close to you (arms length or whatever)
that room treatments are not as important as with other traditional speakers....but then again
these same monitors are often used for mixing, etc...where alot of room treatments DO exist.
 
https://www.cnet.com/news/leave-it-to-the-french-to-kick-the-sound-of-desktopcomputer-speakers-up-a-notch/

Leave it to the French to kick the sound of desktop/computer speakers up a notch

Focal isn't just a high-end speaker company, they also design studio monitors, the Audiophiliac checks out their affordable Alpha 50 pro speakers.

excerpt:  ''The Alpha 50 tells the truth about the sound of your recordings, so the good ones sound really good; the best stuff is astonishing. Close up, desktop listening minimizes typical room acoustic issues/problems, so you hear a lot more direct, from-the-speaker sound, and with something as tasty as the Alpha 50, that level of quality may come was a big shock. This speaker's low-end bass plumbs deeper than that of my Adam Audio F5s. Listening to A Tribe Called Quest's "The Low-End Theory" was really satisfying, the finely-honed shadings of the weighty bass lines put a big smile on my face.

No need for room treatment in my case. I even place it 1 feet away from the corner wall and the sound is just fine. Bass doesn't resonate nor drown out any other frequencies in my case.
 
Let it burn in then it will open up like and sound the way Guttenberg is describing it.

 

[exsomnis]

I'll chime in to say that headphone systems still have a long way to go yet to achieve natural vocals that make you think that the singer is singing for you as if she's standing right before you. That's what I heard a pair of Harbeth Super HL5's do in a fricking hotel room at an AV show. 
 
And come on, headphone imaging? Humans and musical instruments playing in and around your head? I was a stereo speaker guy first and it took me quite a while to get used to that. Sure, there are software and hardware DSPs that try to produce actual speaker sound from headphones but as far as I'm concerned, high fidelity there is a long ways away yet. And even if it does reach a good level of fidelity, it will then take even longer to trickle down into mass affordablity.
 
I have some regret in investing in headphones first but at the very least they give me a good reference for transparency and clarity for my speaker setup.

 

[5genez]

They would have to make special recordings designed for headphone listening.   Essentially, a dummy head with two mics where the ears are.  And, able to pick up sound in all directions. Then it would stop sounding like music in your head.  They experimented with this years ago. As of now, you 99% of the time you are listening to music designed to be heard through speakers placed in front of you. Or,  with multi channel, speakers placed all around you.
 
 

​

 
 
 
Binaural recordings is what headphone listeners require for life like sound.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording