I’m with you. I do love the soundstage and feeling, like Alison Krauss is singing standing right in front of me, via speakers (Vandersteen 2CE Signature III). I have a decent mid-priced system that I am improving, but when the wife is at home I cannot listen as loudly as I like to at times (my listening room is next to the living room). My DAC/preamp has a good headphones stage, and I discovered when I got it a few years ago that I really enjoy phones (no room effect). It’s a different experience as you say, more intimate in ways. For $2-3k you can get reference phones that are probably the equivalent of $15-30,000 speakers.
I am thinking of a new preamp with a phones stage (Linear Tube Audio) which is equally good with speakers or phones. Sometimes I will play a track through the speakers and then through phones, and enjoy comparing the differences. There are some really good headphone amps out there that would be fun to explore too.
For mobile use, I used an AQ Dragonfly Cobalt with Sennheiser 600s, streaming it from the cell phone or tablet. that is good too.
Speakers vs. headphones
I’ve spent many, many years building a stereo system that I finally can say I’m satisfied with, but recently had to make a change due to a complaint of “too much noise” in the house. So, headphones were the answer.
After just a few days of listening with a middling headphone (HIFIMAN Ananda) and inexpensive DAT (Firefly Cobalt,) I find myself enjoying (and getting into) the music more. Of course my system objectively is much better and cost light years more. However, I find there is a certain intimacy, seemingly being closer to the music, and of course no distracting audible room effects to deal with.
I’m not giving up speaker listening but what a pleasant surprise.
Who knew?