High-end headphones and high-end Hi-Fi - which is best?

[Paul S]

As a newbie here, I was wondering how many of you also have a really well set up high-end HiFi and how that lives with your high-end headphones? For what it is worth, when I compare the two and concentrate how the reproduction makes me feel, the regular Hi-Fi always wins. But when I am on the move, great headphone are really important to me.
 
How about you?
 
I'd be very interested and hope others would too.
 
Thanks
 
Paul

 

[icebear]

For me it's not either or but both. Consequently I didn't vote in your poll.
Sometimes I just can't crank up the volume to live over the speakers or I wake up the house, so I take my HD800 and immerse myself into the music in the wee hours. Both ways are seriously enjoyable but they are different.

 

[astrostar59]

Hi 
Yes I agree. I have a tube system that runs both SET amps and horn speakers, and Stax SR-007s Mk2s.
 
I like the speakers for working to, and enjoying the bass that I can 'feel' which I guess is more real?
 
But for detail and immersing in the music, it HAS to be the Stax every time. I got hooked when in my teens
and had environment issues. Plus I couldn't afford great speakers, but I did have some decent Pioneer Electret
types that sounded very good.
 
So maybe it is not one is better than the other, it may be the listeners ability to connect with headphones. It is a skill 
that not everyone can get into. Speakers are nearer to what we are used to hearing in real life. Headphones place
the sound in the middle of your head, and you have to re-assemble the soundstage.
 
On a sound quality level, I would say Stax will beat any speaker under 200K. The speed, detail and low distortion
are unbeatable. 

 

[negura]

  For me it's not either or but both. Consequently I didn't vote in your poll.
Sometimes I just can't crank up the volume to live over the speakers or I wake up the house, so I take my HD800 and immerse myself into the music in the wee hours. Both ways are seriously enjoyable but they are different.

 
Exactly this. I listen to speakers throughout the day, but at night it's me and my headphones. Nothing like a good glass of Stax in the darkest of hours.
 
The option both is clearly missing.

 

[negura]

  On a sound quality level, I would say Stax will beat any speaker under 200K. The speed, detail and low distortion
are unbeatable. 

 
The SR-009s are fantastic at neutrality, detail, transients and transparency. However I was very impressed with the PMC studio monitors, in the very similar form of their consumer version, at a recent show and they were only two doors away from a SR-009 rig. The BB5-SE have incredible transients, detail and transparency. It only takes £25.000 getting there. Ah yes and 2 x £10.000 monoblocks. 
 
http://www.pmc-speakers.com/products/consumer/se-series/bb5-se

 

[eric65]

   
The SR-009s are fantastic at neutrality, detail, transients and transparency. However I was very impressed with the PMC studio monitors, in the very similar form of their consumer version, at a recent show and they were only two doors away from a SR-009 rig. The BB5-SE have incredible transients, detail and transparency. It only takes £25.000 getting there. Ah yes and 2 x £10.000 monoblocks. 
 
http://www.pmc-speakers.com/products/consumer/se-series/bb5-se

 
And you forget, in the invoice, the price of the studio room (if possible correctly acoustically treated) that goes with the Hi-Fi system to have an correct sound.
(NB: With the 009 headphone, you can make this last economy

)

 

[62ohm]

Personally I think they both serves different purpose. Hi-Fi brings you the immersive experience, the live-concert-alike feel. Head-Fi brings you the immersive detail, the ability to enjoy it anytime without disturbing others.
 
One thing for sure though, Head-Fi gear cost just a fraction of Hi-Fi gear (many even build rooms around the speakers).