Listening to music has been a great pleasure for as long as I can recall. I've always tinkered within a budget looking for the available sweet spots: started with a Dynaco kit in the 60's, AR turntable and speakers and thought it was pretty great. At some point I realized that it was not only the notes but the spaces in between them and the sense of physical space in a recording that pulled me strongly into the music. Sound stage began to have a lot of meaning and a lot of my tinkering has had to do with creating a warm and lively stage, with distinct placement and separation. For many years had a system in my studio with used ADS L810 speakers, a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 preamp, and various amps that was very satisfying. Explored quadrophonics, binaural recordings, digital processors like the mini-Ambio and found the latter to be the least expensive and most interesting for playing with the sound stage.
I've used headphones to listen on the go, looking for comfort and sound/cost balance. Just flashed back to my first set of Sennheiser's with yellow foam pads and black plastic headband with 1/4" output hooked directly into speaker connectors from an 8 track mounted under my seat in an old Volvo. The Mass Turnpike changed from a place for too much boring introspection to my private listening room overnight.
Since moving I've not had the room for my speaker set up and the room is too harsh and narrow with few options for modifying. Recently sold my gear and decided to explore the best headphone listening I could afford. Life is short, my hearing is a late 40's stereo model limiting what it makes sense to pursue, but decided to start with solid quality gear. The stereo sale paid for a used set of Audeze LCD-X phones with a Schiit Modi 2/Magni 2 combo and the sound quality of FLAC files ripped by dbPowerAmp has been stellar. I expected the "in-my-head" listening experience with its attendant change in sound stage experience. I've come to appreciate the different notion of sound stage that I am becoming more aware of as I listen, especially as I calm down and listen at more reasonable volumes. I do miss the palpable, physical feeling of listening with room speakers, but it is not a deal breaker at this point. (The tinkerer is already wondering how I might sync a room speaker low end with my headphones to see if I can get some of that physicality without muddying the planar sound, but that's for another post.)
Bought Schiit combo to get started while I explored value of more costly options, particularly interested in remote control. After a good bit of reading, I'm awaiting delivery of a Burson Virtuoso Conductor 2+ from their Indiegogo campaign and will be curious about effects on sound stage and detail. Interested also in IEM's with portable amp/dac and considering used Shure se864 or Noble 6 with Oppo HA-2.
I used to dither about searching for the right item and glad to say I'm much better at moving ahead, trying and selling, realizing I can create the home comparisons I want for the cost of used purchases minus resale. I may end up back in the room speaker world, exploring smaller, self-amplified near-field setups, but I'm glad to be in the midst of this headphone world. McClelland