[tight_budget]

Ever since my baby girl arrived 5 years ago, I gave up my 5.1 system for a pair of headphones. For reasons for sound isolation, and I needed the space for a nursery.

I'm using HD600s for movies at the moment. I can barely remember how a 5.1 system sounds like, except that it felt more enveloping and "richer" than headphones.

I'm moving to a bigger apartment, and now have the opportunity to setup a 5.1 system in a properly treated room. Alternatively, I could continue to use my HD600s, and spend the money on a monster plasma screen.

Am I losing much in forgoing a surround sound system? Any guys here used both and can comment?

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tight_budget /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ever since my baby girl arrived 5 years ago, I gave up my 5.1 system for a pair of headphones. For reasons for sound isolation, and I needed the space for a nursery. I'm using HD600s for movies at the moment. I can barely remember how a 5.1 system sounds like, except that it felt more enveloping and "richer" than headphones. I'm moving to a bigger apartment, and now have the opportunity to setup a 5.1 system in a properly treated room. Alternatively, I could continue to use my HD600s, and spend the money on a monster plasma screen. Am I losing much in forgoing a surround sound system? Any guys here used both and can comment?

A well recorded concert playing back on a good Av system is an absolute joy.
No headphone system will give you any where near the sound.

Ford2.

 

[Peter Pinna]

tight budget:
Please look at these threads:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sou...phones-336543/ and
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/ult...review-343241/

If you decide to try the Pro 750, I suggest you do a burn-in for at least 3 consecutive days (24 hours per day) and when watching movies with them, I suggest you do not use Dolby Headphone. They sound better, IMO, without it.

 

[guyx1992]

Mmm, I would go with a monster plasma screen, and in a year or so when the wallet will recover, go for a good 5.1 setup.

 

[MrKazador]

Dolby Headphone can create 5 channels pretty well. It doesn't really compare to speakers but its still very enjoyable. You could buy a receiver that has Dolby Headphone or something similar. My Yamaha doesn't have DH but has different alternatives, not as good but still decent.

 

[OmoNemo]

The Speakers will give you "you're there" kinda feeling, The Cans will give you clarity sound and more details.

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OmoNemo /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Speakers will give you "you're there" kinda feeling, The Cans will give you clarity sound and more details.

Evidently you have never listened to a good AV setup.




Ford2.

 

[Radical_53]

Evidently you live in an extremely quiet environment (alone?).

 

[GravityEyelids]

Nothing can compare with a nice 5.1 system. Its much more immersive than headphones. We have a nice old boston system and its an absolute joy, especially with DTS tracks on dvds.

 

[edstrelow]

I use both type of set-up but my Dolby headphone set-up uses electrostatic phones, usually Stax lambda 404's or Koss 950 with a JVC dolby heaphone adapter with a separate headphone amp. (Even though JVC the Dolby system is good the the internal JVC amp isn't). These are much cleaner, faster and more detailed than my dynamic speakers. If you have not heard a clean headphone system with a good Dolby headphone set-up, you may be surprised.

By comparison, the cost of setting up an electrostatic 5-channel speaker system would be quite prohibitive, $10-30 K for the speakers alone so in this respect if you want the best suuround sound where the quality is in the sound rather than localization, phones will probably be best.

Of course phones will not give you much visceral bass impact although the 404's often come close in this regard. So if that's your idea of good sound you may want to stick with speakers and possibly a subwoofer as well.

 

[ronnielee54]

You haven't stated what you are currently using for a video display. If you already have a descent display, I would go with upgrading the audio for now. Plasma's are getting cheaper every month and you can upgrade the video later.