Will decent speakers always out do headphones?

@telemarer - Headphones are the answer to your question. It's a compromise you have decided to make for your family and that's a fine thing. It just won't be the same as listening to a high end speaker system. They can be very good and enjoyable. They are just different.

A phono pre-amp with cross-feed can help with the hard left/right panning by bleeding a bit of the other channel into each ear, kinda like speakers in your room. But, you'll never feel the music in your gut. Or, if you do, you have it turned up WAY too loud...... :~)

There is a whole world of headphone users at head-fi.org. I'm guessing it is a much larger community than AudiogoN, but I haven't spent any time there in years. Check it our for WAY more information than you can likely digest regarding headphone listening.

Have fun and enjoy the new experience.

The sound from my speakers is like a (heavy blanket on a cold winter night :-) Joking but its the best I can put together at my time.
I wonder how many of us that spend big dillars would not want that same feeling on a flight to ... 

I would appreciate feedback specifically on my system. I don't want this thread to go off track. Macintosh MAC6700 using the integrated pre headphone amp with the Prima headphones. To me the headphones sounded thin. Is this a symptom or a general expectation?

telemarcer
  Will decent speakers always out do headphones?

Good headphones are great, but they can never give the reach out and touch them, pinpoint placement and depth, that can be heard and more importantly seen by the eyes that good imaging speakers can give.
Headphones are all a bit of a jumbled mess in your head between your ears.

Cheers George

I agree with George's jumbled mess comment. That's exactly how it feels. Speakers turned up feel great. Even at a loud volume its calming. Headphones turned up are detailed and take away the background noise but don't have the same feel. If there are other brands of headphones I should look at I would appreciate a recommendation. At the same time I also wonder if this is an area in general that the speaker/audio industry is missing from a consumer perspective. I bet most people who can afford decent systems are unable to listen to them as much as they would like.