Speakers vs. headphones

Some great points about how even lower cost headphones can sound really good.  I bought a pair of wireless bluetooth headphones to wear while mowing the lawn.  They are not "accurate" at all, lots of treble emphasis and the noise cancelling (which really works!) does some weird things, but all the same, I found myself really enjoying the music and hearing things I hadn't noticed before while listening at very moderate volume.

I love my Bose Quiet Comfort for airplanes and noisy environments. Definitely not accurate or in any way audiophile, but sound great… as in punchy and enjoyable in noisy environments. Using “audiophile headphones in noisy environments does not work, all the subtitles are lost to the noise floor and you are left with unbalanced sound. While the Bose are a bit cartoonish, they sound great and  balanced in noisy environments.

‘’I spent years on planes trying to recreate the audiophile experience, and quit when I heard Bose an realized for this environment they got it right. Any other environment not so much.

My experience is the opposite...

After finishing my room treatment and control, i put my headphones in the closet..

I dont want them anymore... 7 pairs covering, electrostatc, magnepan, electroacoustic and hybrid.... 😁😊

the reason and the difference in opinions come only from a simple fact:

acoustic controls...

I can modify all the perameter of acoustic in the room...

The intimacy i had with headphones i created it with a diffusive screen 2 angular panets with diffusive tubular structures and many other acoustic devices...

The only reason i see for headphones is to protect others for the sound... And i dont need that...

If your headphone are better than your speakers it is because the room acoustic is not  at his optimal settings...

rv, since circumstances require that you use headphones at certain times, you owe it to yourself to try a really good headphones set up. Two very different experiences, headphones/speakers. Overall, I prefer listening on my speakers, but those times when I want my listening to be private headphones are great. Still other times I want the, what is for me, the very intimate and immersive experience of headphone listening. However, while I agree that relatively inexpensive headphones can sound good, it is not until one experiences what great headphones can do that things get really interesting.

mahgister makes a great point, as usual, about the benefits of acoustic control of the listening room, but in doing so he also explains why headphone listening can be so good - room effects are completely taken out of the equation. It is for this reason that I think it is not a matter of “better” or “worse”. If one does not object to the “sound inside one’s head” effect and can make the adjustment away from the usual “large soundstage in the room and in front”, an excellent headphone setup can compare very favorably and even surpass just about any loudspeaker in most audiophilic parameters with the possible exception of the visceral impact of low frequencies.

I own Stax Lambda Pro electrostatic headphones with the T1 dedicated tube driver and the sound is fabulous. Amazing detail, tonal truthfulness, dynamics and very articulate and extended bass lacking only that visceral “whole body” feeling. Stax, because of their design do a pretty good job of moving the “soundstage”, while still “inside your head”, to somewhat in front of your head. This is why Stax refers to them as “ear speakers”.

Highly recommended!

@mahgister - Neither my speakers nor my headphones are 'better' than the other - they are two completely different ways to experience music. If somebody thinks their 'headphones are better than their speakers', it means that they prefer headphones to speakers, not at all necessarily due to room treatment or protecting others from the sound.