Headphones vs speakers….
So I’ve been patiently waiting to buy the final pieces for a Benchmark HAB2 and DAC3 system. I have the Totem 1 speakers and decided to hook them up to an old Naim Nait 5i (probably not the best pairing) and Cambridge Azur 840C CD player. Over the last few months I’ve been on a quest for great sound through headphones and a headphone amp while I’m waiting and after maybe five sets of headphones I’ve found what I was looking for and I’m very happy.
After hooking up the Totems and Nait today I’m very disappointed. However, my room is far from treated yet - I have installed a large carpet, furnishings and will be hanging thick floor to ceiling curtains on the three walls - one behind the speakers and two side walls. However, wether I’ve been spoiled by the incredible sound of my headphone setup or I’ve been expecting too much from a full system I can’t imagine after room treatment and dialing things in that I’ll be anywhere close to being as impressed as I am with my headphones…..do any of you guys feel this way or am I being too pessimistic?
There is a difficulty most people do not have with "luxury" high end headphones. They are all made with leather and I have ethical objections to killing animals for their body parts or for food. If I wanted the headphone experience, this is a limit. Over the years I have perfected the placement of Magnepan speakers driven by 833A single ended triode amplifiers in a round house with acoustic treatments. |
Personally prefer speakers, but the room and speakers have to be good. Couple of reasons have already been covered by other posters - there are crosstalk and phase stuff that occurs around your head (even across your face) with speakers, so the soundfield/stage is a different experience. The other reason is I like low end you can feel in your chest, headphones can't do that.
|
Sure I'm coming to this a few months late, but it's a relevant post and will remain relevant for some time. That, and of course this thread has been left open for comments. @russ69 wrote above ... "It takes a really good system to beat a decent set of headphones. I'm not sure a set of Totems are up to that task. If you are putting together a really good headphone system, it's going to take serious bucks to get better quality out of a loudspeaker system. Not what we want to hear but that is what it takes." I haven't written on Agon for years, but this caught my eye as I'm trying to catch-up to those that have tried the latest headphones. While I'm not at all surprised by the comment above, I'm very surprised that no one has responded to it. To wit, while I completely agree that it takes an exceptional loudspeaker system in order to shower its listeners with an exceptional audio experience (however the listener defines that), I absolutely disagree and have spent a decade of my life disproving the contention that such a system would require one to spend "serious bucks". How could one possibly know this? I know you never stepped foot into my "really good system", nor did you ever ask me how much I spent on it. How does one define how serious one needs to be to spend "serious bucks"? From the tone of the comment I'm fairly certain that many of us can easily disprove his statement. The numbers matter. Significantly. |
ghdprentice experience is near mine...
I will add that it is not only the gear investment but acousic control of the room too... I tuned my speakers/ room very well... One year full time work each day... The soundfield was exactly like an headphone intimacy with the dynamic of speakers...The soundfield was AROUND me not in front of me between the speakers... The soundfield is recording dependent... I lost my room... I disliked all my 9 headphones in the past...It takes me 6 months of tuning, modifying , to optimize the only promising headphones i owned : the AKG k340.. I succeeded ... The soundfield is now speaker-like and out of my head when the recording make it possible... For example Organ recorded in church gave me the impression that i am in the church, the sound fill my room , not at all between my ears... The speakers/room and headphone can be two extraordinary experiences... It is difficult with any of these choices... Why ? Because acoustic of small room is very difficult to figure out ... Speakers dont go near 20 hertz if you dont pay for very costlier one and the higher frequencies of speakers too need to be well done to beat my electrostatic headphone cell...And i disliked all headphones i listen to in my life.... The K340 is a beast of a kind which create a soundfield very different compared to any other headphone... I listen the bass with them as if i was listening subwoofers...With my feet by bone resonance... I prefer headphone now because , it would have cost me a fortune to buy speakers on the same league of frequencies response... But give me the costly speakers and i will tune the room so well the headphone will not compete with the speakers/room , even the miraculous AKG K340... It is possible to create speakers and headphone experience on par with one another in spite of their basic differences ( no crosstalk with headphone ) but as ghdprentice said it ask for works.. The good news: With the "virtual room system" of Dr. Choueri BACCH filters and dac, ( costly) speakers and headpghones can sound magical... It will be my only upgrade if i upgrade my satisfying system one day...
|
@mahgister wrote ... "I prefer headphone now because , it would have cost me a fortune to buy speakers on the same league of frequencies response..." What is "a fortune"? Based on my knowledge of the average agoner's budget, what they've spent and might be willing to spend to create an exceptional audio experience ... the word "fortune" seems completely out of place here. One does need to include numbers or even just some vague range of numbers for the quote above to have much (if any) meaning. |
