Headstage: Why I really don't give a crap about it (or don't understand the fuss)

I totally understand what @PoochZag is saying, I have same problem as a student, but ultimately, @purrin is totally right. I don't have some high end audio expirience, like you guys, but recent comparation between Sonus Faber Concerto and Audeze LCD-3 at my father's friend place was really, really eye opening. It showed me that headphones are, sadly, very limited, much more than I thought. From a 2000$ headphones I really expected out of this world expirience, but just didn't get it. Don't get me wrong, they were better in every aspect than any headphones I've ever heard, but just that. Made me a priority to find a better flat and buy damn LSR305 already, tho I will have for sure HD600 some day, or HD580/DT250-250, if I stumble on them for good money.

 

Abandonment of high-end headphones for "traditional" speaker hifi seems to be a pretty common course of action.

We've established that speakers will pretty much always thrash headphones soundly when it comes to soundstage and imaging and perhaps a few other traits. Are there actually any sonically advantageous properties that headphones enjoy against speakers?

The individuals who have acknowledged speaker supremacy seem to be pretty vocal and adamant about it, so a contrary party (I.e. those that have heard both summits and prefer headphones) must either not care or not exist. I'm genuinely curious since many people have megabuck headphone _and_ speaker systems (but of course these individuals probably just have tons of disposable income).

 

Almost every well regarded modest speaker system I have owned/auditioned at length ($300-600) has been better in most aspects than the two primary headphones I have used for the last few years (HD600 and ESP950) IME. The last thing I think/worry about when listening to headphones is headstage/soundstage.

I don't throw much money into improving my headphone setup anymore, so having better source equipment might bring it closer. But it just doesn't seem worth it to me when a very decent speaker setup (if living circumstances allow) can be had for not a lot of money. I think confirming this has made it really hard to put any more money into upgrading my HP system with any "TOTL" mega$$ stuff. The ESP950 even with the cheapO stock amp has been a satisfying second option for weekday night listening, knowing that I can return to the speakers at other times.

 

We've heard this before

 

Most headphones tonally suck.

1500 dollars or so excellent nearfields and treating the walls just around them will kill any headphone for detail+tone+staging = fidelity. Get some good ones with decent bass extension (for nearfields) and you're pretty much good unless you're an EDM bro. Then get a matched woofer or two and be a chair EDM bro.

 

@purrin, build yourself something like this. It will really give you so much more sonically without changing a single component.

These are the Mapleshade Samson racks:

 

LOL! This rack is super sexy Pick nice looking wood shelves...you can also do some lacquered finish and wood stains. Can look super fantastic.

 

Everyone back to onboard sound!

 

I guess I'm an EDM (*barf*) bro at heart, even though I listen to everything. Half of my man cave would need to be filled with helmholz resonators to achieve the clean (sub)bass I like. One time I had Klein+Hummel O300's which were nice but my cave is a concrete bunker with resonating drywalls. And in the late evenings when I finally have some alone time, I couldn't blast anyway at same relative volumes as my headphones, family can hear me two stories up..

So lets see. Detail is there. Tone is simply matter of EQ. Staging not quite there, but that's not a dealbraker to me.

 

If she does, I'm sure that it is only fair that you should too!

It has long been a given (or is it only a "suggested?") that a person with modest means can get better sound from headphones than by spending the same amount on speakers. I suppose the industry finally took steps to "correct" that with the introduction of higher and higher price equipment, along with supporting and encouraging headphones-as-hobby. A buyer of one pair of HD600s, who plugs them into their integrated amp, and listens happily for the next decade (or two) is a big failure for the industry!

 

I'm a "binaural" nerd from the Aureal3D/CMSS-3D days when soundcard drivers had access to geometry data from games and thus could build a 3D soundfield around you with elevation information, depth etc. The idea was to partake in that world, not just listen to it within a room like an exterior viewer. Those days are gone and in the last decade all we had/got was virtualized speaker rooms.

Darin Fong, Headzone, SBX, DTS Headphone X (though binaural info on DTS:X tracks supposedly will be incorporated) and all that stuff are technically more advanced in preserving the sound quality to a degree but all they do is virtualize flat speaker rooms. There is no real height other than the info of the recording, there is no seamless transition.

They build virtual speakers around you that make you feel like being in a home theater. It's wrong though. Not wrong as in "should not be done and is bad" but wrong in the approach of the medium as the viewer should partake in the world not just by virtual presence with his character and thus visually but also acoustically feel it around him. The same chance is there for movies. Atmos, Auro3D, DTS:X carve the right path for better sound immersion by going back to the roots of object-based audio rendering.

Headphones can never stage like speakers and should not be treated as such. The advantage of headphones is intimate immersion and thus technologies should built upon it.

3D soundfields are a unique experience where headphones can shine without any excuses you could make regarding speakers. That's what all those Virtual Reality guys from Oculus, Sony and HTC learned (thank god).

I think with such tech there's a good chance for headphones to emerge from the shadow of speakers and be their own unique snowflake in a home environment.

 

If this was addressed to me, please explain why.

 

Vinyl.

 

Not my experience at all. Some puny iem-s image better than some wannabe studio monitors in terms of distance and angle precision.
That is one reason I listen to hp-s at all. Room f-s up some of it and lower end speakers (ime) can't compete even in stellar environment with HD800.

Higher up in food chain (better than Adam A5 and much much better than LS50-s) the soundstage of speakers brings so much information that eludes perception with headphones. The 'raw information' might be there with headphones, but brain doesn't like it served that way perhaps. For me the imaging is not nearly as important as physicality and 'feel' of the geometrical objects that good speaker can do and hp-s mostly can't.

 

Are you talking about stereo imaging of having it sound like it's coming from outside your head?