Should I be depressed that my headphone cans sound better than my main speakers?

[amirm]

One good entry point is the 2-mic recordings by some of the RCA Living Stereo people in the 50's. Another good entry point would be the 1970's flurry of 'binaural' recordings. Another is discussion at Stereophile et al regarding modern recordings that accomodate both. Lastly would be AES papers. There's no doubt that headphones heavily dominate listening today per capita, so the notion that modern recordings or remixes ignore headphones doesn't compute.

Headphones do dominate listening tests but that is not necessarily due to higher resolution. They main thing they do is block outside noise and let you turn up the volume. I use this routinely to hear detail in low amplitude portions of audio segment. Hard to do this with loudspeakers because the loud section will come and everyone would want to run away from home .

What I have found is that headphones cannot properly show issues in low frequency transitions. The are audible artifacts that reduce impact of bass and they are much easier to detect using loudspeakers.

 

[NorthStar]

Then it has to do with the size of the drivers. ...And the distances.

 

[dalethorn]

Headphones do dominate listening tests but that is not necessarily due to higher resolution. They main thing they do is block outside noise and let you turn up the volume. I use this routinely to hear detail in low amplitude portions of audio segment. Hard to do this with loudspeakers because the loud section will come and everyone would want to run away from home . What I have found is that headphones cannot properly show issues in low frequency transitions. The are audible artifacts that reduce impact of bass and they are much easier to detect using loudspeakers.

The first "real" bass speakers I had as a boy were the Advents. But used in a smaller room, or a room with large openings, the bass in organ pedals for example was not realistic. Later I heard an HDQ system in Cleveland, and that was a real wake-up to realistic staging and sound for a large group or orchestra. But I can count on 2 fingers the number of such realistic systems I've ever heard, and being a long-time audiophile that's not good. Headphones will continue to outpace speakers over time for obvious reasons - one big reason being urbanization and the dwindling spaces where people of average means can own a house. Another reason is portability, and not necessarily listening in trains, but because tech jobs often mean moving where the jobs are, our Western society is much less rooted to the hometown than before. My hometown which peaked at 300k people now has about 190k.

 

[treitz3]

Headphones do dominate listening tests but that is not necessarily due to higher resolution. They main thing they do is block outside noise and let you turn up the volume. I use this routinely to hear detail in low amplitude portions of audio segment. Hard to do this with loudspeakers because the loud section will come and everyone would want to run away from home .

What I have found is that headphones cannot properly show issues in low frequency transitions. The are audible artifacts that reduce impact of bass and they are much easier to detect using loudspeakers.

This is a topic all by itself IMO. Perhaps a discussion for another thread altogether....

Tom

 

[NorthStar]

I don't know Tom...the flow is good right now...and the topic dead on. ...In my opinion of course. :b

 

[treitz3]

Not the way it was worded sir.

Tom

 

[dalethorn]

In some reviews that I've done there were some hard questions about the ability of a headphone to do certain things, such as clearly resolve two different instruments each playing a nearly pure tone, or how the headphone represented a modest drum note where there were subtle accompanying sounds such as "puffs". One such recording was by a band called Infected Mushroom. While that band doesn't fall within my normal listening genres, I found the track in question and saved it, so it serves as a reference of sorts. If anyone here were to find a limitation with a specific music track and headphone, that music track might be something I could test out on different headphones to see how they do.

 

[cjf]

Thanks to everyone for offering their experiences on this topic.

The main thing that I am noticing in favour of the headphone setup when comparing it to my main rig are the deep details hidden in things like finger movements across a guitar string or emotions/expressions in the singers voice. I do hear these things on my main rig but not to the same level of detail I am getting from the headphones.

I think those who mentioned the elimination of the room while wearing headphones make a good point. I can't fathom ever getting my room to the point where it would be quiet enough or not interfere enough to make up for this direct injection of sound offered by wearing headphones. If I remember correctly when measuring the noise floor of my room it was somewhere around 40db at best. Clearly I don’t live in the concrete bunker I wish I did but it will have to do for now.

One thing I am fairly certain of though and that is my speakers are probably the weak link in me being able to hear more of (certainly not all) the details I am finding with the headphones. I say this because the device I am using (Pono Player) while listening to the headphones can't possibly be a better source than what I have in my main system so this only leaves the room and the speakers remaining. I guess this gets to the heart of why some main speakers cost as much as they do where they use exotic/light/fast driver materials and low loss crossover networks to achieve the sound they do to the point of being able to compete with a much smaller and super accurate headphone driver.

I guess the need to scratch that speaker upgrade itch just got bumped up higher on my priority list. Quick, someone hide my wallet