[pendles]

Lately, from head-fiers and audiogoners, including a few specialty on line audioshop owners, I have been hit with the question of whether I feel that a good headphone set up is better than a good speaker set up...

This thread was birthed from this one: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/an...nitors-280753/

What would you say describes:
A) the love you have for speakers over headphones?
B) the love you have for headphones over speaker listening?
C) the reasons you love them both?
D) would you change your vote for president if a candidate was a head-fier?--(just kidding here)

As for myself:
A) I love the way music is felt on my whole body when it is played on good speakers
I love it bouncing off the walls and sounding a little bit different as I walk around the house
I love sharing the musical moments with others who are experiencing it at the same time
I like having nothing on my head and no cables attached to me as I go about my musical enjoyment


B)Headphones are so personal and can even make the music sound "fantastical"--headphones give a lot of musical bang for the buck
I love having a handful of highend headsets to switch to match my mood or to experience the same track in a different way
Headphones seem to transport me into another zone where hours can pass without my noticing it
I love how I can take my favorite headphones with me using a portable amp to a mountain or a secluded place, and enjoy the best of techworld and nature at the same time

C)I am currently right on the fence of whether one is better than the other... I used to defend speakers as if "The Question" between them both was a frivolous one.... Now, I am not always so sure!!!

What do You think???

 

[Shahrose]

well stated. pretty much mirror my thoughts.

 

[ericj]

Please, for the love of all that is good, sod off and have this conversation elsewhere.

Every 5-6 weeks someone brings this up and it goes 20 pages or more before most people admit that it comes down to preference.

 

[stevenkelby]

it comes down to preference.

 

[pendles]

Actually, this was the reply I Expected, hence the (D) option for the wet blanket personalities.

Quote:

Please, for the love of all that is good, sod off and have this conversation elsewhere. Every 5-6 weeks someone brings this up and it goes 20 pages or more before most people admit that it comes down to preference.

I have stated it the way I have because I was actually looking for a genuine dialogue, however often conversed, because I was genuinely interested in some answers along those specific lines that would help my limited vocabulary to explain some of the Differences in Preferences when I am hit with this question over and over. I have discoverd that most folk--neighbors, audiophiles off and away from head-fi, etc, common folk--are genuinely interested, and actuall enjoy the banter. My aim is to see some more views, knowing full well this is not the first discussion ever on a site dedicated to putting closer to our ears what speakers have done for years.

I am not so much concerned with how the posting ends, as to a fair shot to post, whether I make every head-fier happy or not. Before you crap on my post, first check all of yours and PM me as to how many times I have crapped on yours... Go ahead and Post that discovery publically if it makes you feel better--but you wont find it anywhere.

And if you have seen so many posts on the subject and must answer mine, I would think you would have had plenty of time to digest the information and lend the rest of us a more creative and meaningful answer.

So your Preference is???????????????????? And what journey lead you to that discovery??????????? What post Couldn't be answered with a glib, "It comes down to Preference"?????????????????? Heck, it even would apply to sales and interest checks--and I've seen the same amps and headphones come up over and over and over... My personal preferences kept changing over the last couple of years, and, that in itself, was fascinating to me.

I truly am interested in creative replies.

 

[dcstep]

I prefer speakers, mainly for the depth and width of the image and the physical feel of the sound waves against my body. Forty years ago I longed for speakers as "accurate" as my headphones, but today that's been achieved and I consider them equally accurate.

Still, I love my cans. The AKG 701s through the Woo WA6 is a sweet setup that cost less than 1,000-bucks. I clearly prefer my speakers, but the cans greatly reduce the withdrawal pangs when I go days without hearing my speakers. My speakers and their amp cost seven times as much as my cans. The front-end components cost four-times as much as the HP setup.

As a musician, I'd probably always strive for speakers, but the price/performance ratio with cans is extremely high. I'm glad that I can afford a good speaker rig.

Dave

 

[stevenkelby]

OK, sorry, I'll play.

If budget was no object, and there were no restrictions, I would choose speakers every time as they sound better in every way, at the top end.

In the real world I have to use headphones as they are more convenient, cheaper and can be used in any size or shape room.

For $100 or so, you get far better sound from cans than speakers.

There is no space for $100'000 worth of speakers next to my PC.

There's my input, thanks for listening!

 

[pendles]

These are really good points:
Quote:

I prefer speakers, mainly for the depth and width of the image and the physical feel of the sound waves against my body. Forty years ago I longed for speakers as "accurate" as my headphones, but today that's been achieved and I consider them equally accurate. Still, I love my cans. The AKG 701s through the Woo WA6 is a sweet setup that cost less than 1,000-bucks. I clearly prefer my speakers, but the cans greatly reduce the withdrawal pangs when I go days without hearing my speakers. My speakers and their amp cost seven times as much as my cans. The front-end components cost four-times as much as the HP setup. As a musician, I'd probably always strive for speakers, but the price/performance ratio with cans is extremely high. I'm glad that I can afford a good speaker rig.

