Headphones vs loudspeakers

You can "have it all" with speakers, if you have the room and the budget, but cans will always lack soundstage and impact. IME, detail and smoothness can be equal.

Dave

Dazzdax,
I do not agree that headphones sounds better, from my system I can hear even more details, and reality, and acoustics sounds than the sound through the best headphones

For those with headphones that sound better than you speakers, you can close or eliminate that gap. That might be a good goal for you speaker system.

Dave

I have the Sony MDR 10 headphones. These are one of the best phones out there. As enjoyable as they are, I still prefer my main stereo system most of the time. When I decide to listen to music, I go downstairs, turn on the stereo and kick back. I never choose headphones. The only time I listen to the headphones anymore is when I might put something on before going to sleep. Headphone system is in the bedroom.

I do Pro Audio location recording ( but on the low end pro scale..lol) . Mostly ambient nature and wildlife. Working in my studio with near field speakers is kinda like headphones. You hear everything. What happens is you are aware of what you want your far field system to sound like. Welcome to the audiophile world quest...LOL! Like mentioned before. The far field system is by far the goal of the recording engineer. We use quality near fields, cheap computer speakers and ( for me) 2 sets of headphones. I have the old standby for many years Sony 7506 that is used in tons of studios. The other is Sennheiser HD 25 ( which is what I use in the field and studio )

The sound engineer that made the recording was to be heard in the far field and tested it through near field, headphones and far field play back.