There are those who will disagree with me, but I believe so. There are $300 headphones that sound as good as $20k speakers. The bass is deeper, you don't have driver integration issues, there are no crossover issues, there are no room acoustics issues. The main problem with headphones resides in sound staging. With most headphones, you feel like you're on the stage with the band, facing the audience, rather than being in the audience, facing the band.

Well, that is only one element of sound. I'm a huge fan of a decent pair of headphones, but they won't quite match speakers in several ways. Still, I do almost half of my listening through headphones, and they probably are better dollar-for-dollar.

Most headphones really don't go down to 20hz when on your head or in your ears, but many do. My Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pros are one example and they only cost around $300. As AlexO says, you can put together a great headphone system that will rival a $20,000 speaker-based system. (My $2000 headphone rig rivals my $28000 speaker-based system, IMHO).

Dave

I would agree with the above comments, that "most of the time", you can get a more 'bang for the buck' experience out of a headphone rig (I have many) than can be gotten for the same amount of money for a speaker rig. You are dealing with small drivers that can be very precisely controlled, with low power, which can be very clean.

One thing (for me) in the headphone experience, there is a missing element. That is, your missing the body interaction, with the music 'feel'. There is something about having the sound pressure/sound waves hitting your body that is immersive. I find the headphone experience great. When I have my STAX Omega II's cranked up, there is a resolution, and revealing nature of the sound that is beyond most of my listening experiences. But in the end it is more of an intellectual pursuit because I am missing that final step of feeling the music and taking me away....

Lofty thoughts at best,

(man I need to crank up my 802's soon)

Cheers,

I too have some nice headphones and enjoy using them. They sound closer to the signal than my computer or my surround system, no doubt. But psychologically, listening through them is a different experience and I prefer my speakers!

Maybe it is the sound of the speakers in my room that I enjoy, maybe it is the way that loud music through the speakers feels against my body, I don't know what it is, but I prefer my speakers as a listening experience while if I had to monitor something it would certainly be with my headphones.

Trey

Quote:
Most headphones really don't go down to 20hz when on your head or in your ears, but many do. My Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pros are one example and they only cost around $300. As AlexO says, you can put together a great headphone system that will rival a $20,000 speaker-based system. (My $2000 headphone rig rivals my $28000 speaker-based system, IMHO).

Dave

I'm with Dave on this one. There are times I enjoy my H phones more and times I enjoy speakers more.

HPs are a great way to experience high end sound for not much money.