Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?

I generally find that it’s the more ambitious designs that usually draw more attention to their faults than some less ambitious one.

For example the speaker on the iPad if within its operating range, is perfectly well balanced and inoffensive.

On the other hand I’ve yet to find an audiophile loudspeaker that comes anywhere near to being as well balanced.

The Kerr K320s I heard a few years back did most things well. The ribbon tweeter did not draw attention to itself and neither did the box.

It wasn’t perfect, and alas the price has shot up quite dramatically.

I remember hearing some Vivid Audio speakers and whilst their advanced metal drivers had tremendous dynamics (I cant remember hearing any better) they did have an unpleasant sharpness to the treble that could get borderline painful.

Hopefully more recent Vivid designs have tackled that issue.


I once read that PSB M4U headphones are said to sound like a good pair of loudspeakers (they certainly didn’t in my experience but that’s another story) but what about the other way around?.

Which loudspeakers sound the most like a good/great pair of headphones?

No overhang, great dynamics, and seamless treble, quicksilver transients etc.

Is it not fair to say that, apart from the chest thumping bass that some speakers are able to deliver, that headphones generally do everything better?

I have hardly finished writing this and I can imagine the answer already, electrostatics!

OK apart from electrostatics, which loudspeakers sound most like headphones?

Do any of them?

Or does that question need a separate thread all of its own?

I remember hearing some Vivid Audio speakers and whilst their advanced metal drivers had tremendous dynamics (I cant remember hearing any better) they did have an unpleasant sharpness to the treble that could get borderline painful.

which model?

Is it not fair to say that, apart from the chest thumping bass that some speakers are able to deliver, that headphones generally do everything better?

You know that your audio system is very good when the "timbre" of instrument sound natural and like me when your 7 pairs of headphones, 2 Stax, 1 hybrid, 2 dynamic, 1 magneplanar, did not give you any pleasure anymore because they are inferior to your working speakers...I listened mainly to headphones many years and bought all these headphones because i was not pleased by my speakers to begin with...

Why the same speakers please me so much now?

My audio system cost is 500 bucks, BUT is NOW rightfully embedded mechanically, electrically and especially acoustically...

I read that often, that headphone are better, more detailed; it is not true; in my nearfield listening my speakers beat or are on par with my Stax for details...In regular listening position they trash dynamically and with more timbre naturalness all my headphones with almost the same details....My headphones are retired now for many months definitively....I will never use them again....

😊

OK apart from electrostatics, which loudspeakers sound most like headphones?

Any relatively good speakers well embeddded in the 3 working dimensions will beat most headphone for realism, naturalness and will be on par with details...

Save for insanely costly headphone like Raal Sr1 for example....


I answered your post precisely because i read that all over the place 8 years ago, that headphones are most of the times better, and i believed it because i never experienced well embedded speakers before... And i owned dual concentric Tannoy (better than my actual Mission Cyrus that are good) at this time but badly embeddded... Then i go in rush to buy one headphone after the other ....

Till the day i learned how to embed my audio system.... I trash my headphones after....😁

That is my story....

P.S. i sold my 2 pairs of Tannoy speakers because i believed this false opinion, i regret it to this day because the Tannoy are better than even my Mission Cyrus...The Mission well embedded make me trash all headphones...I never listen to my Tannoy at all well embeddded alas!... It is a pity....

You can understand now  why this saying about headphones make me to react....

B&W P5's. . . which I foolishly pared with Rotel components. Replacing the Rotel integrated with a Creek 5350 helped a little. The speakers might've sounded fine with tube gear. 

That was the last time I bought any audio gear based on how it sounded in a show-room and the last time I bought speakers with anything other than a soft-dome tweeter. In my home, it proved a very fatiguing system but I sure learned a lot as a result of buying it!