Headphones vs Speakers.....Go!

audiobomber · March 28, 2018

No contest, speakers for me, since forever. I only use headphones when I have to; for portability, monitoring vinyl rips and silence when my wife is asleep.

I'm glad to have them though. Headphones are about the music, my main audio system is about the music and audiophilia. Everything in my main system has to be just right or I'm very unhappy. With a headset, I can happily listen to music on my mobile phone, computer or tablet and not fuss about the quality. I do fuss about the comfort though. I can listen all day and all night through speakers and still want more. After two hours of headphones, I get uncomfortable.

I started out with Koss 4AA, then wore out a pair of Stax SR44, currently Grado SR60 and a surprisingly capable on-ear headset that I think came with a Walkman decades ago. I decided to get some better earbuds recently and bought a pair of 1More Triple Drivers. Dreadful sound due to a pronounced upper-midrange hump. Hyper-detailed but artificial sounding. They're going back. I'll try Beyerdynamic Byrons next.

There seems to be a clear preference for speakers in the responses so far. A poll would have been interesting.

audiobomber · October 14, 2018

On 3/28/2018 at 9:04 AM, audiobomber said:

No contest, speakers for me, since forever. I only use headphones when I have to; for portability, monitoring vinyl rips and silence when my wife is asleep.

Since posting the above, I've purchased a bunch of headfi gear; beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones and Sennheiser Momentum in-ears, Magni 3 headphone amp and yesterday I ordered a Schiit Asgard 2 amp. I have a couple of DAC's that I use with headphones; iFi Audio iOne and Korg DS-DAC-10R. I have a little Sabaj Da2 DAC that I use with my phone.

I still enjoy my speaker-based system more, but I'm enjoying headphone listening immensely.