[TempleOfEar]

i love headphones for it's sound quality alone- not for it's portability. cuz frankly, i wouldn't want to be seen in the public looking like an eskimo wearing my hd600s. but have you ever had a moment of snottiness and thought about just how much of an expensive sound quality you're enjoying compared to a pair of loudspeakers? i got into hi-fi hobby with a pair of mission m35i loud speakers- $700 value. and after getting my hd600, i don't think i can even look at my missions straight faced anymore. and now i'm just wondering how expensive pair of a loudspeaker it's gonna take to make me put down the hd600. what do you think, guys? how expensive of a loudspeaker sound is my headphone producing?

 

[Loftprojection]

Not necessarily more! There are lot's of very nice sounding loudspeakers for less then $1k. However they generally need to be driven by an amp that is quite a bit more expensive then a headphone amp. Many people use a cheap home theater receiver as an amp to drive their stereo loudspeaker sound and don't understand why their headphone rig sounds better! If you take the time to shop and have about $1000-1500 to spend on a pair of louspeakers and stereo integrated amp, I'm sure you will at a minimum get equal sound quality to your HD600.

 

[F107plus5]

Correct!

The cost of listening to stereo in my house is just shy of $2K, my $99 MS-1s do a pretty good job of duplicating it.

.....using the same electronics.

I figure the $300 MS2i should just about close the gap.

 

[spacemanspliff]

my stereo speakers are better than my K1000 setup imo. they really deliver some insane audio.

http://www.audioholics.com/productre...VR2Review.html

Thule Pre-amp, Thule Amp 100 watt and Thule Balanced Cd w/ straight wire balanced for ICs and for speaker wire out of an APC back ups which I need to upgrade.

I paid 1000 for the speakers and 2200 for the rest which was 3200.

I paid around 1200 for my K1000 setup.

but my room is too small atm so I am limited in the fullness of their abilities. therefore the headphones win due to a technicality and price until I purchase a home with a bigger "me" room.

so yeah headphones are a better bang for the buck but better sound? no

 

[nph134]

well I'd choose my £140 Tannoy M2s over my HD650s any day of the week!

 

[F107plus5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spacemanspliff my stereo speakers are better than my K1000 setup imo. they really deliver some insane audio. http://www.audioholics.com/productre...VR2Review.html Thule Pre-amp, Thule Amp 100 watt and Thule Balanced Cd w/ straight wire balanced for ICs and for speaker wire out of an APC back ups which I need to upgrade. I paid 1000 for the speakers and 2200 for the rest which was 3200. I paid around 1200 for my K1000 setup. but my room is too small atm so I am limited in the fullness of their abilities. therefore the headphones win due to a technicality and price until I purchase a home with a bigger "me" room. so yeah headphones are a better bang for the buck but better sound? no

The room is my problem as well. It has foiled all attempts to duplicate the sound I had in my old home. My cans only have my ears to deal with.

If I want to do serious listening with the speakers, I have to virtually re-arange portions of the room and add pillows and towels on certain archetectural items to tame the reflections. A lot more hassle than simply plopping on the cans.

For casual listening though, other than in ultimate retrevial of detail, the speakers still surpass the phones, but not to the extent of their total capabilities.

 

[SickMouthy]

Listening on headphones is a totally different experience to listening on speakers though - yes, go to cans for clarity and analysis, but they simply can't give you the physical punch-in-the-gut that speakers can.

 

[spacemanspliff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F107plus5 The room is my problem as well. It has foiled all attempts to duplicate the sound I had in my old home. My cans only have my ears to deal with. If I want to do serious listening with the speakers, I have to virtually re-arange portions of the room and add pillows and towels on certain archetectural items to tame the reflections. A lot more hassle than simply plopping on the cans. For casual listening though, other than in ultimate retrevial of detail, the speakers still surpass the phones, but not to the extent of their total capabilities.

You have it easy! My VR-2s are SO DAMN PICKY about placement. My room is EMPTY except for a chair and my PC on a shelving system against the far wall lol.

The impact is better though and the soundstage is simply 3D. I've never experienced such a weird effect as the tunes floating in layers b/w the speakers. wild

 

[bizkid]

Here's a post from me about that topic which was made here:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=182490


(speaking about 300$/pair KRK RP5 active nearfield monitors)

Quote:

I wouldnt say that they dont give you the SQ of the K1000, detail certainly not at below 1000$ but overall SQ i'm not sure. I havent heard the K1000 recently though. Actually i think my KRK RP5 sound very similar to my K701, very very natural and just as neutral, however it's hard to compare them due to room colorations. The K701 extends more in the bass and treble ofcourse and has more texture & detail, but it's very easy to change between RP5 & K701 without much adjusting. Vocals sound very close on both besides being lifesize with the monitors, the RP5 is a bit warmer as the K701. I wouldnt use them for critical monitoring but as a hifi speaker they're perfect I read they were avaible for 250$ a pair in the USA (guitarcenter?), i paid 380€(500$?) for them in Germany, still they are worth that money easily. Actually i was so pissed by the difference that i didnt buy them for 1-2 month, but i couldnt find a pair of monitors under 1000$ that i liked better, so i just got them in the end

 

[xxlMusikfreak]

The system which showed me that Speakers can be gorgeous was a 8000€ Speakers and 5000€ Amp+CDP Setup. Right now I'm a student and can't afford anything like this so I'll happily stick with my headphones cause they sound absolutely lovely.
But I think you can't compare speakers to headphones because the presentation is so different. I belive I will always have some phones just for the privacy even if I can afford anything like this killersetup at anytime.

 

[robm321]

I suspect this thread will get ugly soon, but before it does I'll say that my Von Schweikert VR4jr's trumps any of my phones and not by a little bit.

It's like comparing a small 10" tv screen to a 32". I'm sorry but size does matter!

And if you take size out of the equation, the SQ of the VS's still beat any phones that I've had minus room issues which I've nailed down pretty good.

But I listen mostly to phones because I have a hard time just sitting in the sweet spot, and noise is an issue where I live, and I'm enjoying the lower prices for headphone gear. I'll always be into phones.

 

[TempleOfEar]

yeah i'm in no position to be happy with my speakers cuz i live in a concrete apartment!! the walls are concrete, ceiling, floor and the one side of the living room is totally windows! ... i guess i can't complain about the lovely view but still it sucks.

 

[F107plus5]

Yup, that's an oft unmentioned good point about cans.

We may have been lucky or unlucky in how our listenings rooms have been designed by the standards of the archetect who built our spaces.

But all of our heads have been designed to be about the same.

How cool is that?

 

[Solude]

I could and have before had speaker rigs that cost far less than my HeadAmp Reference Senn 650 rig that compete favourably with it. I'm not delusional, headphones are a comprimise. Speakers will always be preferrable for music reproduction but then my wife would be all over me so like I said... comprimise

 

[robm321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TempleOfEar yeah i'm in no position to be happy with my speakers cuz i live in a concrete apartment!! the walls are concrete, ceiling, floor and the one side of the living room is totally windows! ... i guess i can't complain about the lovely view but still it sucks.

I hear ya. I used to have a 10 X 10 room. I never got it to sound right after obsessing over different room treatments for a year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solude I could and have before had speaker rigs that cost far less than my HeadAmp Reference Senn 650 rig that compete favourably with it. I'm not delusional, headphones are a comprimise. Speakers will always be preferrable for music reproduction but then my wife would be all over me so like I said... comprimise

Good point - you don't hear WAF (wife acceptance factor) on headfi. Audiogon talks about it all the time.