Headphone or Rig?

I came to the same composite conclusions as you guys came to; headphones are fun sometime, and they reveal detail not heard in an ordinary listening room, but in the long run there is the matter of comfort.

Tonykay, as a Stax owner, I can understand how you would choose headphones.

Headphones are also the best reference, I just discovered a left right balance problem in the speakers, which might be the room as opposed to electronics or the speakers.

Your input has been most helpful


Enjoy the music.

Stax is definitely the way to go with headphones. In the past 2 years I've gone back and forth in my preference between my headphone and speaker rigs, while tweaking/upgrading both. Currently, speakers represent the better overall listening experience. To be fair, I use a fairly high end vinyl rig (Koetsu Coralstone, Graham, Clearaudio Innovation) on the speakers, which gives them a big leg up on the digital-only Stax rig (009, BHSE, Yggdrasil).

Speakers obviously can render music with a lifelike energy, soundstage, and visceral impact that no headphone can get close to replicating. But the Stax 009, properly amped, is cleaner and more accurate from top to bottom than speakers, and the intimate presentation also has its nice points. 

I also used to own Stax 009s and while I liked the sound I made ch prefer the results I get in my dedicated room. It's actually set up for near field listening so I get the detail and immediacy of headphones but also the scale and energy that only speakers can provide - think of it as a really big set of headphones!

mulveling, that's quite an analog rig, but why digital only on the Stax? At this moment, I'm listening on my headphones to records that are archived in the PC.

It's already been discussed and confirmed right here, that no matter how good your analog is, you'll get the same identical playback from your PC after you have archived them (the right way of course)

I tuned in on the PC channel here and got it right. We went round and round arguing every point, as good Audiophiles do. A lot of work, but not a great deal of money, which according to your rig is no problem. Now I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor.

I enjoy both.  Each has its strengths and weaknesses when compared to the other.  Usually I'll take the speakers over the phones in spite of the less detail.  It's detailed enough and more lifelike overall.