Going back to headphone ?


Hello everyone,

I am going back to audiogon, after a difficult now improved period of my life...

I was in the obligation to sell my house, then i loose my very satisfying acoustic room and speakers...

I was very sad to loose it and going back to headphone was not my choice...

But happily at the end after many months of works around the AKG K340 and my never used new Sansui Alpha amplifier AU 607i, i am very pleased and will explain soon why i am....

First: most speakers in room which are not dedicated acoustically are not better than headphone generally, on all acoustic factors

Second: my Mission speakers were at their optimal level being in my mechanically acoustically controlled room... The soundfield was around me not between the speakers...

Third: It is very difficult to own the right headphone able to give you an "out of the Head" experience, if the recording make it possible for sure first, Most headphone, and i ownd ten, were completely unsatisfying and unnatural sounding... It was the reason i invested so much time for years  in acoustic listening experiments to create my room for my speakers...

Four: I was lucky i stumbled on my last purchase in headphone 5 years ago and after modifications and few months optimization process around them , i succeeded...

My headphone /amplifier/ dac is now better than my past room/speakers on many acoustic factors... The first reason is simple: the K340 hybrid goes under 30 hertz drived by a dynamic cell  and the higher frequencies are driven by an electroacoustic cell then, the frequencies range capabilities are way better... The second reason is related to my 6 modifications of the K340 , among other, my addition of anti- vibrations materials inside the shell, my cut off of the thick plastic inside obstructing  grid...Etc

 

Then SOME headphone design can give you an acoustic experience exceeding many speakers/room installation... SOME headphone, not all... My other 9 headphones are in the trash-bin... ( under my bed to be less hard on words) :)

 

Dr Gorike of AKG who designed this top headphone in 1978 was a physicist, an acoustic genius behing AKG top headphones... His patent for the K340 revealed why....

I paid them 100 bucks 5 years ago, and they are very hard to drive , and not only in raw power , they are probably the most difficult to drive headphones ever designed...Because it takes me 6 months to figure out what to do and which components to use for them.... But after that research  their soundfield is so immersive, that i forgot my speakers /room... For example the bass note of organ are felt with my feet ( by resonance of my body skull) and the organ is "out of my head" in my room, in a way no speakers could do it, save very costly one with sub-woofers array...More later...

 

I am glad to be back after my long holiday...

Welcome to all and salutations to all my friends here....

 

 

 

 

 

 

128x128mahgister

You say that you have no idea what "an acoustically dedicated room is" and i know myself what it is... Then...

Speakers in a living room dont compare to the same speakers in an acoustically designed room... Electrical/mechanical/ and acoustical embeddings dimensions must be under control...When they are, the same speakers work on another level completely...They are unrecognizable even if their basic technological limitations in frequencies dont change for sure...Acoustic is basis of audio experience....

I know that because i did it myself... :)

 

 

My point was about comparing RAW unmodified headphones and unmodified speakers generally, and generally speakers in living room,( acoustically dedicated room are not and never mere living room,) dont beat the best headphones on all acoustic factors...

For sure it is relative to specific quality scale : a cheap headphone dont rival a high end speakers...

My point is about very high quality headphone versus speakers in a living room...

If the same speakers is in a dedicated acoustic room designed for it, it will rival or beat most headphone, but it is also related to the specific headphone price sound quality ratio...

 

My point in this thread is about my OWN experience going from a specific pair of speakers: Mission Cyrus 781 from an ordinary room to an acoustically controlled room... I lived through a complete better performance with this speakers...I was in heaven...

But after loosing my house i was in the obligation to go back to headphone to my displeasure at first...

But i used the AKG K340, i modified them after 6 months of experiments and my surprize was that this headphone beat my speakers now... On all acoustic factors...

Then it take high end speakers ( better than my past Mission)  in a dedicated room to beat very high end headphone...My Mission speakers only with bass frequencies never go very low under 50 hertz , my K340 go under 30 hertz... Only that tell a tale... The electro-acoustic cell of my K340 give me better high frequencies too.... And the 3D "out of the head" soundfield of my modified K340 rival my speakers/room...

Then i am no more sad to listen only with the headphone...It will be very costly to replace them...

 

 

Hello @mahgister 

Glad you are back.

I own an expensive 2 channels  audio system , paired with a Home Theater system. Way too compicated . But if I was not in the Home Theater journey ;  only an average 2 channels audio system and excellent headphone gears  ; would be my way to go.