Headphones vs loudspeakers

For those with headphones that sound better than you speakers, you can close or eliminate that gap. That might be a good goal for you speaker system.

Dave

I have the Sony MDR 10 headphones. These are one of the best phones out there. As enjoyable as they are, I still prefer my main stereo system most of the time. When I decide to listen to music, I go downstairs, turn on the stereo and kick back. I never choose headphones. The only time I listen to the headphones anymore is when I might put something on before going to sleep. Headphone system is in the bedroom.

I do Pro Audio location recording ( but on the low end pro scale..lol) . Mostly ambient nature and wildlife. Working in my studio with near field speakers is kinda like headphones. You hear everything. What happens is you are aware of what you want your far field system to sound like. Welcome to the audiophile world quest...LOL! Like mentioned before. The far field system is by far the goal of the recording engineer. We use quality near fields, cheap computer speakers and ( for me) 2 sets of headphones. I have the old standby for many years Sony 7506 that is used in tons of studios. The other is Sennheiser HD 25 ( which is what I use in the field and studio )

The sound engineer that made the recording was to be heard in the far field and tested it through near field, headphones and far field play back.

Well my hifi life is short compared to may here. I have been into the gig for about 10 years now. My hifi life started with headphones at college. I need headphones because of my roommate. I had bose speakers at the time (ignorance is bliss!). I bought what else... bose headphones and really like them at the time. I then started on a quest looking for what was better that bose (if possible.... j/k). I bought a pair of Sennheiser 650s and a pair of Grado Alessandro Music Series Two and the rest is history.

I have owned thousands of dollars of headphone gear (10+ pairs of top models from many of the top companies) and all kinds of amps. After 4 years of playing with headphones I have sold them all but Sennheiser 650 (first love) and Grado RS-1s. They both are collecting dust right now because I own a house now. I love the sound stage of speakers and every thing else that headphones do well speakers can too. They just cost more $$$.

At night I listen to my first pair of "real" speakers (B&W 703s) that are now in the secondary system in the bedroom. I do break out the headphones for old time sake but they always leave my ear ringing so I try not to use them for too long.

For those that do not own good headphones you should go out... no run out and buy a pair. They can be a real eye/ear opener.... just hope that you have a good speaker system or you will get to itch to upgrade.

Simple answer, because speakers to be equal to headphones would need to be sealed to your head! In otherwords the outside environment your speakers are running in is over 50% of the sound results which is just as important as the speakers themselves... Headphones are not in a room, hell they are not even really capable of making too many mistakes as they are 1" from your eardrum.

Its similar to sitting in a car with a good stereo system, its almost a sealed speaker all in itself, the evironment is much more controlled.