[electro house]

Can Audiophile Headphones Potentially Deliver SQ "equal to or better than" Audiophile Speakers?

I was wondering if headphones can match (or outstrip?) the SQ speaker based sound systems. Assuming price isn't much of an object.

Secondary question: Considering price: can the best $600-1000 headphones match the best $600-1000 speakers, or even stay in the ballpark?

Your thoughts? And any links to Why this is so would be great.

(I realize "equal to" is subjective and up to the individual - there is really no "better" or "best" sometimes, but please let yourself go and be subjective, etc).

Thank you!

 

[Duggeh]

My speakers are worth a fraction of my headphones, and my headphones cannot touch them for full body musical involvement. The trouble is that I have such little window for opening up the volume on a given day. Im going speaker-fi for a while now.

 

[NtD Gr3nade]

Lets say I am looking for the HD650 of Speakers. This HD650 of Spearkers will cost around 70 to 100x the cost of HD650s. Price wise, I would go with headphones.

 

[Gurra1980]

My speakers cost around $900 and they were to my ears the best there was around that price and a bit up, spending the whole winter looking for speakers, they can not compete with my HD650 when it comes to clarity, detail, bass, speed, accuracy, but it is very fun to listen to them because they paint up a nice and realistic soundstage that makes them dissapear. This is where the HPs falls short.

 

[ozz]

i feel they both have their place and enjoy both binaural can only
be enjoyed with headphones and mc such as dvd-a and sacd on a
5.1 or 7.1 system.

 

[Dept_of_Alchemy]

If you look at the measurements, $600 headphones are quite a bit more linear than $600 speakers. Headphone amps also have distortion levels at least an order of magnitude lower than speaker amps (mostly due to the lower power requirements of headphones). Headphones (being single-driver) have no cross-over networks, which are major contributors to distortion. Another advantage of being single driver is that headphones are inherently phase and time aligned, few exotic speakers can even make that claim, much less 'normal' speakers. Problems related to room accoustics are also non-existant with headphone listening, keep in mind that the best designer-built dedicated listening rooms are at least +/- 5dB from 20~20K. So. All in all, for the same money, headphones WILL be more linear and better resolving than speakers. The trade-offs are soundstage and that visceral chest-pounding bass impact you can only get from good speaker systems, however, for $600~$1000, headphones will still beat speaker-based systems hands down in those two respects.

Of course, you can't invite a group of your friends over and listen to your headphone at the same time. This makes headphone listening a relatively solitary (or anti-social, depending on your perspective) activity, but this also means that you can listen as loudly as you want without disturbing others around you, I tend to see this as a feature rather than a fault.

 

[cotdt]

my speakers cost $300 and they are better than any headphone i have ever heard. the first thing you notice when you listen to good speakers is that they have so much more bass impact and sound cleaner. and pretty much any speaker will have a wider, more realistic soundstage than headphones. some speakers can just disappear in a special ambience. with headphones, you're always reminded that you're listening to headphones.

 

[Duggeh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NtD Gr3nade /img/forum/go_quote.gif Lets say I am looking for the HD650 of Speakers. This HD650 of Spearkers will cost around 70 to 100x the cost of HD650s. Price wise, I would go with headphones.

The HD650 of speakers, in my somewhat limited experience, is the Mission M33i, although do not read to much into that comparison.

 

[cotdt]

the HD650 of speakers would not sound very good =(

 

[JensL]

A friend of mine got a stereo setup worth about 16-17.000 USD, where the speakers costs about $11.000.
Well, I like headphones a lot, but no headphone that I have heard are in the same ballpark as this setup, and I highly doubt that any will come close.

There just something about the size and air of the soundstage that no headphone can touch. Of course the bass punch in the gut is difficult for a phone to reproduce too.

But when it comes to practicality and value for money, the headphone is hard to beat.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

I havent been able to afford truly high end speakers. But my next upgrade is definitely in that direction. Musical involvement as mentioned earlier, width and depth, and IMO most importantly the sheer joy of internal organs vibrating to the kick drum!

 

[cotdt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JensL /img/forum/go_quote.gif But when it comes to practicality and value for money, the headphone is hard to beat.

Not anymore. Recently I went to Circuit City and got a pair of bookshelves for $40. It beat out any headphone I've ever heard, although it fell a little short of my $300 speakers. That said, I've also heard some very expensive $10000 speakers that were crap (maybe that's due to the crappy electronics it was connected to, compared to what I have). I agree that headphones are more practical, though. Speakers are not an option for me. They just sit in front of me being unused.

 

[Icarium]

I think there are a lot of factors and I think for some people and maybe for a lot of people with the right set up... yes on either front. I think a 2000 dollar speaker set up could beat out a 2000 dollar headphone set up, but the vice versa is possible as well. I think there is a large difference in the way a speaker presents sound vs how a headphone presents sound (This is a given) and if you are biased in either direction then the question is answered for you. I think I am personally for concentrated music listening biased towards headphones, but for relaxed listening while laying on the bed while reading or for tv/anime/movies... speakers take the cake.

For musicality/sound stage especially I think a like-priced speaker set up can beat out most of the phones I own... but I doubt they can match the detail/decay at anything less than 5x the price.

 

[Duggeh]

Headphones also have one massive advantage. No need for room correction. The way your room is configured with respect to your speakers is massively influential to the sound.

 

[edstrelow]

Speakers are more forgiving of bad sources than headphones. With a good well-set-up source, phones will generally sound better than any speakers unless you go 4-5 times the price level. They provide true stereo, rathre than phantom channles and don't need equalization to be balanced.