[bhanja_trinanjan]

Hello,
We all know that for a given sum of money, a headphone will always outperform a speaker, but by how much? Do you still prefer certain aspects of the loudspeaker’s sound over that of your cans? (Sound-staging aside, loudspeakers will win this without cross feed)

I love my K701s, but my Wharfedale Diamond does equally well/a bit better in some areas.

However, this is not an ‘apples to apples’ comparison, the K701 is more expensive.

I heard an EPOS stand-mount and a QUAD 11L2; I thought that the K701 was better than the QUAD.

 

[muz640]

I think headphones are exceptional way to experience highend sound for very little real outlay.
I think some audiophiles would be totally astonished by the sound (or should this be music!) produced by some headphones, and how close they get to the original recording. Not to mention being able to take headphones with you and experience music anywhere in the world.

 

[lucky]

The only speakers I use with any regularity are those in my Macbook. Given the choice, I prefer headphones.

 

[Donald North]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhanja_trinanjan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello, We all know that for a given sum of money, a headphone will always outperform a speaker, but by how much? Do you still prefer certain aspects of the loudspeaker’s sound over that of your cans? (Sound-staging aside, loudspeakers will win this without cross feed) I love my K701s, but my Wharfedale Diamond does equally well/a bit better in some areas. However, this is not an ‘apples to apples’ comparison, the K701 is more expensive. I heard an EPOS stand-mount and a QUAD 11L2; I thought that the K701 was better than the QUAD.

For $300 I'd rather listen to good headphones; for $20k I prefer to listen to loudspeakers.

 

[Uncle Erik]

The K-1000 can hang with the Quad ESL-63s, but the Quads win for soundstage and better bass.

And I paid less for the Quads than I did for the K-1000.

 

[iriverdude]

My Hi-Fi sounds better than my headphones by a large margin, you still need a stereo analogue pre-amp, so the extra cost between speakers and headphones are the poweramp for the speakers plus the cabling. So for the same price of RS-1's new, I bought two 2 channel poweramps.

 

[boomana]

My speaker rig is not the end-all-be-all by any stretch (Exemplar Denon 2900 > SP Extreme Platinum > FirstWatt F1 > Cain & Cain Abbys and Bailey sub), but outperforms my best headphones in most areas. There are four main reasons that I love quality headphone listening that my speaker rig can't give me: 1)I can change locations in my house and still have great sound 2) I can make the world disappear (still aware of my surroundings while listening to speakers). Very nice late at night with a bedroom rig. It's my private sanctuary 3) I can change the sound for fun (i.e., HF2s vs HD800s). 4)I can throw a killer rig in my purse. Try that with speakers.

 

[logwed]

I love the intimacy of the sound of headphones. The detail of almost all headphones that I have listened to is far and away above those of my speakers (Infinity P150). Being 'in' the sound, surrounded by the instruments is a feeling that I enjoy, as opposed to speakers, where the band is in front of you, and you can easily tell where each player is.

 

[krmathis]

They run circles around my speaker rig. But I have heard speaker rigs that match my headphones, especially when it comes to sound stage and bass extension.
So it all depends on the speaker rig..

 

[bhanja_trinanjan]

Detail retrieval and bass control are where headphones win, imo. You can never eliminate standing waves completely in a room, can you?

 

[muz640]

Quote:

Detail retrieval and bass control are where headphones win, imo. You can never eliminate standing waves completely in a room, can you?

Youve never heard a Lyngdorf Millennium or TDA 2200 then

 

[El_Doug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muz640 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Youve never heard a Lyngdorf Millennium or TDA 2200 then

the speaker has nothing to do with how the room will handle bass...

 

[Donald North]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhanja_trinanjan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Detail retrieval and bass control are where headphones win, imo. You can never eliminate standing waves completely in a room, can you?

Controlled directivity woofers like dipole or cardioid certainly reduce the influence from the room and standing wave excitation.

Also, headphones do not generate the same bass feeling as woofers. In the past I've paired my headphones with a subwoofer.

 

[muz640]

Quote:

the speaker has nothing to do with how the room will handle bass...

Er... well they're not actually speakers, amps with built in room correction, so they eliminate a lot of the bass issues with most rooms. In fact it is in some ways very much like listening to headphones.

Quote:

Also, headphones do not generate the same bass feeling as woofers. In the past I've paired my headphones with a subwoofer.

Ive never thought of this! when my active crossover gets back from repair, i'll give it a go!

 

[Il Mostro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif The K-1000 can hang with the Quad ESL-63s, but the Quads win for soundstage and better bass. And I paid less for the Quads than I did for the K-1000.

Quad 63's and 57's are one of my all-time favorite speakers! I've been happily listening to CLS's (the original big impedance swing version) with Kinergetics SW800's for years now, but still have such fond memories of my Quads.