As a musician and studio head, also, I already loved speakers for decades, but it was the need to get serious with headphones for recording purposes that brought me in the fold, so to speak.

I think one of the biggest points in the comparison and contrast is what you just described... One set of listening devices fill a void the other doesn't always fill.... Sometimes my ears "get full" with headphones, and my speaker systems become my best friend. My headphones just hang "dumb" there...

But the ears start yearning for the headset experience after a while and it seems either the speakers or the heaphones play mistress to the other sometimes.

And my speaker/amp etc set up retails for 10-20 times any one of my headphone set ups as well.... Another major point, with the addendum that I am very glad I own my speakers as well..

"Equally accurate" is another brave statement.... My studio monitor set up sounds eerily similar to my HP-1000 drivers in a different mod (yeah, I love my tube amp as well)... Having the two to go by gives me a extra confidence in my mixing and mastering... it's like having my left and right eye--if they both are seeing the same thing, then it's real enough, ha.

I tend to concur that, as a musician, speakers will always have that killer special place, even though I am so personally affixed to my headphone collection.

"Is it a yin-yang thing?" ha.

 

[pendles]

Quote:

OK, sorry, I'll play. If budget was no object, and there were no restrictions, I would choose speakers every time as they sound better in every way, at the top end. In the real world I have to use headphones as they are more convenient, cheaper and can be used in any size or shape room. For $100 or so, you get far better sound from cans than speakers. There is no space for $100'000 worth of speakers next to my PC. There's my input, thanks for listening!

Ha! The truth of it is, "I have never met an Aussie that I didn't like!" Wish I could have seen that last comet with you down below in '07!

It is my belief, also, that we headphoner freaks can't challenge six figure and more speaker systems... And that is an important point... All things being equal, if all of us had the same smashing salary, would headphones see little use with our towering Sweicharts (spell?) and the like.

Somebody has to have a defence as to what their killer headphone set up can boast compared to true high end speakers... Are we headphoners just snuffed out to humbetown forever?

 

[Duggeh]

What would you say describes:

A) Dynamic range impact, physical immersion, soundscape. VOLUME.

B) Intimacy, detail, privacy, convenience, resolution.

C) Perspective choice. The music.

D) I's still vote for "no political discussion here but i'd still vote for them even though im British"


I think its 3AM and my brain is too fried to give a good little rant on this topic at the minute. But I would like to, I'm not sure if I have done so before.

 

[pendles]

As I viewed the "ORB" advertisement that popped up above this thread (top page), about budget and small speakers... I can certainly put forward that, in my experience, small speakers do not compare with good headphones...

If you feel otherwise, let us know which ones smoke good headphones. Then the question remains, dollar for dollar, up to the MDR R-10 range, do speakers really compete with headphones? Does a $4500 speaker with an equivalent cost amp smoke the headphone? Then there is Orpheus as well...

I enjoyed the baby O with the Blue Hawaii, but the dynamics and depth couldn't satisfy my lust for dynamics... like good speakers can...

On the other hand, I guess headphones are somewhat the epitome of "small speakers" if you think about it...

Headphones or speakers??? Ying or Yang? Is it just "very small speakers" that we put on our heads?

 

[Duggeh]

Does an expensive orange taste like a better apple than a cheap apple?

Your topic isn't the problem pendles its the mode of your inquiry.

 

[dcstep]

Just to be clear, I think really great speakers are a four-figure proposition, not a six-figure item. Yes, you can spend five or six-figures, but you can put together a really great speaker-based system in the four-figure range. Of course, it'll be competing with a three-figure HP setup, excluding the front-end used by either.

Like I said earlier, I'm thinkful that I can own a very satisfying speaker system. If I were back in a dorm at Florida State, I'd probably opt for a HP system rather than the compact system I had back in the day. (Amps weren't as compact back then and, of course, you needed a turntable, all of which was hard to cram in a dorm room). Back then, I couldn't listen at satisfying levels. In close living, HPs get the nod, but if you've got some room and privacy speakers can't be beat.

Dave

 

[stevenkelby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does an expensive orange taste like a better apple than a cheap apple?

Eloquently articulated Duggeh.

 

[pendles]

Ok, I'll give it a college try:
Quote:

What would you say describes: A) Dynamic range impact, physical immersion, soundscape. VOLUME. B) Intimacy, detail, privacy, convenience, resolution. C) Perspective choice. The music. D) I's still vote for "no political discussion here but i'd still vote for them even though im British" I think its 3AM and my brain is too fried to give a good little rant on this topic at the minute. But I would like to, I'm not sure if I have done so before.

A) A great speaker listenig session, or a major bombing campain
B) A great headphone listening experience, or a five star secluded get away
C) some of the factors that make gear selection and the audiophile journey one of individual selection as well as trial and error, and a private growth process, or "three things that best describe the free and the enlightened", ha
D)Hey, for a season we did everything Marget Thatched wanted, we joined in with Churchill, I see no reason we shouldn't give the British head-fi vote its proper place as well, ha

No problem, get some shut eye, English Humour, and spellbind us all in the morning, ha!