Headphones v. Speakers

[Moosbrugger]

Just curious whether people prefer listening with headphones to their speakers. Are headphones generally considered to offer better sound? Is is just personal preference?

[jhwalker]

I like both, but when I'm in an "audiophile" mood, I listen to my headphones (HiFiMan HE-500). They sound head and shoulders above what I can afford for my main home theater / living room music setup. I'm looking to upgrade that experience next year with one of the new LH Geek Pulse X DACs

 

Someday, I'd love to have a dedicated stereo or top notch multichannel (tip of the hat to DigiPete) system of my very own. Until then, home theater / living room setup for casual listening, headphones for the true audiophile experience.

[4est]

It is a different type of experience. I greatly prefer speakers.

[esimms86]

I suspect that most people are in the same camp that I'm in, that is, I count myself among those who prefer listening with speakers. Listening to music enlivened by the listening room and feeling the bass in your gut is something you just can't get with headphones. I, however, do the majority of my music listening through headphones as a concession to my family(wife and son) who don't usually want to hear what I want to hear, particularly during later hours. One enormous plus for headphones is in the cost to sound quality ratio. While it certainly isn't a linear relationship, you can get phenomenal audio quality for your money with a good headphone based system. Go crazy and spend 11000 USD on a Stax SR009 and Blue Hawaii headphone amp(considered by many headfiers to be the holy grail in headphone listening) and you'll have sound quality that no 11000 dollar pair of speakers could begin to touch. The biggest other downside of headphones is that you have to wear them. The biggest other upside of headphones lies in the fact that you can have several pairs to match your music and listening situation, something that would be prohibitively expensive and also highly unrealistic from a real estate standpoint if attempted with loudspeakers.

 

Esau

[esldude]

I am in the camp who much prefer speakers now.

 

Of course at one time I was in a third camp. One that preferred both. I used Acoustat 2 ESL's, and would sit 18 feet away wearing Stax Lambda Pro headphones (also ESL's). The Stax offer close to no attenuation of outside sound. It was a way to get an 18 millisecond delay to provide a more enveloping sound than either alone. It also got me bass from speakers which I prefer. I find headphones even if they produce bass don't give the whole body experience that speakers give. Even when they were Acoustats which didn't produce a ton of low notes, it was a different feeling. So the precision of clean headphones with bass I could feel, and a bigger enveloping sound from the room delay.

[astrallite]

If I had to choose between listening to Sennheiser HD650s, and say, a quality pair of speakers in the same price range, like say the Swan D1.1SE, Dana 640s, I'd probably pick the speakers.

 

That said I suspect headphones hits diminishing returns quite a bit faster than speakers, with speakers you can always build a better cabinet, get better drivers, more drivers, crossovers, while headphones are a bit limited in that respect, the human ear is only so large and the human head can really only hold so much weight for recreational use.

[Moosbrugger]

Well, my new headphones are on the way. I do have some limitations with my speakers -- given my living situation, I can't turn the volume up too high. And the headphones have the added benefit that I can't hear my wife when she asks me to do stuff!*

 

*Married for just six weeks!

[DigiPete]

Just curious whether people prefer listening with headphones to their speakers.

 

 

Your preference may vary depending on available budget and how you live.

 

 

Price

Cans offer a way cheaper way into the audiophile experience

Speaker setups easily cost 5-10 times as much to get to the same level of experience.

 

 

Place

Cans can offer music pleasure in a lot of places and situations where speakers just won't fly.

Perhaps the souse, the kids, the neighbors or the girl sitting net to you on the bus/train/plane would mind.

Perhaps your place has appalling acoustics or background noise.

 

 

Preference

I way prefer speakers over cans, particularly in surround.

That does not stop me enjoying cans on the go or late at night.

 

 

And it's all good ;-)

[dalethorn]

Studies were done a long time ago showing that 89 percent of what you hear with speakers has been reflected one or more times in the room, smearing the sound that's preserved in the recording. Most headphones will get you a lot closer to the recording, and most IEMs will get you closer yet. Speakers are nice for several reasons - no attachment to the head, more freedom to move around, a more diffuse and comfy sound, and physical drama.

[mwheelerk]

I have always been a "speakers" person only using headphones as a portable means of listening during travel but not for "serious" listening. A recent change of circumstance both personal and financial had me giving up my "main" system and grabbing an AudioQuest Dragonfly and a set of Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. I have found that I enjoy listening to headphones more than I anticipated. Especially living in this environment, an apartment, the sense of privacy I have without concern for disturbing others has been positive. Ultimately I am sure I will build another speaker based system but I think headphone listening will probably always remain part of the mix.

[headphonegeek]

I prefer speakers. To me the sound seems more like real life in that the sound is coming from in front of you, not direct to your ears. People often speak of "imaging" when talking about how well a pair of headphones works. To me, there is just no comparison when you talk about imaging when comparing speakers to headphones.

 

With that said, headphones are so much more convenient. That's why I like headphones too.

 

This is why I am always searching for a way to have the sound of speakers but with the convenience of headphones like the Smyth Realiser or other speaker virtualization software. To me that's the best of both worlds. Plus you can get surround sound for watching movies that way.

[Boris75]

I much prefer speakers. I use my HD800s only to avoid disturbing other people, so essentially for late-night or early-morning listening sessions.

[Blake]

Speakers by a large margin.

[Andrew_WOT]

Your preference may vary depending on available budget and how you live.

 

 

Price

Cans offer a way cheaper way into the audiophile experience

Speaker setups easily cost 5-10 times as much to get to the same level of experience.

