Headphones vs speakers….

The analogy I will pick out of the wild blue is cooking over an outdoor wood fire vs. cooking in an indoor kitchen. Two different environments, two different overriding methodologies and two differing results. I use this analogy because smoking Q on an outdoor stick burner smoker is a hobby of mine. 

There is something about headphone amp design that sucks me in. Even more than with speaker amps, the design and implementation of an exotic or bespoke headphone amp is something I find fascinating. I own five, a Little Dot (tube), a Luxman P-750u (fully balanced SS), a Violectric HPA 200 (SS), a Quicksilver (tube, of course), and a monster of an amp, an Ampsandsand Nautilus. Over the years I have owned many brands and designs of headphones and have settled mostly upon ZMF's. I have tried many brands of headphone cables including some exotic custom made cabling at uber-prices. 

I mostly listen through my loudspeakers but just as sometimes I feel like getting out my Japanese hand crafted knives, All-Clad cookware, fresh vegetables, etc. to cook, say, veal sweetbreads over polenta and other times I feel like smoking a full packer brisket, it is a matter of "moods and foods". Perhaps another analogy would the best American zinfandels vs. the best Burgundies but I better stop.....

All one needs to do is spend some time at the Head-Fi site or another, forum.headphnes.com to get sucked into the downright zealotry displayed by headphone enthusiasts. Likewise, go to a CanJam or similar event and it is hard not to get hooked. By and large the headphone community tend to be younger and Asian/European. The reasons are simple; headphones don't require a room and the cost of entry into the hobby is much less. 

Another gateway drug into headphone addiction is travel or commuting to work. I own a pair of custom IEM's made from foam molds of my ears. With a Ray Samuels portable headphone amp (now we get back into audio jewelry) and a good portable source (I have a Basso player) the sound is often immersive and transportive (sorry for the fancy words). And...since I often travel with my Macbook Pro, streaming Qobuz with an Audioquest Dragon Cobalt puts a big smile on my face too. The point being if you want to take your music with you, nothing beats headphones. 

@fsonicsmith1 

Real well thought out post. Newbies can be a welcome breath of fresh air on here. No doubt that headphones have their place in the audio world. Even If I don't listen to them at home anymore, they always travel with me. Got back from vacation in Gd Cayman and had a pair hooked up to my android phone via a simple in cable dac, listening to Qobuz every evening while going to sleep. Life is good.

Either can be a great a experience. However, you're missing something important with headphones. Headphones completely isolate left channel from right channel. Stereo is engineered so that the right ear hears some of the left speaker and and vice versa. That's why they use headphones in the engineering process...to isolate and determine the degrees of blend.

You're missing some of the imaging experience with headphones. That said, headphones naturally eliminate much of the music/space interplay and will be easy for most to enjoy music. It just eliminates all the variables.

But if you're willing to make some big concessions to the room...and most cannot or will not...you will be rewarded with a sense of scale and impact that headphones can't quite reach.

My current room cannot eclipse a decent set of headphones. But I'm not giving up because my last room surely did.

Rooms are tougher than headphones. This is my experience.

fsonicsmith1 - I like all your analogies but I’m glad you stopped before you went too far. Red Burgundy is made from Pinto Noir grapes, not red Zinfandel ( original indigenous North American grape) & the two  are her different. Both can be excellent but it’s like comparing a tube amp w/ a class D solid state. Maybe a delicious Oregonian Pinot would have been more appropriate?

my ears hurt and I tend to cause a lot of accidents after 30 minutes when I wear headphones. Am I doing it wrong?