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Headphones vs loudspeakers

Could you tell why headphones sound better than loudspeakers in general? When listening to music through headphones you hear more details, more ambiance and at the same time the sound is more pure than through loudspeakers. It's also as if you can listen to inferior CD-player without sacrificing much of the sound quality. Even with an excellent audio system the sound has less immediacy and is not so detailed as with headphones. What is the problem with audio systems? Are we dealing with psychoacoustics or...?

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 3 responses by dcstep

dcstep
1,518 posts
 
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
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
You can "have it all" with speakers, if you have the room and the budget, but cans will always lack soundstage and impact. IME, detail and smoothness can be equal.

Dave
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
I wonder about the ambiant noise level in your listening room. It may be masking the details of your speakers. Headphones have close proximity to your ears and anywhere from a little to a lot of isolation. This can make it easier to hear details.

I've got excellent headphones, AKG K701s driven by a Woo Audio WA6 single-ended, class-A amp. You can see my speaker rig in the link below my name here. Anyway, I judge the health of both systems by how close they are to each other. They are very close in all respects, including detail. For the best listening on the speaker system I keep the ambiant noise level low, often turning off the AC, making sure the dishwasher is off, etc.

Dave
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