 

HD800 cost $1500, what model of speakers and for how much would provide similar performance.

[DigiPete]

Price

Cans offer a way cheaper way into the audiophile experience

Speaker setups easily cost 5-10 times as much to get to the same level of experience.

 

 

HD800 cost $1500, what model of speakers and for how much would provide similar performance.

 

 

Can System.

 

Sennheiser HD 800

Sennheiser HDVD 800

Approx. USD 3.500,- for the system.

 

 

Against

 

 

Speaker System.

 

Steinway Lyngdorf Model S would be a reasonable choice.

One that I would happily make myself.

Approx. USD 25.000,- for the system.

 

Or 7 times as much!

[Andrew_WOT]

Can System.

 

Sennheiser HD 800

Sennheiser HDVD 800

Approx. USD 3.500,- for the system.

 

 

Against

 

 

Speaker System.

 

Steinway Lyngdorf Model S would be a reasonable choice.

One that I would happily make myself.

Approx. USD 25.000,- for the system.

 

Or 7 times as much!

 

I wasn't asking for absolutely best. I bet good 1.5K-2.5K floor standing speakers will be on par or better that HD800. Considering that typical head-fier has more than one HP, with flagship prices hovering around $1.5-2K range, that makes HP based setup more expensive than building speaker system.

BTW, this HDVD800, esp DAC section, is not that good.

[alexwgoody]

I am in the camp who much prefer speakers now.

 

Of course at one time I was in a third camp. One that preferred both. I used Acoustat 2 ESL's, and would sit 18 feet away wearing Stax Lambda Pro headphones (also ESL's). The Stax offer close to no attenuation of outside sound. It was a way to get an 18 millisecond delay to provide a more enveloping sound than either alone. It also got me bass from speakers which I prefer. I find headphones even if they produce bass don't give the whole body experience that speakers give. Even when they were Acoustats which didn't produce a ton of low notes, it was a different feeling. So the precision of clean headphones with bass I could feel, and a bigger enveloping sound from the room delay.

 

I can only imagine the looks people gave you when they saw or heard about a guy wearing headphones and blasting speakers at the same time.

 

I am wondering, how would you balance volume levels? was this done completely by ear or was measurement/EQ necessary? I know that the stax are open headphones, but I've got to image that some tweaking must have been necessary

[Z06_Pilot]

Depends on my mood. If I want a live concert experience and want to hear all of the different textures of the music, I am on my ML Montis speakers.

 

But sometimes, I literally want the music in my head. It's a much more visceral, personal experience for me.

[esldude]

I can only imagine the looks people gave you when they saw or heard about a guy wearing headphones and blasting speakers at the same time.

 

I am wondering, how would you balance volume levels? was this done completely by ear or was measurement/EQ necessary? I know that the stax are open headphones, but I've got to image that some tweaking must have been necessary

 

 

All by ear. Yes, the relative volume levels needed to be right. The main speakers were played at slightly below a moderate normal listening level, and the Stax headphones played to suit.

[alexwgoody]

All by ear. Yes, the relative volume levels needed to be right. The main speakers were played at slightly below a moderate normal listening level, and the Stax headphones played to suit.

 

How cool. I'll have to give this a try - (though I don't currently use ESL speakers)

[mav52]

I happen to enjoy both speakers and headphones depending on my listening situation.. Speakers for the times I just want to turn it up and enjoy the feeling of the music and headphones for the times when I just want to relax (wife watching TV) and listen in peace.

[astrallite]

HD800 cost $1500, what model of speakers and for how much would provide similar performance.

 

Ascend Acoustics Sierra-2s with RAAL 70-20XR tweeters and Seas CURV U16RCY woofers and a solid bamboo cabinet I'd say would provide a superior performance, as I would guess the tweeter would be much faster and airier than headphone drivers. They retail at $1448 I believe.

[esldude]

How cool. I'll have to give this a try - (though I don't currently use ESL speakers)

 

Yeah, it is interesting. Works with regular speakers too. Now the headphones it will depend somewhat. Open back type yes it works enough to notice. Closed type or IEM and it would have less effect though you still get bass you feel. Also, don't forget it works best with some distance between you with the phones and the speakers.

[mwheelerk]

Thinking about this a little further listening with headphones as my primary source I have noticed a few things. I think in the recent past I had allowed music listening to be more off a background activity than a focused listening experience. Now being tethered to the headphones has almost forced me to be a more attentive listener. I have also noticed another slight change. Prior to computer audio listening I was a die hard album listener. If I selected an album to listen to I listened from start to finish. I saw the whole album as one piece of artwork. Not listening to every song would be like looking at a famous painting and focusing one one corner of the painting and not seeing the entire image. I began transitioning to a computer based audio system about this time of year in 2008 and since that time my primary means of playback has been various playlists in shuffle mode. Where before I was 100% album listening I had gone to maybe 5% album listening over these five years. For whatever reason with the headphones, maybe because I am now somewhat of a captive audience, I have begun again to listen to complete albums to the point that about 25% of my listening is back to albums over playlist. This is not a comment of good or bad but just a personal observation.

[bdiament]

From the Equinox entry in The Soundkeeper blog:

 

"Though I carry headphones to recording sessions, I use these primarily to ascertain that I’ve connected the microphones properly, that they are working as expected and that I’ve pressed the red button hard enough to engage recording."

 

For my ears, a good pair of properly implemented loudspeakers can make plain what would elude any headphones. When I need to hear the recording itself, nothing in my experience "gets out of the way" like a well designed, well set up pair of loudspeakers.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

The Soundkeeper | Audio, Music, Recording, Playback

Barry Diament Audio